It is her solid experience, talent,
and smarts that allow her to thrive in an otherwise male-dominated field —The Fight Master
Variety says that “Roberta Brown’s fight choreography heightens
the brutal confrontations.” Backstage West 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.”
Sword choreography is, as the trade magazine The Fight Master points
out, a male-dominated field. But there is room in it for this woman partly
because, as the magazine carries on to point out, “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 ranging from fights in Charlie’s Angels to
battles in the historical epic Boudica, television experience
from swashbuckling adventures like Queen of Swords to surprising
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 both
versatile and high profile. Her own acting background and years of teaching
at acting studios that include Lee Strasberg’s
and Howard Fine’s 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 sometimes humor.
Her primary specialty is European swordplay, but Brown’s repertoire also
includes such disparate weapons as the western bullwhip and the Chinese fighting
fan. In
addition to her extensive 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, from 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.