Roberta BrownFight Director, Sword Master, Teacher
It is her solid experience, talent, and smarts that allow her to thrive in an otherwise male-dominated field
—The Fight Master
Variety says, “Roberta Brown’s fight choreography heightens the brutal confrontations.” Backstage calls her work “disturbing and convincing.” And the Los Angeles Times says, “She’s dead serious about the importance of proper training and safety procedures.” Fight choreography is, as the trade magazine The Fight Master points out, a male-dominated field, but there's room in it for this woman partly because, “Brown’s solid acting background sets the foundation to communicate with actors.” Or, as the German entertainment magazine Job Report puts it, “For her, a fight is not just action; it’s an opportunity to define characters.”
With screen credits from fights in Charlie’s Angels to battles in the historical epic Boudica, television experience from swashbuckling adventures like Queen of Swords to surprise duels like the one she created for E.R., and theatrical fight direction from Shakespeare's Globe in London to the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Brown’s work is versatile and high profile. Her acting background and years of teaching at acting studios that include Lee Strasberg, Howard Fine, and Vienna's English Theatre Academy have also helped to shape her choreography into more than just clashing steel; each fight tells a story, and each meeting of weapons is a scene full of suspense, intrigue, and even humor.
With a primary specialty in European swordplay, Brown’s repertoire also includes such disparate weapons as the western bullwhip and the Chinese fighting fan. In addition to her work in film and television, she also has over thirty years’ experience in theatre. And Brown has traveled the world teaching theatrical combat workshops at drama schools, universities, theaters, festivals, and fan conventions, from Australia to Colombia, Austria to England, and throughout the Unites States. She's been resident Fight Director for the Los Angeles Shakespeare Company, for the European Shakespeare Days, and Shakespeare in Styria, as well as Director of Theatrical Combat at Beverly Hills Fencers’ Club and Westside Fencing Center in California.
—The Fight Master
Variety says, “Roberta Brown’s fight choreography heightens the brutal confrontations.” Backstage calls her work “disturbing and convincing.” And the Los Angeles Times says, “She’s dead serious about the importance of proper training and safety procedures.” Fight choreography is, as the trade magazine The Fight Master points out, a male-dominated field, but there's room in it for this woman partly because, “Brown’s solid acting background sets the foundation to communicate with actors.” Or, as the German entertainment magazine Job Report puts it, “For her, a fight is not just action; it’s an opportunity to define characters.”
With screen credits from fights in Charlie’s Angels to battles in the historical epic Boudica, television experience from swashbuckling adventures like Queen of Swords to surprise duels like the one she created for E.R., and theatrical fight direction from Shakespeare's Globe in London to the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Brown’s work is versatile and high profile. Her acting background and years of teaching at acting studios that include Lee Strasberg, Howard Fine, and Vienna's English Theatre Academy have also helped to shape her choreography into more than just clashing steel; each fight tells a story, and each meeting of weapons is a scene full of suspense, intrigue, and even humor.
With a primary specialty in European swordplay, Brown’s repertoire also includes such disparate weapons as the western bullwhip and the Chinese fighting fan. In addition to her work in film and television, she also has over thirty years’ experience in theatre. And Brown has traveled the world teaching theatrical combat workshops at drama schools, universities, theaters, festivals, and fan conventions, from Australia to Colombia, Austria to England, and throughout the Unites States. She's been resident Fight Director for the Los Angeles Shakespeare Company, for the European Shakespeare Days, and Shakespeare in Styria, as well as Director of Theatrical Combat at Beverly Hills Fencers’ Club and Westside Fencing Center in California.
