From Swords to Spotlight: A Portrait Session with Kent’s Combat Choreographer
Welcome back to another edition of Client Chats! I'm Chris Henry, and today I'm delighted to introduce you to Duncan Woodruff, a fascinating fellow Kent resident whom I've had the pleasure of photographing not once, but twice.
There's something wonderfully serendipitous about my most loved town of Canterbury – you keep bumping into the same people in the most unexpected places, and eventually those chance encounters bloom into proper friendships. This would be true of me and Duncan. We've met all over and seem to meet up in those ‘chance moments’ that Canterbury provides.
We first crossed paths through our shared work with punting companies, then again through a motorbike group where, as I recall, neither of our bikes worked particularly well. What I didn't realise during those early encounters was that Duncan harboured one of the most fascinating careers I'd come across.
Duncan Woodruff - actor, Equity-registered fight director and theatre manager
Appreciating that it’s vital actors maintain a portfolio that demonstrates their full range of possible looks, Duncan came back for a second shoot having grown a beard during a run of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
The Art of Theatrical Violence
Duncan is an Equity Registered Fight Director, choreographing theatrical violence for stage and screen whilst examining actors in the art of safe combat. When I asked about the range of weapons he covers, his response was impressively comprehensive: ‘If you can think of a weapon, we do it.’
His recent return to my studio presented an interesting challenge: capturing his bearded look before he shaved it off. This touches on something crucial about headshot photography for actors – it's not just about looking good, it's about strategic representation of your casting possibilities.
‘I've been touring with the show with the beard,’ he explained. ‘It was worth having some taken while I had it before I got rid of it again, just so that people know what I look like when I've got it because otherwise I can look drastically different from one person to another anyway.’
From Shakespeare's Footsteps to Island Theatre
Duncan's recent touring work took him to extraordinary venues, including a church in Fordwich where Shakespeare himself once performed. ‘We were told that Shakespeare himself had actually played in that church,’ Duncan recalled. ‘I think I've trod on the same boards as Bill himself.’ (07:02.358)
Now he's embarking on perhaps his most ambitious project yet: opening an outdoor theatre on an island in Canterbury. The venue, Binnewith Island Theatre – a Saxon word meaning ‘a piece of land with willow trees’ – launches in August with a show Duncan has written based on Canterbury's history.
‘There's not really a budget at the minute. It's just trying to make it work and flying by the seat of my pants a little bit, but that's how these things start,’ he admitted with characteristic honesty.
The Power of First Impressions
Our conversation kept returning to the importance of that crucial first impression, whether in a headshot or live audition. ‘It's the first impression you make to anyone,’ Duncan emphasised. ‘The more engaging your headshot is, the more you're diving out of the picture to the person who's looking for you.’
As Duncan dashed off to his next commitment, I reflected on how his various roles – actor, fight director, teacher, entrepreneur – all require the same fundamental skill: the ability to capture and hold an audience's attention from the very first moment.
Sometimes the most interesting stories come from the people you keep bumping into around Canterbury – you just have to be paying attention.
Click here to watch the full interview and discover more about Duncan's fascinating world of theatrical combat, his insights on headshot photography, and his ambitious new theatre venture.