I am constantly asked how we got started doing this.   Well, you never know what the fates have in store for you.    Someone had opened a door too far and put a hole in the wall of my rented house.   Getting out the plaster I prepared to fix it.   I noticed something a dark green in the hole.  I opened the hole a little more, and saw braiding.  I took out the wall and found a 1944 Japanese Marine Officer sword.   I have no idea who put it there.  I took the sword out of the scabbard and held a sword in my hand for the first time in my life and fell in love with steel.   It was like something awakened in my soul and the warrior came out.

Ten days later I saw an episode of the television show Highlander and saw Adrian Paul fighting.   He looked like he was having so much fun!   I decided that I wanted to learn to swordfight and found another person who also wanted to learn.   It took us almost a year, but we found a sword master in New York City and flew him down to train us.   By then several other people had shown an interest in learning.   We trained 14-16 hours a day and it changed our lives forever.    We formed the Shadow Players Stage Combat Group three weeks later and have continued to learn, play and perform ever since.

As in any organization, our members come from a wide variety of backgrounds and occupations but we all have one thing in common - the love of the sword.   One of our favorite sayings is “We love the feel of cold steel”.  There is something magical and empowering about fighting with swords.   But there is also a grave responsibility involved.    We are quite literally putting our lives into someone else’s hands.   These are real weapons, not sharp of course, but they can do a lot of damage if mishandled.   Our members are very carefully chosen and train constantly to achieve the high level of safety and entertainment that we strive for.  We are close not only as entertainers but as friends.

We have been hired to perform at a wide variety of events and locations including the First International Highlander Convention in Denver, CO.   There we met Adrian Paul and told him our story and how he influenced our lives.   He was very gracious and excited about our love of swords.

Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions welcomed us from New Orleans to Baltimore, Atlanta and all over North Carolina.   We have done toy shows, weddings, birthday parties, movie premieres, renaissance faires, medieval and Shakespeare festivals, pirate and nautical festivals.  Scouting events including the Blue and Gold dinner, Eagle Scout party and Boy and Cub Scout outings and meetings.  And we have done summer camps for several groups as well as numerous private performances for churches, and other organizations.

We had two of our members were invited to do a light saber duel (dark Jedi vs. light Jedi) with the North Carolina Symphony, Charlotte NC as they played ‘Duel of the Fates’ from Star Wars.  Over 20,000 people enjoyed that performance.

We teach stage combat and swordsmanship for the stage at schools and to individuals or groups who want to learn about the fun of playing with swords safely.  We do fight choreography for plays at the high school and professional stage levels.  We have several educational programs for schools that cover the history of the weapons in various time periods.  Several of our people have appeared in major motion pictures including ‘The Patriot’ with Mel Gibson and Emmy award winning ‘Alamance’ for PBS.

We wear costumes appropriate to the event.  When not performing actual fights, we are interacting with the patrons, greeting them and welcoming them to the event, posing for pictures, answering questions about us, the weapons, the event and giving directions as needed.  When doing the pirates genre, we hand out ‘pirate gold’ to the children.  Our goal is to do everything we can to help make the event we are hired for a success.

   - Diana Waldier