Conventional plays are built on combat. Two or more characters are in conflict; individual actors are engaged in internal conflict. There are goals, and characters struggle to achieve those goals, working on one another to change a person who get something they need, and succeeding or failing. Success and failure both bring consequences. This is the structure of drama.

Thus when actors rehearse a scene they are practicing combat.

Aikido students have to learn to work with complete commitment, yet also include consciousness of their partner. Before every exercise, there is a bow, and a promise to care for the flourishing of one's partner. Drew says the punch is real, and at the same time you are responsible to watch for your partner's safety and well-being. Soon, students are working hard on one another, encouraging each other to work with real commitment and courage, and caring for one another's progress.

This is how our acting community will operate. A little bit of technique, and a lifetime's worth of commitment and bravery. By getting this into our bodies with our martial arts practice, we can awaken to the same relationship in the psychic workings of a scene, and play out the conflicts of human existence with conscious awareness and fearless honesty.

The most dangerous knife in the drawer is the one that isn't sharpened.

-Mu Mun