Stage slap?

Question:My sister and I are doing a forencics piece from Terrance McNally's Bad Habits. The scrip requires me to slap her twice. She said it was ok if i just go ahead and slap her normally- but i have a hard time staying in character and not smacking her hard. She's ok with it, but i feel guilty because I have to push her down latter in the script.

Back to my question. I anyone knows a non painful way to look like ur smacking someone hard please let me know and soon. Our 1st tournament is on Saturday.

Thanks all

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: My sister and I are doing a forencics piece from Terrance McNally's Bad Habits. The scrip requires me to slap her twice. She said it was ok if i just go ahead and slap her normally- but i have a hard time staying in character and not smacking her hard. She's ok with it, but i feel guilty because I have to push her down latter in the script.

Back to my question. I anyone knows a non painful way to look like ur smacking someone hard please let me know and soon. Our 1st tournament is on Saturday.

Thanks all

If the script calls for you slapping her in the face, you absolutely should NOT actually do it -- there's a chance you could miss and hit her ear, and depending on how hard you hit you could hurt her ear drum, permanently.

There's plenty of ways to fake a slap or a smack; since you're in a rush, I found this link to a video with an actor showing you the techniques.

But you absolutely should not really do it, even if your sister says she can take it. It's not about just the slap itself, it's about how some far worse things could go wrong, and you really want to avoid that.

No, you don't need to hit her. It's acting, not real life, and you can get away with more tricks when you're on stage. What's more, if a stage production audience believes that the hit is real, the audience will become more concerned about the actor than the character and it can destroy the dramatic moment.

Go to your local library or bookstore and see if you can find a book on stage combat and thumb through it for slap techniques.

Here are some online places to look:

http://www.google.com/search?q=slap+tech...

I studied stage slaps and punches. It's VERY easy to learn!

The "slapper" should just perform the normal slap motion. But the "slappee" moves their head in the same direction. (It takes practice to get your timing correct) To get the slap sound, the "slapper" has their other hand out a little bit in front of them so that they can hit their hand instead of the person's face.

It's a little complicated to explain. But it's really easy in reality.

Good luck!