VCU news

By Tom Gresham

David Leong counts himself lucky. Leong, chairman of the Department of Theatre at Virginia Commonwealth University, stands as one of the elite fight choreographers in the country, shaping and directing often-complicated scenes of combat in dramatic productions. He knows how challenging his work can be, but he can’t help marveling at its similarities to simple childhood games of pretend.

“I get paid to do what other people did when they played around as kids,” Leong said. “I’ve turned that into my life’s work. Everybody else had to grow up.”

Leong has been a member of the American Society of Fight Directors since the early 1980s and is one of only a dozen Americans to have risen to the rank of “Certified Fight Master.” He has choreographed fight scenes and done movement coaching for numerous high-profile productions, both on stage and film, during his career, working with such stars as Val Kilmer, Don Cheadle, Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Spacey, Joan Cusack, Tom Hulce and Christopher Plummer.

Leong’s lengthy credits feature 15 Broadway productions, including “Carousel” and “A Delicate Balance,” which won Tony Awards for best musical and best play, respectively. Leong was also on the creative team for “Jitney,” which won an Olivier Award, London’s version of the Tony, for best play, and he received the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Award for Best Choreography for his work on “Mad Forest.”

Despite all these successes, however, Leong remains driven and curious in his new work on the stage. He is perpetually interested in pushing himself and finding fresh challenges to confront, instead of resting on the luxury of his acquired expertise and sticking to familiar scenes in familiar productions. In that regard, Leong’s recent work on “The Miracle: The Ultimate Battle Between Good and Evil,” a new play that opened in April in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., marked a special highlight in his career.

“I’ve never done anything like this project before,” Leong said. “Just to have this opportunity was special.”

“The Miracle” is an imposing production, featuring a massive cast, cutting-edge technology and live animals. The biblical epic starts with the Old Testament’s creation story and continues to the ascension of Jesus Christ. It will run from April to December this year at the 1,500-seat Miracle Theater, and organizers of the show hope the production will continue for several years into the future.

Leong was tapped to choreograph two major scenes in the play: a battle between the “good angels” and the “evil angels” and the whipping and crucifixion of Christ.

The ambitious battle scene, in particular, required Leong’s utmost skill and focus. On stage, 11 angels engage in combat, five of them swooping through the air and six scampering on the stage. Meanwhile, in the background, a 40-foot by 20-foot video wall displays a massive swarm of angels fighting on a mountaintop and in a valley.

For the filmed portion of the battle, Leong choreographed a number of short fight scenes that were filmed over the winter with a small group of actors, including Jamie Cheatham and Tiza Garland, Leong’s former students at VCU. In post-production, the play’s film staff digitally replicated the various scenes over and over and scattered them about the mountainous setting. When the resulting film plays on the video wall behind the 11 angels on the stage, it elicits the impression that thousands of angels are locked in an apocalyptically grand scene of battle.

Leong sent an email journal to his colleagues at VCU during one week he spent in January in Pigeon Forge working on the fight scenes. He described the special effects used for the production with evident wonder.

“Video effects team talks us through the stages of rendering the scenes in post production,” Leong wrote on Jan. 22. “Our jaws drop as they take a fight sequence done on ramps in front of a green screen, drop out the green screen with all the wires, place us on a mountain top, add the shadow effects and then bring it to life! And then they place the same sequence at different angles on a distant mountain top. Within 10 seconds or so, there are 300 angels fighting in different locations.”

Directing the angels’ progress on stage provided some sizable obstacles. The angels’ sophisticated wings spanned 14 feet and were to be operated by the actors’ wearing them using “finger rings” on each hand. The actors were heavily restricted in their movements by the cumbersome wings and heavy armor, which left them bruised in rehearsals. Leong had to choreograph movements that would allow the actors to be expressive and acrobatic without succumbing to physical exhaustion. He also had to keep the actors safe, creating movements that would not send them colliding into one another in air.

Still, despite the sometimes trying circumstances, the thrilling nature of the work suffused the production, Leong said.

“Actors learn how to fly,” Leong reported on Jan. 23. “Needless to say, each smiles from ear to ear like a kid in a candy store. There is no substitute for flying … what a joyous experience to watch the possibilities that now exist with these advance flying systems.”

Leong said he relishes the opportunity to solve problems that are almost completely new to him, as in the case of “The Miracle.” In choreographing the battle scenes, Leong worked with noted fly director Paul Rubin, who has worked on a number of Broadway productions featuring soaring actors. Leong’s only previous work involving flight was on a production of “Peter Pan,” and he said the technology for “The Miracle” far outpaced that experience.

“Of all of the projects I’ve ever done, I learned the most during this one,” Leong said. “I feel very lucky that this fell into my lap. It has been really challenging. It’s not often I get the chance to do something that’s so new to me.”

Leong’s interest in dramatic combat began as a child with the TV version of “Zorro,” starring Guy Williams. Leong frequently dressed as Zorro on Halloween. In college, Leong was a competitive gymnast and a theater major. When a role called for physical derring-do, Leong invariably stepped into the part. Soon, Leong was studying techniques and tactics on his own. Eventually, he trained with Patrick “Paddy” Crean, who had been a frequent stunt double for Erroll Flynn years before and who is known by many as the father of staged combat.

Before Leong joined the faculty at VCU, he worked with a hungry frequency, contributing to an estimated 25 productions a year during one particularly hectic stretch of his career. Now, Leong works on only three or four productions each year and selects projects with special thought and care. In addition to “The Miracle,” Leong spent the early part of 2004 choreographing the Civil War battle scenes in a production of “Shenandoah,” which ran from March 17 to April 30 at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

“I want to be challenged when I work,” Leong said. “That’s what I look for now in a production. I always want to be learning something.”

Leong’s work is not merely about combat but about the use of movement to enhance a theatrical production. The whipping and crucifixion of Christ in “The Miracle” proved to be a delicate scene for Leong to tackle. Leong did historical research to understand the specifics of crucifixion, but he had to avoid being so realistic that audience members would lose the illusion that comes with watching a play.

“It’s a difficult thing sometimes when you’re dealing with this kind of violence on stage,” Leong said. “We want it to look real, but we don’t want it to be repulsive. It can’t go on too long. It can’t make the audience sort of poke through and see Jesus as an actor and then start worrying if the actor is hurt. There’s a big difference to an actor looking like he’s in danger and a character looking that way.”

Time and again, Leong has demonstrated a knack for dancing along that line and inspiring the kind of performances that captivate audiences. In April, representatives of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts visited VCU to collect materials from Leong’s work. He will become the first fight director in the United States to have the history of his professional work catalogued at the Lincoln Center, stored alongside the country’s most respected choreographers and directors – a heady acknowledgement of Leong’s unique talents in turning child’s play into art.