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B.H. Barry
B.H. Barry is a one of the leading fight directors of the 20th century. His work in theater, film, television, opera and ballet and his skill as a teacher of stage combat have earned him a global reputation.

Born Barry Halliday, in the English town of Staines, B.H. was raised working-class by single parent. He left school at fifteen because of family economics and worked as a chemical engineer for the leather industry. After three years he left to pursue a theatrical career, working at various jobs to pay for his drama school training: Lumber yard manager, floor cleaner, bartender, car park attendant and construction worker. At the age of nineteen B.H. attended full time at Corona Stage School. There he studied with Paddy Creane, Errol Flynn's stunt double and a leading fight director of the time. At Corona, B.H. became a teacher of mime, voice, dialect and stage combat. He also directed many projects at the Academy. In the sixties went on to study Aikido and stage combat with friend and mentor, Barry Jackson, a leading stunt man in England. He also taught at the London Academy of Dramatic Art, Central School of Speech and Drama, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

By the seventies B.H. had already established himself as one of the foremost Fight Directors in England, working for the B.B.C. and commercial T.V., the Royal Shakespeare Company and movies for directors Roman Polanski, Richard Fleischer and others.

He was a co-founder of the Society of British Fight Directors, now known as the British Society of Dramatic Combat (http://www.badc.co.uk/history/history.html). This organization paved the way for similar societies around the world, which sprang up subsequently.

B.H. Barry came to America in 1971 to teach at a movement workshop in Dallas, Texas. He returned in 1973 to Lenox, Massachusetts to work with the highly-esteemed Shakespeare & Co a Company, which he helped to found. Upon meeting Earl Gister, chairman of the drama dept. at Carnegie Mellon, he was invited to teach a course there. At the time, stage combat was not taught as a core course in drama schools. From there he went on to teach at the Juilliard School, Yale, NYU, Temple, City College, Circle in the Square where he still teaches and many other universities around the country. His students work at the highest levels of the entertainment industry.

Over the years, working for both the New York Shakespeare Festival here in the U.S. and the RSC in England, traveling between the two companies—and countries—became a regular occurrence. He became the go-to fight director on and off Broadway and in many regional theater in the U.S. and Canada, worked on films including The Adam’s Family, Pirates of Penzance and Olleanna, and T.V. projects such as, Dr. Who and the BBC Shakespeare series. He was the regular stunt coordinator for the popular soap opera, All My Children for several decades. He has been awarded both a Drama Desk and an Obie Award for Sustained and Consistent Excellence in Stage Combat.

Back in England he helped form the Shared Experience theatre company with Michael Alfreds, developing a signature style of "Story Teller Theatre." Their production of Bleak House became the role model for Nicholas Nickleby.

B.H. Barry changed the job of fight directing in the theatre in several ways: Before he began working in the field, those who staged fights were referred to as fight arrangers or sword masters. Barry pioneered the concept of “fight director,” responsible for the entire fight “scene” rather than simply teaching the actors the choreography. Barry’s skill and creativity also raised the status of the job of fight director. He became a part of the creative team, equal in stature and billing to set, costume, and lighting designers.

B.H. Barry continues to work constantly and is writing a series of books on fight directing for Shakespeare. He now calls the U.S. home, living in Manhattan with his wife and daughter.