Remembering Christopher Plummer

The “grand old man of the theatre” energy of the late Christopher Plummer lives on in our production of Completely Hollywood (abridged), through our old friend, actor and Broadway fight director Thomas Schall (left), who, in this special bonus podcast episode, remembers the extra-close encounter he had with the legendary actor while appearing in the ill-fated (is there any other kind?) 1988 production of William Shakespeare’s Scottish Play. Featuring: rehearsals with Mr. Plummer’s golden retriever; a revolving door of actors, directors, and designers; bon mots from Lady M herself, Glenda Jackson; old-school grandness; immense charm; some unfortunate emergency dentistry; and how the story has both grown in theatrical legend, and — until now — mercifully been forgotten. (Length 16:51) 

Episode 602. Broadway’s Fight Guy

Friend of the podcast Tom Schall talks about how he’s become Broadway’s Fight Guy (or, truthfully, one of them), the go-to person to design fight choreography and tell a story using actors’ physical language. Featuring how to develop and agree on physical vocabulary; how work leads to work; switching between the past and present tense; nuts and bolts; torn rotator cuffs; working with directors; a great description of working at the Folger Theatre; tales of working on Hamlet with Oscar Isaac and Keegan-Michael Key; and the joys and dangers of teaching James Bond and Martin Luther King, Jr. how to fight. (Length 20:17) Photograph of David Oyelowo as Othello and Daniel Craig as Iago by Charlie Gray for Vanity Fair.