Former Daytime Stunt Adviser Rick Sordelet Back To The Stage

Rick Sordelet throws a mock punch as Nathan Hosner reacts and  Jerry
Jay Cranford watches in rehearsals for "The Game's Afoot."

Veteran director and fight choreographer Rick Sordelet spent 12 years as a stunt adviser for GUIDING LIGHT and another 18 months with ONE LIFE TO LIVE. He's in Kansas City at the moment working on Ken Ludwig’s murder-mystery farce “The Game’s Afoot.” He talked to The Kansas City Star this week about his daytime experience and the production process in recent years.

“Soap operas were a great training ground for so many of our young actors, and for many of them it was their first exposure to camera work,” Sordelet said. “These are folks who could put out 90 pages a day, which is unheard-of. They were basically doing what we call a play in one day. It was a great medium.”

One might think that soaps wouldn't need the services of a fight director too often, but Sordelet said he averaged about three stunts a week.

“Toward the end we would do parts of different episodes on the same day because we were trying to save money,” he said. “There were times where I would literally do stunts for six difference episodes on the same day. And that was fantastic.”

And, he added, there were times when he was called in to help stage the sex scenes.

“The actors could get really vigorous,” he said. “You know, you had to keep them from smashing their lips together or grabbing each other in an inappropriate way, and covering up so that we could stay compliant with the rules of television.”