Guy Windsor
I’m here today with Sydney Schwindt, who is an actor, fight director and clown. She is also an artist and illustrator. Her art website is called True Edge Art, subtitled Art for the Warrior Within so I think we’ll have something to talk about. So, without further ado, Sydney, welcome to the show.
Sydney Schwindt
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.
Guy Windsor
Just to orient everybody. Whereabouts in the world, are you?
Sydney Schwindt
I am currently calling you from Pacific Grove, California.
Guy Windsor
Pacific Grove, California, okay, whereabouts. I mean, California is huge, so whereabouts is that, more or less?
Sydney Schwindt
That’s very true. It is about two hours south of the San Francisco Bay area.
Guy Windsor
Okay, all right, I think most folks have a vague idea where San Francisco is, and two hours in San Francisco driving is about 10 miles.
Sydney Schwindt
Actually, that’s very true in San Francisco, but once you get out of it, it’s a little bit more regular driving.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so you’re an actor, fight director and so on. How did you get into fight direction and swords?
Sydney Schwindt
Well, to start, they’re just really fun, yeah, but when I was about 14, I was already really deeply into theater, and my high school randomly offered a stage combat class, and I don’t think my teacher really knew all that much about it, but he wanted to teach it because it was fun, and I had a great time swinging swords around with my best friend and almost poked his eye out. And it was like, I should probably learn to do this better. And started diving in from there. So, after my first year of college, I found a program, a summer program with the Society of American Fight Directors. That was a three week training session and found my fellow nerds.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so regarding swords, you just do stage combat, is that correct? You don’t do historical martial arts or anything like that?
Sydney Schwindt
No, not really. There’s a little bit of overlap. Training in Historical European Martial Arts is definitely helpful, but I’ve done a couple of those where it’s more of like the sparring, but then I’ve done most of it where we’ve transferred it to stage combat world.
Guy Windsor
Yeah, because the goals are quite different, like in stage combat, everyone should see what just happened and nobody gets hurt. I had a look at your CV and the number of shows and stuff you’ve done. That is a lot of shows, and a lot of them have swords in them, maybe there’s a theme there. But of the shows with the fights in, which was the one that scared the crap out of you the most?
Sydney Schwindt
Let’s see, probably one of the most nerve-wracking ones to get my hands on, was Cyrano, which I’ve done twice, just because he’s the most epic sword fighter of all time. How do you make him look incredible? He’s the only character that is allowed to talk while he’s sword fighting.
Guy Windsor
Right. So you’ve done Cyrano twice, but that’s as a director, correct?
Sydney Schwindt
As a fight director.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so if you have someone who isn’t an expert swordsman and they’re playing Cyrano, how do you make them look good quickly?
Sydney Schwindt
You hope you have hours of training with them. And do you hope you have someone who has at least had some training previously to be able to be cast as Cyrano. More often than not, people have someone in mind. They’re like, we’re not going to do this show if we don’t have an actor who we’re at least thinking of doing this part, that’s usually helpful. But if I have to bring someone up to speed quickly, I live by the rules of KISS. Keep it simple, stupid.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so just give them a few simple things to do over and over in different orders, and that will make them look like they know what they’re doing.
Sydney Schwindt
Something flashy in there, one flashy move that will make it look really exciting to the audience. But make sure that it’s something that they could repeat and not injure their fellow swordsman on the stage.
Guy Windsor
So how do you, how do you stage the fight against 100 opponents?
Sydney Schwindt
With lots of smoke and mirrors, and sometimes literally smoke and mirrors. The first one that I worked on for that that 100 men fight, I think there were five other actors, one also being myself, and we did have a lot of smoke.
Guy Windsor
All right, so people will get killed, sneak off and then come back into somebody else.
Sydney Schwindt
Yep, exactly like, ah, just don’t look at my face and we choreograph it so you know you’re not seeing the 100 swordsman’s faces as they hide behind stage and then come back on.
Guy Windsor
Okay, because I’ve seen Gerard Depardieu’s version, which is very sort straight down the line, like a kind of classic iteration. It’s probably like the preeminent film, Cyrano, I would say. And I’ve also seen Peter Dinklage’s, which is quite different. Which do you prefer?
Sydney Schwindt
I haven’t seen the Peter Dinklage one yet. Is it a musical?
Guy Windsor
Have you not? Yes, it is a musical.
Sydney Schwindt
I love him.
Guy Windsor
You love Cyrano, or you love Peter Dinklage, or both?
Sydney Schwindt
I love both.
Guy Windsor
So how have you not seen that?
Sydney Schwindt
I don’t know. I live in a hole. I just haven’t seen a bunch of recent movies, and I’m like, I can’t believe I haven’t watched this one yet.
Guy Windsor
It’s not even that recent. I won’t tell anyone. Okay, all right. Podcast listeners, don’t tell anyone that Sydney has not seen the Peter Dinklage Cyrano. Okay, I would be curious if you watch it, drop me an email to let me know what you thought of it, because I personally liked it. I enjoyed it very much. There are all sorts of ways in which it wasn’t really Cyrano, I thought.
Sydney Schwindt
I’m interested.
Guy Windsor
But it’s like a completely different take on the same subject, like you must have seen Roxanne with Steve Martin.
Sydney Schwindt
Yes, yes, of course, yeah.
Guy Windsor
That fight with the tennis rackets is so fun. It’s so good. I mean, he is just an absolute genius. And that scene in the bar where, you know, someone says something about his nose, and he comes out with, like, 20 better ways to insult somebody with a big nose, like classic.
Sydney Schwindt
I love Steve Martin. And also, then you get into all the clowning with that one. There’s a stage adaptation where there’s actually quite a few stage adaptations, where they take Roxanne out of the battle, that she never goes to the battle. And I think that’s one of the biggest disservices you could do in that show, of that she is his equal in every way, and that she is just as brave, she’s just as smart as he is, and if you make her not go to the battlefield, then you don’t get to see that from her. And I think that’s one of the things where I’m like, ah, that’s also not Cyrano. If you’ve got the character of Roxane, you’re also getting his love and affection for her.
Guy Windsor
And it’s funny that the Steve Martin Cyrano adaptation is called Roxanne. She’s the main character in all sorts of respects. If I remember rightly, it’s been a long time since I saw it. But isn’t she an astronomer?
Sydney Schwindt
You know, I actually don’t remember either. I feel like the last time I saw it was high school.
Guy Windsor
If you like Roxanne, then you are, you’re in the camp that will tolerate an adaptation of Cyrano into something else. And so there’s a fair shot you’ll like the Peter Dinklage film.
Sydney Schwindt
That’s good. All right, yeah, I’d never mind an adaptation. I feel like it’s, it’s an homage, in ways, the original. We have the original. It’s been done well, that Gerard Depardieu one is so fun and so wonderful, but we don’t need that again.
Guy Windsor
No, no. And it is just utterly, magnificently done. But it’s heart wrenching at the end, as opposed to being fun, yeah, that final scene where the last thing, like lying in the dust, the one thing that survives with him is his panache. And it’s like, oh my god.
Sydney Schwindt
It’s a tearjerker. You’re just like, Oh yeah.
Guy Windsor
That’s true to the spirit of the original. But the adaptations tend to turn it into a more of a happy ending, generally. Um, actually, I can’t remember whether the Dinklage one does that or not. I think it does. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it does.
Sydney Schwindt
A lot of the stage adaptations keep the sad ending.
Guy Windsor
I think it’s why people keep coming back to it, because it has that kind of emotional heft at the end.
Sydney Schwindt
Yeah, you get a little bit of everything. You get fun, sword fighting, romance, all these different things. And then you get the heart wrenching, cathartic end where you’re like, oh no, they were so close.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so now you act, and you do stage combat, and you’re also a clown. I think you are the only actual clown we’ve had on the show. So am I right in thinking that we’re not necessarily talking like big floppy shoes, white face, funny wig, red nose?
Sydney Schwindt
Not exactly, not that there’s anything against that style of clown. No, I would say this type of clown that I gravitate more towards would be what you would put like the Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton style clown into. Lots of physical comedies, slapstick, enhanced characters.
Guy Windsor
Do you find that the clowning kind of seeps into the acting in the stage combat? Or do you keep them separate?
Sydney Schwindt
100%. I actually love to teach physical comedy as a stage combat class, because so often actors are asked to come in and they’re expected to know how to fall all the time. And falling is actually something very hard to do consistently, where you’re not hurting yourself and to make it look good. And so to be able to fall in a funny way as well is a whole different cup of tea, let alone breaking expectations in that way of like, oh, how do I circumnavigate what is expected and do something ridiculous? And you know, it’s so commonly done in violence.
Guy Windsor
Clowns tend to have a tragic side.
Sydney Schwindt
Yeah, that’s very true. We have our sad clowns, the hobo clowns of like Emmett Kelly.
Guy Windsor
I was also thinking of like Charlie Chaplin’s tramp, little tramp, like he’s a tragic figure really.
Sydney Schwindt
And it’s social commentary too.
Guy Windsor
Oh yeah, and Modern Times, it’s just an absolute classic, and how he just goes completely nuts from doing the thing with the spanners all day. Isn’t that the one where he has that machine for feeding people quicker? Is that in that one?
Sydney Schwindt
Modern Times, yeah.
Guy Windsor
How the hell they did they do that? I don’t know, but this is just hideous notion that kind of gets at the heart of what the dark side of modernity really is, which is treating people as components in an industrial machine and just nails it. So, all right, what’s the best bit of clowning you ever did?
Sydney Schwindt
I don’t know what I would call the best bit of clowning.
Guy Windsor
The one that was most satisfying to your clownish heart.
Sydney Schwindt
Ah, it’s so satisfying to my clownish heart. I was always like, so hard to say something where you’re like, oh, this was great, because so often, I don’t know, the actor was like, Oh, it could have been better. I could have done this or especially in clowning.
Guy Windsor
But fuck the audience, right? Not the biggest applause, but what was the closest you got to the essence of clowning?
Sydney Schwindt
You know, I get to do this really silly, ridiculous Christmas show that’s been happening for 90 plus years in Yosemite National Park called the Bracebridge Dinner, and I get to play the jester in it. So I get to play the clown, and it is an absolute joy to get pied in the space by audience members. That fills my heart with joy every single time it happens, even when occasionally you get someone who’s had a little bit too much wine and they might be a little bit forceful with that pie, it’s still something that is worthwhile.
Guy Windsor
Why? I mean, I don’t remember ever being pied in the face, and it doesn’t seem like the sort of thing I would like.
Sydney Schwindt
Well, you’re missing out, Guy. Come on.
Guy Windsor
I’m willing to try it. The opportunity has never occurred. I mean, if we’re ever in the same room together, and it’s appropriate to do so, feel free to introduce me to the glories of being pied in the face.
Sydney Schwindt
I’m just going to carry around pies now next time I’m in England.
Guy Windsor
Just in case, where’s Guy? Pie. So, why does that appeal to you? I can see the appeal of doing it to somebody else, but having it done to you?
Sydney Schwindt
Well, this particular scene, in this particular moment, it’s a whole buildup of the jesters pretending to be a very pretentious Bishop.
Guy Windsor
So you get that kind of puffed-up authority figure kind of thing, and this is their comedic downfall,
Sydney Schwindt
Exactly, that comeuppance where you’re getting to be awful, ridiculous over the top, and then, and then you brought back down.
Guy Windsor
So it’s that undercutting of the tension.
Sydney Schwindt
And it’s also something like, I love when clown is giving back to the audience as well. And that’s like a physical manifestation of giving back. Like the clown is the most honest on stage. The audience can tell right away when you’re lying about anything, you have to be very present in the moment and very true to your character. You have to know who your clown is from inside out. And as soon as you’re messing with that, they’re like, this isn’t funny. This isn’t interesting. Not going to pay attention to this particular moment with this clown, but when you’re doing it, you’re giving to them, and then to actually give them a pie to give to you, feels like a beautiful synchronicity between audience and character.
Guy Windsor
A balancing of the cosmic scales.
Sydney Schwindt
Exactly. In a pie.
Guy Windsor
Okay, yeah, I can see the attraction. Have you ever played any of Shakespeare’s clowns? I’m thinking of the fool in King Lear, for example, or Feste in 12th Night.
Sydney Schwindt
I had the immense joy of getting to play Dogberry from Much Ado About Nothing, which was crazy, because I played it in conjunction with Beatrice. So I played both of them in the same show.
Guy Windsor
Oh, my God, they could not be more different.
Sydney Schwindt
Yeah, could not be more different. You know, that was actually one of my favorite roles. I thought, like, I love Beatrice and I love Dogberry, and they both satisfied the different parts of Sydney where I was like, oh yes, I’m itching all the insides. But our particular Dogberry was based on a San Francisco character from the 1800s who was this.
Guy Windsor
The Emperor of the United States, he called himself.
Sydney Schwindt
Yeah, Emperor Norton, who made his own money and many different places in San Francisco would take it. So it was kind of based on him that I had this big, military-esque jacket that had fake metals sewn to it and buttons and different things on it, and had given myself my sense of authority.
Guy Windsor
Wow, okay, and it’s nice that it’s sort of tied into a local historical character, because, I mean, even I’ve heard of the Emperor of the United States from the 19th century, even though, you know, why would I even know that?
Sydney Schwindt
I’m actually so surprised, that’s awesome.
Guy Windsor
I don’t know why I know. I just came across it at some point, and it stuck because it’s just a genius idea of this bloke just deciding he is the emperor of United States. And everyone sort of played along.
Sydney Schwindt
He was so sweet and kind. They were like, we can’t tell this guy that he’s harmless. Some places even have, like, he printed his own money, and certain establishments would take it and so like to have a Norton dollar is like a prized possession, still.
Guy Windsor
Exactly. It’s a genius. So have you seen Kenneth Brown in Much Ado?
Sydney Schwindt
Yes, I have.
Guy Windsor
That’s funny, because Michael Keaton plays Dogberry in that one, if I remember rightly. I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand him. I couldn’t stand him. He just got the whole thing wrong, from my perspective. I think Keanu Reeves is Don Pedro. Is that right?
Sydney Schwindt
Don John.
Guy Windsor
Don John, sorry, Don John, the baddie. And I thought he was terrible. And I thought Michael Keaton playing Dogberry was terrible. Everyone else was great, and every time they came on the screen, I would just go, oh, God no, no, they’re just getting it all wrong.
Sydney Schwindt
I do agree Keanu Reeves was, like, so terrible in that. And I love Keanu Reeves, but it is like, I think they were just like, who can we have that’s going to be absolutely ridiculous? Let’s just have Keanu Reeves. We don’t care if he does a good job, yeah.
Guy Windsor
He can do a really good job of acting if you give him the right tools for the right part, but, but, yeah, that was so I’m glad you agree with me on Don John. But okay, so convince me, if you don’t mind, Miss Professional Clown, why was Michael Keaton good as Dogberry?
Sydney Schwindt
Well, one, I think everyone should have different opinions, and I love that discourse, and it’s really exciting, totally different opinions on it.
Guy Windsor
But what makes you think, from a professional clowning perspective, which I don’t have, what made him good in the part?
Sydney Schwindt
Well, I think he was cinematic. I don’t know if what he would do would translate well on stage, but his ability to play with the malapropisms and make them believable but still understandable. Because I feel like that’s the biggest challenge for Dogberry, is a lot of times he’s not funny to a modern audience, because a lot of them are like, those are big words that I don’t know anyway. So, yeah, I don’t understand the humor behind it.
Guy Windsor
I’ve had Ben Crystal on the show, who is a Shakespearean actor who specializes in original pronunciation. And when you go into the original pronunciation side of things, a whole bunch of jokes appear that are invisible with modern pronunciation. So there’s also that level of the comedy getting lost. I mean, to the point that in one episode of Black Adder. I forget which one, Black Adder says to Baldrick that he’s so stupid he’d laugh at a Shakespeare comedy. And that works as a modern English joke. I maybe get in the context a little bit wrong. Maybe he said it about somebody else, but he’s definitely said they’re so stupid they’d laugh at a Shakespeare comedy. Which is not really fair to Shakespeare, as comedy doesn’t really track well over time anyway. So Michael Keaton, cinematic and you get the malapropisms.
Sydney Schwindt
I also think his version of Dogberry is kind of like his Beetlejuice in a lot of ways. He’s that kind of like a dirty, grungy character. You’re like, “I know this guy. I don’t like this guy.” I will say, I don’t think his Dogberry is likeable.
Guy Windsor
Dogberry is supposed to be likeable.
Sydney Schwindt
He can be. It’s up to the person playing him.
Guy Windsor
Yeah, and his role is very much confined to his scenes. It’s not like the jester in Twelfth Night, for example, who is the narrator of the whole thing.
Sydney Schwindt
I love the jester. I have such a soft spot for him.
Guy Windsor
Have you played him?
Sydney Schwindt
I haven’t played him yet, but I directed Twelfth Night this past summer. I feel like Feste is integral to the whole show.
Guy Windsor
If Feste is wrong, then the whole play will fail. Whereas with Much Ado, I loved the movie. I went to see it more than once when I was a student, which was expensive. Even though I didn’t like the Dogberry character, it didn’t ruin the film.
Sydney Schwindt
I mean, they’re so wonderful. Emma Thompson.
Guy Windsor
Yeah, and that, the interplay with her and Kenneth Branagh, was just perfect.
Sydney Schwindt
It was perfectly cast there. And I love Denzel Washington as Don Pedro too.
Guy Windsor
He did that regal authority extremely well. Okay, now I think people listening are going to be a little bit confused that we’ve been talking about Shakespeare’s clowns, so we could carry on doing it for at least another time. But let me ask you about your graphic art. I mean, most actors can’t draw. Most stage directors, stage fight people I know can’t draw, and maybe all clowns can draw, I’m not sure, but you can certainly draw. So how did that come about?
Sydney Schwindt
Well, you know, you’d be surprised what people have in their back pocket, but I’ve always done illustration kind of as a side gig, and so often there’s a theater that is like, oh, we need someone to scenic paint. And I’m like, oh, I can do that. So I’ve done my share of moonlighting as a scenic painter, but also painting a lot of signs for different theatrical events, or just events in general. So I’ve always done commissions lightly on the side without really investing much into it. But over the pandemic, I was like, I’ve been just wanting to do an homage to different weapons I love for a long time, and now I finally have the time to just sit here and do that.
Guy Windsor
Okay, that, that phrase you just used an homage to different weapons I love, that is exactly why you are the right person to come on the show. You have identified yourself to the audience as a sword person beyond doubt.
Sydney Schwindt
Yes, so many good weapons out there.
Guy Windsor
Yeah. So what particular favorites?
Sydney Schwindt
Well, I am a big fan of boarding axes, which I actually haven’t done an illustration of yet, but also a basket hilted broadsword is always a special place in my heart that I never get to use in stage combat. Ever, ever, ever.
Guy Windsor
Then you need to find a stage adaptation of Rob Roy.
Sydney Schwindt
That would be really fun.
Guy Windsor
I mean the fight at the end of Rob Roy in the movie is so good. It’s incredible. It is one of the best representations of character through sword play I’ve ever seen.
Sydney Schwindt
One of the best representations of withstanding energy is that injury and continuing through it.
Guy Windsor
Really good. So, yeah, so maybe direct Rob Roy.
Sydney Schwindt
Sounds good. I’m going to write that on my list.
Guy Windsor
Well, then you definitely get you get to play with backswords, which is no bad thing.
Sydney Schwindt
Just now to find it. Where does one source stage combat ready ones?
Guy Windsor
Oh, easy peasy. Seriously, that is a solved problem. There’s a company called Armour Class in the UK that will make them for you, and you’re not going to need very many. I come to the states all the time, and it’s going to take ages to get the script and adjust it and stage the whole thing. So let me know when you need the weapons to come over and have them sent to my house. I’ll bring them over to America for you. No taxes. I am an arms dealer.
Sydney Schwindt
Really, perfect.
Guy Windsor
Because I would be interested to see Rob Roy on stage, because if the fights are done well, it could be amazing.
Sydney Schwindt
I think it would be really fun. I am actually currently working with someone who is a playwright, and she is particularly an adapter.
Guy Windsor
Okay, there you go.
Sydney Schwindt
All right, I’m going to go seed some thoughts in her head this evening.
Guy Windsor
Okay, any, any other weapons other than backswords?
Sydney Schwindt
You know, a good old Messer blade, or just rapier in anything, if I could pair it with something, any duel wielding rapier moments are so fun to choreograph. Because more often than not, I often don’t have actors who have training in dual wielding weapons.
Guy Windsor
It’s not a very common thing. Historically, it did happen, but it’s relatively unusual. We don’t see a lot of it in the treatises, and there are a few historical examples of case of rapiers, where you have two rapiers together in one sheath, you draw one sword, and it splits into two, which is like, way cool.
Sydney Schwindt
And such a cool feeling.
Guy Windsor
Yeah, although they handle like shit.
Sydney Schwindt
It’s true. I’ve done case of rapiers running around with it.
Guy Windsor
Because the handle is half its proper thickness, and you’ve only got half of the guard, they’re not great weapons when you pick them up and play with them.
Sydney Schwindt
But spear and dagger in Romeo and Juliet is absolutely lovely.
Guy Windsor
Have you done many of those?
Sydney Schwindt
I’ve done a lot of them.
Guy Windsor
It’s kind of like probably the play that makes the most work for fight directors.
Sydney Schwindt
That’s fairly true. That and the Scottish play, I think I’ve probably done more Scottish plays than I have R and Js at this point. It’s a tossup.
Guy Windsor
But the Scottish Play, there’s just the one sword fight at the end.
Sydney Schwindt
No, you have a whole bunch of battles, because you have the murder of Banquo.
Guy Windsor
When I’ve seen it on stage all of the battles and stuff are usually done off stage.
Sydney Schwindt
Oh, really? I usually see it all on because on stage, you have a young Siward getting killed by Mackers. That is actually there, I know, because I’ve played young Siward when I was a wee lass.
Guy Windsor
And got murdered.
Sydney Schwindt
I love getting murdered. It’s the most fun. And yeah, then you’ll have, there’s, like, other different moments where people are coming on and talking, so you can do a whole battle. And even like modern days, where you don’t have the huge cast that Shakespeare would have had, and our small cast Shakespeares, with people running off and then running back on with a different tabard on, or what have you.
Guy Windsor
I mean, one of the most disappointing renditions of the Scottish Play. I almost said the word, but I didn’t, out of respect for your superstitions. They did all of the violent stuff with a single steel AG Russell sting 1A. I recognized it because I was in the third row, and it’s like, it’s a very distinctive knife. I’ve got a carbon fiber one here, so you can see what I’m talking about, right? Yeah, the carbon fiber sting 1A is great for opening letters. Also, you can stab it through a board. But it looks very innocuous because it’s just plastic, but it’s basically about five inches long, and it’s a boot knife made out of a single piece of, usually steel, and that was it for weaponry on stage. Now, I was thrilled to see, as you can imagine, this is like 30 odd years ago, and I can still remember. It was an AG Russell sting 1A. It’s a classic boot knife, and I know my blades, but that was it for the entire all of the all of the weapons in the Scottish play – one AG Russell sting 1A. Now, they did a great job of selecting a blade, but like, that is not the sort of sword that Macbeth would have used. It is literally five inches long.
Sydney Schwindt
And not to mention, that’s where you get such epic battles like to that play builds up in all the epicness of Burnham Wood coming like, you need to have a lot going on.
Guy Windsor
Actually, I just happen to have a tape measure on my desk, so I just measured it. And actually I misspoke. It is six- and three-quarter inches long, which makes all the difference.
Sydney Schwindt
That really does, it’s ok.
Guy Windsor
So now it’s basically a long sword. Well, I haven’t even thought about that for a long time. Okay, so I’m actually wearing a shirt that I had a friend called Claire Mead make the artwork for. And this is La Maupin and I have a whole series of shirts which say things like, if such and such a historical person were alive today, they’d be teaching then the weapon that they’re known for at swordschool.com which is my school, right? And so this is La Maupin. And if La Maupin were alive today, she’d be teaching rapier at swordschool.com and the thing is, I think my T shirts are really cool, but nobody ever buys them. Do people buy your merch?
Sydney Schwindt
People buy my stickers a lot, I’d say stickers, because definitely the number one thing that will sell.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so presumably, because you travel around a lot, you’ve automated how your stickers get sold. They’re printed on demand.
Sydney Schwindt
You would like to think that.
Guy Windsor
Oh my god. So you have stickers in the back of your car, and when an order comes in, you post them out.
Sydney Schwindt
Sometimes. It depends. So there are the printership shops like Society Six and Red Bubble, which I’m on both of those, and those do printing. But I’ve also realized the sticker quality there is not up to par for me. They fade quickly. They fall off water bottles. They’re just not as good as I would like to them to be. But it is helpful when someone wants something and I can’t provide it. But yes, I do have a because I live in a camper van, I have a big bin in the back of my van that has my stickers, some T shirts, some prints, other random merchandise for True Edge Art. So whenever I’m at a stage combat workshop, I can pull it out, sell some stuff.
Guy Windsor
So if somebody buys stickers on your website, is that automated or does the order come to you and you post it out?
Sydney Schwindt
If it goes through society six or those, then it goes through that company. But if it’s through my website, which my shop is down right now, as I’m doing some renovations on it, then it will come through me, which then I have better quality stickers, and they got holographic ones so I can make my swords actually shiny.
Guy Windsor
Oh, wow. Oh, my God, I have to get some of those. Okay, so now you’re on a podcast where there’s a bunch of people who like swords who are listening, and we’ve mentioned your shop several times, but we haven’t actually told them how to find it. Where should people go to find your stickers that they can buy? And this is going to be going out in probably at least three weeks’ time, so you have time to get the store up and running again. So wherever you want to send them, you let me know.
Sydney Schwindt
know. All right, it would be https://www.trueedgeart.com/
Guy Windsor
trueedgeart.com yes. Okay, excellent. All right. Well, the thing is, if you listen to any of like the big podcasts, where they make shitloads of money from commercial sponsorship and stuff like that. The host always says the name of the sponsoring company and their website and says it many times and spells it out. And I think it’s probably in the contract that they have to do that, because I would guess that a whole bunch of highly paid marketing people have proven beyond reasonable doubt that if you do that, people will actually remember it and type it in. And if you don’t do that, then you don’t get any sales. So trueedgeart.com. You’re my guest, I want you to have had a nice time in the conversation. But also, ideally, you know, maybe even make some money out of it. That would be great.
Sydney Schwindt
Well, thank you. I appreciate it. That would be nice as well. As you see, I’m living out of my camper van.
Guy Windsor
I have a feeling that’s by choice. It is. Oh, can I ask? Well, I mean, I can’t imagine much I would hate more than living out of a camper van for an extended period. I like fixed space. And you can see my study, there’s a big empty space. So I have enough space when it’s hideously raining outside, I have space for training inside, and I have space for my swords, and I have, this is a tiny selection of the books in the house. They’re just the ones I need to have nearby. There’s lots of books and there’s lots of stores, lots of space to do the swords, and that’s kind of what the house is for. There are bedrooms, for the children and stuff as well, my wife and whatever, but, yes, a space to train in is critical for me. So, how do you survive living in the camper van?
Sydney Schwindt
I do have a sword box and my van, so, like, built in there is a section for my swords, but alack it does not fit all of my swords. As you know, of someone who owns many.
Guy Windsor
Oh, yeah. I mean, that is just the swords I use all the time. The rest are upstairs.
Sydney Schwindt
I figured. I was like, I see a collection back there. But I’m sure it is just the tip of the iceberg of what you own. My poor parents are also sword holders at this time, where they have a rack. And I do have a storage unit for all of my books that I go trade out depending on how I’m feeling.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so you have, like, backup is how you do it. Basically.
Sydney Schwindt
I found when the pandemic hit and rents in San Francisco in particular, being one of the most expensive places in the world to live. It was not viable to still have a place. This was a great option, since most of my work anyway houses me, or is, you know, far away from where my apartment was.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so your work is itinerant anyway, so you’d be traveling from one town to another town, and so your accommodation in the place where the show is happening is kind of taken care of.
Sydney Schwindt
So that’s why I’m in Pacific Grove right now, is because I’m performing in a show here, but I directed a show in San Francisco this year, and then one in Wisconsin. I taught classes in Alaska. So, okay, I get to go all over.
Guy Windsor
Fair enough. Okay, now go back to your art for a second. You have the funny, whimsical like Ting Ting Ting, whoosh, stabby death. You got macabre stuff like the compostable park ranger who is freaky as fuck, and thought-provoking stuff like feel the rain. So what draws you to these completely different aspects of doing art?
Sydney Schwindt
I think they’re also completely different aspects of me, and how I’m feeling in a particular moment. And some of it like, like the compostable park ranger are things that I care very deeply about. Like, I put a lot of environmentalism in my work. I actually have a series of workshops, if anyone ever lets me teach them, about stage combat and violence in climate change.
Guy Windsor
How do stage combat and violence have anything to do with climate change?
Sydney Schwindt
That’s going to get me all nerdy excited.
Guy Windsor
Go for it and go in as much depth and detail as you like, and if I listen back to it and go, actually, do you know what? We need to cut half of this. That’s fine. We can just cut it later. So you have the floor. Please explain to me why there is any connection between stage combat and climate change.
Sydney Schwindt
Artists are generally at the forefront of cultural change, and so we have a great platform to start instilling change through the stories that we tell. And what does violence hold in our storytelling right now? We had been in a very peaceful time in the world, and now we’re finding ourselves getting into this particularly violent moment in history, again, with wars that are going on around the world.
Guy Windsor
When was the peaceful bit?
Sydney Schwindt
They say in history that it was like the longest period that had been without, like, mass conflict. It’s debatable.
Guy Windsor
That just means you just ignore the places where the wars were actually happening.
Sydney Schwindt
You can look at it. It’s debatable who can go deeply into that as well. But to think about what violence holds in our storytelling right now is you have to be really conscious when you’re doing violence on stage right because so many people have had experiences with it. What are we doing with our violent storytelling? What are we glorifying at this moment? Is it propaganda for a certain political viewpoint? Is it gratuitous violence and fun and crazy and DnD style and fantastical. What are we doing with our storytelling? And so I think there’s a huge opportunity to bring that violence to the climate change fight as well. On that it’s really hard to feel what climate change is doing to our world. Like, I’m in California right now. We’re feeling wildfires all the time, the air clouded with smoke and this sort of thing. But it’s not the personal nature where you’re not like, oh, this thing represents climate change. It’s so big, it’s hard to conceptualize.
Guy Windsor
And also it happens quite slowly, so people don’t really notice it.
Sydney Schwindt
Exactly. We start being like, oh, yeah. Summers have just been getting hotter. Oh, hurricanes are so much bigger than they were. That’s just how it happens. Now, rather than being like, hey, this is directly caused by human action.
Guy Windsor
Well, I mean, some people have made it quite clear, actually, if you listen to the right people, that it’s men having sex with other men that causes the hurricanes. It’s true. I saw it on the internet, and an actual member of the US Congress said that. It was a while ago, but it’s true, so it must be true, right?
Sydney Schwindt
Oh, of course.
Guy Windsor
I don’t quite get the mechanism there.
Sydney Schwindt
Right? Oh, no. I was like, don’t get me started on that one. Now, it was like, what other crazy things are people saying?
Guy Windsor
Well, lots of crazy things. But hey, sorry I derailed things slightly there. Go ahead.
Sydney Schwindt
Please derail them and add some comedic support. But when I think about stage combat, of what I’m doing with my storytelling through it, and how much I am passionate about taking care of our planet and making sure it’s livable for future generations. I’ve thought about, okay, there is an innate possibility to make the violence of climate change feel more real and more visceral by embodying it through actual violence on stage. So it’s still an experimentation at this point, but like some of the work that I’ve been playing with, particularly involved Shakespeare, because that’s my background as well, and so pairing speeches from King Lear when we’re in the storm or Titania’s. You know, these are the forgeries of jealousy speech that really explains a lot of aspects of climate change.
Guy Windsor
Wait a second. Climate change was not a thing in 1600.
Sydney Schwindt
No, it was not.
Guy Windsor
Because what you just said was that the elements of that speech explain climate change, and you have to be reading that into the speech. Shakespeare can’t have put it there, because climate change wasn’t a concept when he was alive.
Sydney Schwindt
No, but fairies that were having fights were and they were changing the climate.
Guy Windsor
Okay, yeah, okay, so the fairies having fights were changing the climate. So it is, yeah, well, they’re changing the weather, I think it’s probably more precise.
Sydney Schwindt
It mirrors it a lot. And so, okay, they’re changing the seasons, in midsummer, and their fight is making the nine men’s forest fill up with mud, and all these different things that we’re seeing happen now as well. But instead of having it be a magical change, we’re going, oh no, we can scientifically say where this change is coming from. So it’s kind of a fun dichotomy to put that in these beautiful speeches that are iconic about big, huge changes in weather, pairing them with modern scientists’ conversations.
Guy Windsor
So what we’re talking about then is an art project where you use theater stuff to highlight elements of climate change. Okay, see, that’s not what I understood you to say at the beginning, because what I thought you meant was some somehow your stage fights on stage. Let’s say you’re doing Romeo and Juliet and you have the Mercutio Tybalt fight that somehow gets connected to climate change.
Sydney Schwindt
I would wish. I have made like when I’m a director, I have tried to put environmental messaging in the stories that I’m telling, like, my Twelfth Night, really focused a lot on our relationship to the ocean.
Guy Windsor
Okay, well, I was just thinking you could, you could have any sword fight in any play. You can make one of them a coal roller, and one of them Al Gore.
Sydney Schwindt
I love it. Next concept piece we’re doing it. They did have a Julius Caesar, of course, I think it happened in numerous places, but there was one that was in the park in New York where Julius Caesar was, I think it was Trump, and then they stabbed him, and it was a whole big thing.
Guy Windsor
About how good it was that he was finally dead. Although murdering politicians is not a good idea really, because it makes them into martyrs, it’s much better if you lock them up for the crimes they have committed and let them just rot away in prison.
Sydney Schwindt
I agree 100%. Yeah, assassination doesn’t solve anyone. It just immortalizes people.
Guy Windsor
In the weirdest way. I mean, we would probably still know Julius Caesar if he hadn’t been murdered, but I think he’s more famous. There were plenty of other Roman emperors who did pretty damn well. Not all of them invaded Britain. But, I mean, he wasn’t the only one to even do that. Claudius invaded Britain too. And how famous is Claudius? I mean, compared to Julius.
Sydney Schwindt
How often are we talking about Nero?
Guy Windsor
And, well, he gets, he gets quite a bit of airtime or brain time, because he famously fiddled while Rome burned. And there are things that are associated with his insanity.
Sydney Schwindt
I feel like there’s like a cultural image where you see the Ides of March go around all the time with all these memes on Instagram or TikTok and all these different things that pop up.
Guy Windsor
I wonder how much of it is actually just down to Shakespeare.
Sydney Schwindt
I mean, that is definitely debatable. If there was a Shakespeare play about Nero, maybe.
Guy Windsor
We don’t really talk about Troilus. So just having a Shakespeare play where you’re a main character doesn’t necessarily make you that famous, but I think it’s maybe Julius Caesar is a better play than Troyes and Cressida, arguable, but I think it’s certainly more popular, let me say is a more popular play, because that is, like, unarguable, so maybe, basically, I guess, it’s the equivalent of having Brad Pitt play you in a movie these days, although I was showing my age, because maybe not Brad anymore. Maybe it’s somebody else. But, you know, you get the idea.
Sydney Schwindt
He’s still super famous.
Guy Windsor
Yeah, sure, but he’s not as popular as he was. But, yeah, so like, how much is Julius Caesar still famous because of his representation?
Sydney Schwindt
Yeah. I mean, Shakespeare is cultural currency, to have Shakespeare knowledge. It’s in everything. My partner always jokes because we’re watching TV and I’ll be like, “Shakespeare reference,” “Shakespeare reference,” everything.
Guy Windsor
Something like 1500 words we find first written down in Shakespeare. Doesn’t mean he necessarily invented them, but a lot of them, he probably did.
Sydney Schwindt
First time written. Like, eyeball, and bedroom.
Guy Windsor
Is that a Shakespeare one? You’re kidding.
Sydney Schwindt
No, Isn’t that ridiculous?
Guy Windsor
That is ridiculous. Well, what did you call the room where you had a bed before?
Sydney Schwindt
I don’t know. I’m sure people called it a bedroom. How could you not? Your bed’s there. It’s the bedroom.
Guy Windsor
Or maybe they called it a bed chamber. Maybe it’s the room bit that was new, because the king or queen would have chamberlains who are basically servants who can come so, I mean servant’s the wrong word, but you know, they’re so intimate with the monarch that they actually go into their bed chamber and chat with them there and serve them in that most intimate space.
Sydney Schwindt
Yeah, and they would have multiple spaces there.
Guy Windsor
Yeah, sure. Although the whole bed thing is also a bit weird, because people used to, like monarchs would often receive even ambassadors or whatever, in the bedroom while sat on a bed, that sort of thing also occurred. Incidentally, I think it was Ben Crystal who told me this, you know how Shakespeare famously left his wife his second best bed? Oh, it wasn’t Ben Crystal. I think it was Ruth Goodman in one of her books, pointed out that the best bed would be the one that was in the public space where people would be received, and guests would stay there and whatever. And the second-best bet is the one they would actually sleep in together. So actually, it wasn’t him dissing his wife, it was actually romantic. That’s at least a theory in it.
Sydney Schwindt
Yeah, I’ve heard so many different theories of that. I also am just a romantic at heart where I go, I’m sure he’s not being that much of an asshole to his wife in his will.
Guy Windsor
I think Ruth nailed it. I will look it up and check it, and I’ll put a note in the show notes if I’m wrong,
Sydney Schwindt
What was it? There’s that lovely book Hamnet that came out, you know?
Guy Windsor
About his son, yeah.
Sydney Schwindt
It’s really about Anne Hathaway, really in that one as well. And there’s a lot about, you know, obviously, imagining their relationship in it, that I was like, Oh, this gives her some upcommance, you know, instead of us all making fun of her for that second best bed and being like, Ah, he wasn’t around. He was in London, and he had all his mistresses, and other people that he was interested in, maybe they were okay with that. Maybe she was like, whatever.
Guy Windsor
Yeah, because there’s all sorts of cultural things around, like who you get to sleep with and why it should matter. Generally, in a lot of cultures, so long as you do the things you are supposed to do inside the marriage, like father the children and pay the bills and whatever else is culturally expected, you do all that. You’re a good husband, and if you go off, I don’t know, shagging boys at the weekend or whatever. So what? I think that that changes a lot from period to period and place to place. So yeah, it’s perfectly reasonable to think that they were by what we would call happily married, but I’m pretty sure it’s one of Ruth Goodman’s books. And I will check it and get back to you.
Sydney Schwindt
Let me know. I’d love to read it.
Guy Windsor
Yeah, okay, what is the best idea you haven’t acted on yet?
Sydney Schwindt
Best idea that I haven’t acted on yet.
Guy Windsor
Apart from the Rob Roy staging.
Sydney Schwindt
That’s the new top of the list. Gosh, I actually have a whole list of things. Okay. One is, I really want to do a one-person clown raccoon show.
Guy Windsor
A clown raccoon show. This is like episode 199 or something of the podcast. And you are the first person to ever say anything about a clown raccoon show.
Sydney Schwindt
That doesn’t usually come up on a sword podcast?
Guy Windsor
Or indeed any podcast. So what is, what do you mean by a clown raccoon? Just mean, like a clown dressed as a raccoon doing raccoony clowning stuff.
Sydney Schwindt
Okay, so I feel like my clown, there’s a version of my clown who is a raccoon, or colloquially, a trash panda, and I really would love it to be a social commentary on how the animals that live in cities and have adapted to be with people, and what that means for us and for them, as well as how they’re experiencing climate change and plastic and trash, especially because, like, we call the raccoon the trash panda.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so it’s got some of your environmental stuff in there too.
Sydney Schwindt
Yep, some environmental stuff in there as well, as well as a lot of slapstick comedy. Because I think raccoons are the butt of a lot of jokes, but they’re also really vicious. You know, you encounter them with your dog late at night, and it’s kind of like, who’s going to do what? Are we going to let each other walk by in the night? Are you going to attack us?
Guy Windsor
So why haven’t you done it?
Sydney Schwindt
Why haven’t I done it? Well, I’ve started, but I just need to sit down and stop accepting other jobs that sound really fun and work on it.
Guy Windsor
So you’d work on the show. I would guess, it’s a solo show, so you have it in your back pocket, and you can just play it wherever, whenever. It doesn’t sound like it would need a lot of staging either.
Sydney Schwindt
It might, because I’m a sucker for some shadow puppets.
Guy Windsor
Okay?
Sydney Schwindt
There’s also the world in which I imagine there would be just like a big bag of trash and plastic things that gets built into different things throughout the show, so that you have this bag of trash that the raccoon takes with them. There’s also social commentary that you could do about houseless people within there and building different parts of their life out of the trash.
Guy Windsor
Okay, sounds really interesting.
Sydney Schwindt
It’ll take, actually, quite a bit of finagling and where all those different pieces of trash are, do I make sure that they’re the same things every time, like I have my bag of trash that I carry around with me then, or is it something that I can build fresh every time? And that would be like more improvisation through what I’ve gathered.
Guy Windsor
That sounds to me more clowny.
Sydney Schwindt
I mean, it’s debatable, right? Because there are the really rehearsed moments, and so would I let that be one of them, or do I let that be something that takes on a more.
Guy Windsor
Is there a reason not to have both versions? So when you’re in a situation where you have access to all the staging, you can do that version, and when you have just you and a bag of fake trash that you can squish up and fit in your van. You can do a kind of adapted version?
Sydney Schwindt
A bit of both, yeah, and I think there’s a world too, in which, there’s just, like, certain pieces of trash that you’re like, Okay, I make sure that I always have, like, this milk carton that I’ve crushed it this way, or I always have Dorito bags, I don’t know, but I think there’s an in between world too. So I think you’re totally right. There’s no reason not to have both.
Guy Windsor
And it would be kind of nice to have it like, super available, like a pen knife rather than a sword.
Sydney Schwindt
It’ll be that Macbeth that you saw 30 years ago.
Guy Windsor
There we go. Yeah, with the AG Russell sting 1A.
Sydney Schwindt
Exactly.
Guy Windsor
Do you know one thing I have, I got the carbon fiber version of the AG Russell sting 1A a long time ago when it came out, because I could afford it, because it was way cheaper than the steel version, and they have discontinued the original, all steel sting 1A boot knife. And I can’t find one for love or money. And now I actually have enough money, not a huge amount of money to spend on, I’m sure you can find ridiculously expensive ones, but a fair price for it, it’s not available.
Sydney Schwindt
Wow, isn’t that a bummer? When you’re like, you made something so good, and it was plastic, it could withstand time, and then you discontinue it.
Guy Windsor
And you can even double as a long sword at seven and a half inches. It’s amazing. Sorry, six- and three-quarter inches.
Sydney Schwindt
Yeah, right. Not quite seven. We’re not there yet.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so speaking of money, I have this question that I asked most of my guests, if you had a million dollars to spend improving historical martial arts worldwide, how do you spend now you don’t do historical martial arts. So that’s kind of a dumb question. Am I right in thinking that you would, if you would have access to a giant chunk of funding, it would go to the climate change project.
Sydney Schwindt
You know, actually. So we talked about so many different things, and that is the case like, I am a multi-disciplinary artist, but I’ve also been a very active member of the Society of American Fight Directors, which has partnerships with different HEMA organizations, depending on the certified teacher. There are lots of certified teachers, where Historical European Martial Arts are a big part of what they do, but in a stage combat manner. So like, how do we adapt these different techniques to the stage to make them not as dangerous as they were originally intended to be. But there is this huge gap of accessibility within stage combat. And so I’ve been on the Triple E committee at the Society of American Fight Directors, which is a new program that is working to offer free stage combat training to underserved communities. And that’s something I care very much about, that this thing that I love, I love stage combat. It introduced me to all my fellow nerdy friends. It made me find my community. I was like, oh, not only do these people love theater, they love swinging swords around we love Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons. And I found my people, and I found a home that I didn’t have before, and I want to be able to have that for other people who need it. And not only that, it’s a very useful thing for the job of theater. And so when you posed this question, because you sent a list of questions ahead of time, I was thinking a lot about this one, and especially with martial arts, like training in martial arts is extremely useful. I wouldn’t say it’s 100% required to be a fight director, but it is going to help you out. And through much of my career, like I’ve been doing this, I’ve been training in it for over 20 years, and I’ve been choreographing for 15 and when I look at that, I remember all the different places that I went to go train in martial arts, and I didn’t feel like that was my space, I went to one place with my mother. And not only were we treated poorly, but the guy spent the whole time hitting on me in front of my mom.
Guy Windsor
Oh, that is offensive.
Sydney Schwindt
Obviously, not all spaces are like that. And I do think there’s a lot more wonderful change. But I’ve been often asked to be a sponsor at places that are like, oh, we’re having this tournament that is, you know, fem and non-binary people, or this is an LGBTQ space for training. Inspiring. I think that I would give that money to those organizations who are opening the doors and making spaces for people to explore this and have fun and find community and not just have it be a space for white cis hetero men presenting humans because it is something that it is for everyone. It’s just not always that way, depending on where you’re at.
Guy Windsor
Okay, so you would give the money to organizations who are, for example, you’d sponsor, for instance, a sword fighting event where it was explicitly crafted so that people who often don’t feel welcome in a martial arts class or event would feel welcome. That’s an interesting way to do it.
Sydney Schwindt
Then some more for accessibility training and stage combat as well.
Guy Windsor
What do you mean by accessibility training?
Sydney Schwindt
It’s just expensive, no funding scholarships.
Guy Windsor
But what is accessibility training?
Sydney Schwindt
Oh, no, like accessibility to training.
Guy Windsor
Oh, right. Okay, sorry, I misheard you. Okay, so like supporting someone so they can go on a stage combat workshop for three weeks, which is a pretty expensive proposition. You just take three weeks off work, even if the course itself isn’t too expensive, if it’s three weeks off work, everyone can afford it.
Sydney Schwindt
And if you have childcare costs, or other things at home is, it is for a certain demographic.
Guy Windsor
It’s funny, at least one of my guests has suggested using the money to provide creches at events so people can bring their kids. That would be an absolute game changer for because it’s quite common that people start training, and they train for a while, and they get really into it, and whatever, and then the first kid comes along and we don’t see them for 15 years. Quite many times, 15 years later, or 18 years later, or whatever it is, they come back. And sometimes they come back with the kid, which is great, but yeah, it is, it is a thing. And yes, it is usually the women.
Sydney Schwindt
That’s what we’ve been trying to find. There are some particular grants that you can find that offer childcare specifically for events and things like that. But it is, and it directly impacts women, but you know both genders as well. And it’s a major bummer. It sucks that you’re having a family and something else that you care about. And of course, some things have to take a back seat to rearing up your children.
Guy Windsor
If you ever decide to have children move to Finland, seriously. Oh, my God. I have two daughters who are now nearly 16 and nearly 18, so it’s been a while, but when they were little, and we put them in kindergarten, mostly, so they’d learn Finnish, and so they could have Finnish friends, because they were not going to get Finnish at home, because my wife doesn’t speak Finnish, and my Finnish is a bit crap. And the daycare, which we didn’t use all the time we could have had, but it’s effectively full time daycare, five days a week, right, for two children, depending on how much money I made in a given month, it would cost me somewhere between $80 and $120 a month total. So it’s totally it’s financially viable to go back to work because you’re not spending $25 grand a year on daycare, which some people do. Isn’t that insane?
Sydney Schwindt
Oh yeah, I’m like, dare to dream. We don’t have any of that social service in the States.
Guy Windsor
When my firstborn was probably about three or four months old, and my wife was recovering from the birth and whatever, and various health problems and stuff. And it was a fairly stressful situation, actually, maybe was after my second one. I can’t remember, that was a long time ago, and there were children involved, so I wasn’t getting much sleep, but I really needed to get some work done. And there’s actually an organization in Finland called The Mannerheiminliitto which basically they exist to provide free childcare for people who need it so they can get some work done. And one of my friends told me about it, and I contacted them, and this lovely middle aged lady came around who clearly had looked after children a lot, and I went to work for like, three hours and came back and I got a week’s work done in three hours, because this is one of the superpowers you acquire as a parent. And I came out having just the load off my mind of having got all that stuff done that I needed to get done and I couldn’t get done because I couldn’t just stop and focus, because babies and it was free. I was like, Oh my God. I mean, and of course, people could take advantage of it, but we needed it just the once, and we so we asked for it just the once. But, yeah, yeah, if you want to have kids, move to Finland. There’s this fantastic kind of culture of parental leave. Okay, you get, get this six months full pay, and another, up to three years, they have to hold your job for you. And there’s some kind of, I forget exactly how it works. But I forgot the details because, of course, I was self-employed or whatever, and I didn’t really need any of this. I wasn’t employed by a company, so it didn’t really apply to me. Maybe it’s nine months, I think it’s nine months full pay and then whatever. So my two friends of mine when they had children, the mother took the first three months, the father took the next three months, the mother took the next three months, and so on. And then they had another one after about two years. And so the whole process started went over again, which meant that the father got serious baby time, but neither one of them took more than three months off work at any given time. And it didn’t cost them anything. They had like they were paid by their companies for this time.
Sydney Schwindt
Wow. Yeah, nice. That sounds great.
Guy Windsor
I know people who got two weeks maternity leave when they had a baby in Singapore. Two weeks.
Sydney Schwindt
Well, that’s it. I had my appendix out last year. Not equating that at all, but it was interesting because I had a friend who got theirs out in Italy the exact same day. Both of us randomly had our appendix burst the same day. The difference in healthcare was I woke up from surgery and they were like, get out. You can go to work today if you want. And then my friend was kept in the hospital for a week, two weeks, where they were just checking in on them and all of that. And mine, they were like, you can’t lift five to 10 pounds, but like, feel free to be at work. And I was like, you don’t know what I do. I can’t go teach sword fighting. I can’t lift five to 10 pounds and move. I was like, all right, stark difference of healthcare systems, seeing it right away.
Guy Windsor
Yeah. I mean, there are advantages to sending patients home earlier, because there’s a famous study done by a Scottish doctor, I believe it was, where he was looking at cardiologists and keeping patients in hospital after they’ve had a heart attack. And the data showed, beyond doubt, there was a major advantage to the patients for being sent home early, and it’s mostly because they weren’t picking up hospital-based infections, I think, but also you just recover better in your home environment generally,
Sydney Schwindt
You got to be cozy.
Guy Windsor
But the notion that, yeah, you’ve just had somebody literally stick a knife in you and cut out a piece of your body, yeah, you should just get straight back into the swing of things. People have forgotten how to convalesce.
Sydney Schwindt
Rest is something very important. I know that’s something I’ve been working for myself, because I have a tendency to want to do all the things. Someone’s like, oh, hey, you want to choreograph this show and that show. And I’m like, yeah, that all sounds great.
Guy Windsor
Saying no is a superpower, and when you really enjoy your job, it is difficult to say no. Because all the offers all sound great. How do you choose?
Sydney Schwindt
I recently had one where I am choreographing a show right now as well, which is called Wait Until Dark, which I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie. It was a movie with Audrey Hepburn. It’s a great little thriller. She’s recently blind, and basically has some people breaking into her house and manipulating her to try to find something that has accidentally gone.
Guy Windsor
Yeah, okay, yes, yes, I saw it a long, long time ago. Scary.
Sydney Schwindt
Spooky. And there’s a theater that’s doing it with so many good people that I love. And I was looking at it, I was like, I think I can make that work with my other contract. And I forgot that it’s a two-hour drive there from where I’m doing my other thing. And then I was like, okay, let me do the math for how much it will cost with, you know, driving and gas prices. And when I looked at it, I was like, oh, originally for this rehearsal schedule, I would make $8 before taxes. But they were so nice, obviously, like I talked to them about that, and we adjusted things to make it worthwhile. But you know,
Guy Windsor
So, you did it?
Sydney Schwindt
Tonight is their opening night, actually.
Guy Windsor
Excellent. You were doing the stage fighting stuff? Okay, excellent. Well, isn’t it nice to be certain demand in something so specific that people will adjust things to get you to drive two hours each way to something that’s a good position to be in.
Sydney Schwindt
That’s nice, and I feel lucky, because a lot of the community that I’ve cultivated in the theater are people who want to make sure that you’re okay, you know, especially like we all know that you don’t go into theater to make money.
Guy Windsor
No, you don’t go to swords to make money either.
Sydney Schwindt
You’re not going to be rolling in the dough, Scrooge McDuck style, but you’re going enjoy your life.
Guy Windsor
Well, that’s a critical thing. That’s probably an excellent place to finish. Thanks so much for joining me today, Sydney. It’s been lovely to meet you.
Sydney Schwindt
Thank you so much for having me, Guy.
