In the Shakespeare's Staging Area on the Eve of War

War is hell, but it can look pretty snazzy onstage. Perhaps no English-language play has more potential in this regard than "Tamburlaine," Christopher Marlowe's epic about a shepherd turned warrior king. The ruthless title character conquers Persia, Egypt and other empires in the saga, on view beginning tonight at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's new Sidney Harman Hall. Scene after scene chronicles brutal clashes between massive armies, and the dialogue bristles with militaristic detail -- descriptions of horses, chariots, armor, encampments and innumerable grim weapons.

The play that's running in repertory with "Tamburlaine" at Harman Hall isn't peaceable either: Marlowe's "Edward II," about a monarch's fatal passion, features court intrigue resulting in arrests and executions -- including beheadings.

Getting all this mayhem into the limelight requires intensive planning and labor, from the aesthetic vision of the directors -- Michael Kahn for "Tamburlaine," Gale Edwards for "Edward II" -- to the efforts of stage managers and running crews, whose job includes regularly polishing clash marks from blades.

At the fulcrum of this activity is fight director Rick Sordelet, a frequent Shakespeare Theatre collaborator who has devised combat for international operas and for 37 Broadway shows, including "Aida."

Recently, Sordelet and assistant fight director Drew Vidal took a break from a frenzied tech-rehearsal week to discuss the logistics of staging conflict. Chris Young, a lead artisan in the Shakespeare Theatre's props department, arrived later, toting a sword, some handcuffs enhanced with plastic tubing (to spare the actors' wrists) and other martial whatnots.

The weapons were just a few samples from the arsenal of the Harman productions: In the exotic "Tamburlaine," for instance, performers wield pikes, battle-axes, war hammers, scimitars, kindjals (a long knife from the Caucasus) and archery equipment. Also featured: lots of spears, which Sordelet chose as a way to bulk up the stage picture while cutting costs (spears are cheaper than more intricate arms such as swords, he notes). The design scheme of "Edward II," by contrast, boasts some 20th-century visual elements -- hence the handcuffs.

Sordelet's brain may teem with medieval Eurasian weaponry and other minutiae, but his manner and conversation are calm. Fight directors, the lanky artist emphasizes, are storytellers.

"We're not Special Forces or martial arts experts who are coming in here to train the Spartans of the theater," he says. "We're here to tell a story -- and the story happens to be violent in nature." The work resembles that of a musical comedy choreographer, he adds, except that the medium is aggression rather than dance steps.

When a fight director signs on to a production, the first task is to learn what ideas and emotions the director wants to elicit from the audience during the fight sequences. Edwards, the director of "Edward II," reached by phone before a rehearsal, says she tries to describe "the journey of the fight" -- which character has the upper hand when, for example.

Sordelet says his next step is to determine the athleticism of the performers, and to craft movements accordingly.

"If I have an actor who has a bad knee, I'll work around it," Sordelet says. "If I have an actor who's out of shape and is smoking two packs a day, gotta work around it." Whenever he's asked to work on a production of "King Lear," for instance, he says, he begins by asking about the lead actor's back: Will he be able to carry the dead Cordelia, or will some creative alternative, like a cart, be needed? (Fight directors don't just coordinate fisticuffs; they contribute to stage business that's more broadly related to violent images.)

But Sordelet and his colleagues aren't just interested in the performers' physical fitness. They also monitor the actors' comfort levels with each stage action. The best way to avoid a fake-looking stage fight, in Sordelet's view, is to make sure the actors feel confident. "You destroy fear with knowledge," he says. "So if the actor understands what they're doing, why they're doing it, then they embrace the fight."