One of theatre's superpowers is holding a mirror up to nature. But how can we depict murderers, violent killers, soldiers in battle, or people fighting for their lives when we've never experienced such things? The R&D boys discuss resources and strategies for learning about the mind of a killer...

We share some of your feedback from the last episode's topic (Can fights be too real for an audience?) and then discuss using armor on the stage! We talk about armor for the character, armor for the character, and how each of these affects your design.

Assuming a fight is safe for the actors, can it be too real for the audience? Does letting them see the stage combat break their immersion, or does concern about performer injury trump involvement in the story of the play? We weigh in with our opinions...

Join us for the second half of our interview with Greg Poljacik and Greg discusses his exciting work on the neuroscience of acting and stunt work. Do actors really experience the emotions they portray? Are veteran stunt performers more calm and collected than their rookie counterparts? Find out!

Blood and guts: sometime the violence designer is called upon to create them on stage. Our special guest is Greg Poljacik of Gravity and Momentum, inventor of Blood Jam, the finest stage blood on the market. We also discuss some of our favorite wounds and special effects from past shows.

This week we highlight the scarcity of training opportunities for aspiring violence designers, talk about ways to learn the craft, and chat with our illustrious interns Chloe Baldwin and Alex Shekleton.

How do you create a new illusion of violence, like an unconventional attack or a means of death unique to a specific play? Or how do you change conventional techniques to keep the audience guessing? Rick, Vic, and David explain our process.

What does a violence designer do at a production meetings? (Hint: the answer is not "zone out when the director is talking about the set.") What is it that we bring to the table? Plus, we hear an actor's perspective about fights based in good martial logic.

Western Martial Arts (WMA) are enjoying a renaissance of scholarship and practice. Can WMA techniques be translated into stage combat? Should they be? We also interview R&D Choreography's Victor Bayona in our Meet the Designer segment and address a problem of respect sent to us by a designer in the trenches.

In Episode 2 we discuss R&D's hallmark Chicago Style, how to develop an artistic aethestic, the perils of using Facebook video as stage combat cautionary tales, and we interview David Bareford, co-founder of R&D and our "partner emeritus" out in Portland, Oregon.