Stage combat choreographer to inform on human behavior
March 27, 2016
The Doudna Fine Arts Center is inviting Greg Poljacik, a stage combat choreographer, teacher and inventor, for his presentation entitled “How the Arts Further Scientific Understanding of Human Behavior,” at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday in their Lecture Hall.
To present this research, Poljacick will be utilizing actors, chamber quartet musicians, ballet dancers, stunt persons and many more.
Greg Poljacik, a stage combat choreographer and teacher, will provide a public presentation in the Lecture Hall of the Doudna Fine Arts Center Wednesday, March 30, at 5:30 p.m. The presentation, “How the Arts Further Scientific Understanding of Human Behavior”, will draw on research with actors, chamber quartet musicians, ballet dancers, stunt people and others.
All of Poljacik’s work involving combat follows the principles of safety, story and substance.
“He is currently working with the EIU Theatre Arts Department in staging scenes for the upcoming production and adaptation of Romeo + Juliet, with performances at the Doudna Fine Arts Center in April,” according to the press release. “In addition to being the inventor of the secret recipe for Gravity & Momentum’s stage blood products, (Poljacik) has been working as a teacher and choreographer for over a decade.”
Poljacik currently teaches stage combat at The Second City Training Center in Chicago and works at the University of Chicago in the field of Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience. He also works as the resident Neuroscientist for the Kennedy Center for the Arts Edge program, and is a teacher with the United Stuntman’s Association.
He also works as the resident Neuroscientist for the Kennedy Center for the Arts Edge program and is a teacher with the United Stuntman’s Association.
He has also guest lectured at the Columbia University of Chicago and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Society of American Fight Directors, American Gear Manufacturer Association and LBP Stunts Chicago.
In addition to teaching in Illinois, Poljacik has taught at Regional workshops across the country, and co-coordinated the Winder Wonderland, the largest combat conference in the United States. Poljacik has also been featured as a guest lecturer at Columbia University in Chicago.
“Romeo + Juliet” will be performed on Friday, April 22 in the theater of Doudna Fine Arts Center
According to Doudna’s website, Anne Thibault will be directing Romeo + Juliet and students involved will be bringing a forbidden copy of Shakespeare’s work to life through found objects and their own sense of theatricality, and the story’s retelling becomes new when the play turns serious and truths about student’s own lives, and our own, emerge.
Poljacik will also be assisting the theater department in the One-Acts plays.
“How the Arts Further Scientific Understanding of Human Behavior” will be free and open to the public.
Abbey Whittington can be reached at 581-2812 or anwhittington@eiu.edu
