Pitt MFA student skilled in combat

Chaya Gordon knows a thing or two about fighting.

In fact, if you venture below the ground… Chaya Gordon knows a thing or two about fighting.

In fact, if you venture below the ground floor of the Cathedral of Learning, past the mob waiting for a coffee fix and into the deep recesses of the basement, Chaya Gordon just might be there, waiting for a fight.

And, given her experience, she’d probably beat you up – unless you’ve taken stage combat, a specialized technique in theater designed to create the illusion of physical combat without causing harm.

Since Gordon is a University of Pittsburgh theater arts MFA candidate with expertise in stage combat, she’d probably still beat you up and have a degree to show for it.

But Gordon is skilled in more than stage combat.

As a member of the MFA program, she is specializing in performance pedagogy where she teaches classes like “Basic Acting – The Stanislavski System” and “Intro to Performance.” She is also a member of the prestigious Actors’ Equity Association, the union specifically for professional actors and stage managers within the United States.

Her experience in stage combat and in the world of theater has led Gordon from Toronto to San Diego to New York and, finally, to Pittsburgh, where she currently stars as Ellen in Pitt Rep’s production of “Vinegar Tom.”

“I play Ellen, or the Cunning Woman. She is misinterpreted as occult but is not. She is an herbalist, a healer, a person in town who helps solve problems, or more accurately, the person who people come to for help, but who doesn’t really solve anything,” she says with a smile.

Her interest in theater began when she was a child. She spent her summers in the mountains of California in a theater program at Idyllwild Arts Academy.

“It was a magical place, a magical experience. It had a lot to do with my want in the theater.”

Her real talent and her passion for acting lies in playing Shakespeare. Whether playing Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” or Rosalind in “As You Like It,” Gordon is at home.

For her, though, the most difficult part of playing Ellen in “Vinegar Tom” is making the switch from the Shakespearian kind of classical acting to a more naturalistic role.

“There is a particular challenge with my experience in classical Shakespeare that makes playing smaller much more difficult.”

In “Vinegar Tom,” her challenge will also be finding the right balance of feminism and violence. Since playwright Caryl Churchill is often labeled a feminist, a title she fervently refutes, Gordon must find her character’s niche as a female herbalist in the midst of the 17th century witch trials.

“Churchill was more interested in ‘otherness’ in society and in explaining the environment in society that allows for this [witch trial]. It is the question of ‘what is the message of the play to the audience.'”

Some of Gordon’s guidance will come from the script. She says that the play doesn’t feature any particular accents, but the language allows for a musical quality that helps in creating the role.

“Churchill’s language has a musicality that is different from the way we speak now