The Redmond Proficiency Academy Theatre department has won numerous awards across the country. But the thespian troupe members are in for their biggest battle yet.

The students spent the weekend of Sept. 13-15 learning to fight with swords, use a quarterstaff, compete with battle axes, engage in hand-to-hand combat and throw rocks effectively. Or at least look like they are doing that. They worked with two instructors from Salem’s The Fake Fight Company in preparation for RPA’s upcoming performance of the play “She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurers Edition,” written by playwright Qui Nguyen.

Theatre teacher Kate Torcom said she fell in love with the story of cheerleader Agnes Evans, who, while dealing with the death of her sister, Tilly, finds Tilly’s Dungeons & Dragons notebook. Agnes, played by RPA senior Izzy King, ends up being absorbed into Tilly’s imaginary world herself, where dragons, ogres and other creatures roam.

The 1990s-based story deals with serious issues like bullying, being popular and sexual identity. Torcom said the production would be rated PG-13, with some mature language included. She estimates about 70% of the production involves fighting.

“It is definitely the most mature material we’ve ever selected,” she said.

Bringing in the experts

Torcom and the students felt this was the project worth bringing in the combat acting experts, who normally train students and other acting groups in the Willamette Valley, to cross the Cascades.

“The kids were passionate about it,” she said. “They read the script and have been talking about it for years.”

Paul Malone, who operates The Fake Fight Company with fellow trainer Osvaldo Torres, said the duo works on about eight productions a year. Malone said enlisting specialists to help with fight scenes became popular after actors were injured either trying to do fight scenes with no assistance or with the help of someone like a relative who once took a karate lesson.

“What we do is a style that is specially designed for live theater,” Malone said.

And in this fight club there are rules — most of which involve making sure students are doing fight scenes safely. First of all, don’t swing your sword at your partner and try to stop at the last minute.

“We say think about extending the blade, instead of slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting your scene partner,” Malone said.

Other lessons he gave the students early in the presentation include “at no point does the blade cross the face” and to make sure you pull the blade straight out instead of across your partner’s body after you “stab” him or her.

The Fake Fight Company was recommended to Torcom by a teacher at Dallas High School, which also put on “She Kills Monsters.” Over the summer, Torcom gave the instructors ideas for their choreography. Malone and Torres then acted out the scenes on video, which they sent to Torcom for review.

“But the thing is, they were awesome, so there were very few changes on my end,” Torcom said.

Another big theme of “She Kills Monsters” is women’s empowerment, Torcom said.

That was something senior Marli Messner, who plays the ill-fated Tilly, felt working on the play.

“There’s a certain strength you feel in doing it that you don’t always feel in regular life,” Messner said. “I’m excited to be able to use a sword, finally, and have all the fight choreography scenes, with all the monsters.”

The play, which will last about 90 minutes with no intermission, will run at RPA Oct. 18 and 19 and Oct. 24-26.

A big trip

The RPA students were expecting to spend about 24 hours working on combat choreography over three days. But, to keep them from burning out and to let them rest some of the muscles they use, Torcom rewarded the students by only scheduling one rehearsal this week.

Well, that’s not the only reason the teacher shortened the acting week. She plans to fly out on a red-eye flight Wednesday evening to New York, where she will join RPA Executive Director Jon Bullock when he receives the administrator’s award from the Educational Theatre Association on Friday.

Torcom has overseen the RPA troupe that has received the top honor of superior for four years in a row at the International Thespian Festival in Nebraska, but this will actually be her first time to visit the home city of Broadway. She plans to make the most of it by attending “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “Hadestown” and “Moulin Rouge.”

“When he told me I was going, I cried,” Torcom said of Bullock.

Torcom draws inspiration for future RPA plays and musicals from seeing other productions, so she expects that to happen in a major way this time.

“There’s no way I’m coming back from Broadway without getting some new tricks to show my kids,” she said.

Torcom will also take some professional development classes with the Educational Theatre Association and teach a workshop of her own on how to advocate for an acting department. She said RPA is lucky to have Bullock advocate for theatre students, and expand awareness of the class in his role as a Redmond city councilor.

Torcom sees parallels between students at the public charter school and Dungeons & Dragons players, who were often seen as outcasts in the 1990s, before being nerdy was considered cool in the mainstream. “She Kills Monsters” will show the role-playing gamers in a new light.

“I’m pumped because RPA is filled with kids that came from other schools for all sorts of reasons,” she said. “Some because the typical high school experience was so difficult for them.”

Messner expects the community to enjoy the production. It is the first one of the new school year for the group, which returns 12 of the 13 members of the troupe that went to the festival in Nebraska.

“I don’t doubt it will be a great time,” she said. “I’m really excited to see how everything unfolds.”

— Reporter: 541-548-2186, gfolsom@redmondspokesman.com