🎭 Weapons of Choice —
… began quietly in the late 1980s, long before the internet made specialized prop suppliers easy to find. At that time, even major professional theatres often relied on a handful of battered fencing foils or improvised “swords” pulled from costume storage. Shockingly, many of these were unsafe—blades that were too brittle, hilts assembled from inappropriate materials, or “stage” weapons that were in fact unmodified real swords. Even worse, it was common to find actual firearms in prop cabinets, pressed into service with blanks despite the very real, very well-documented dangers.
As a fight choreographer working in Los Angeles, Richard repeatedly encountered these hazards: weapons that could not withstand rehearsal, swords too heavy to stop once in motion, and revolvers that had no place on a stage. The lack of safe, reliable, fight-worthy equipment was not an inconvenience—it was a genuine danger to actors and a constant obstacle to responsible choreography. That frustration led to the first experiments in building safer alternatives, a decision that would grow into the foundation of Weapons of Choice.
The solution was pragmatic: he began building his own. What started as a personal armory—swords constructed for specific productions—quickly became a necessity for other theatres facing the same shortage. By 1990, Richard was renting his growing collection of rapiers and broadswords to companies throughout Southern California.
Demand accelerated faster than expected. Directors and props masters passed his name from theatre to theatre, and within a few years Weapons of Choice had expanded beyond Los Angeles, shipping to schools, colleges, Shakespeare festivals, community theatres, and professional companies nationwide. By its peak, the armory maintained more than 8,000 weapons in circulation and supplied over 1,200 productions per year, making it—quietly and without fanfare—the largest provider of stage-combat weapons in the United States.
The armory evolved along with the field. Richard and his brother, Master Armorer Edward Pallaziol, developed blade and hilt designs specifically suited to the needs of actors: lighter guards for quick movement, stronger heat-treating for durability, safer blade flexibility, more ergonomic grips, and a series of one-of-a-kind pieces built for individual productions. The two also created an entire line of blank-fire rifle and pistol replicas, engineered to be stage-safe, mechanically simple, and impossible to load with live ammunition—tools that reshaped how theatres handled gunfire safely onstage.
For nearly thirty years both the Northern and Southern California armories ran at a relentless, exhilarating rhythm. Weapons went out daily, with UPS trucks arriving so often they eventually made twice-daily pickups, and swords from the shops traveled not only to theatres throughout the United States but to companies around the world. Between those shipments, Richard and Ed were forever at the bench, building custom pieces for world premieres, repertory seasons, and any production that needed a weapon with character and truth. And yet they were still able to maintain a rental system that allowed even the smallest companies to afford professional-grade combat equipment. The company’s reach meant that thousands of actors trained on its weapons; many still recognize “a Pallaziol sword” on sight.
Today, after decades of shipping weapons to theatres across the country and around the world, the armories continue their work—but at a quieter rhythm. We are older now, and the immense rental inventory that once filled our shelves has narrowed to what we can still maintain with care. It isn’t a “curated collection” so much as the natural remnant of a lifetime in the craft. We still take orders, still build, still send swords out across the country—only now at a pace that matches the season of life we are in.
The Textbook of Theatrical Combat and the developing video library now carry forward the instructional mission that accompanied the armory from the beginning: raising the standard of stage combat by giving actors the tools—and the knowledge—they need to perform with confidence and clarity.
🎭 Richard Pallaziol —
… founder of Weapons of Choice, has spent nearly fifty years shaping how theatrical combat is understood and performed in the American theatre. A fight choreographer for more than three hundred productions, he has designed and taught movement for plays, musicals, opera, and film, with his work seen at every level of performance—from high schools and colleges to professional companies across the country. His career stands as one of the most extensive and enduring records of stage combat artistry in American regional theatre.
Trained in theatre at CSU Long Beach and A.C.T. in San Francisco, Richard apprenticed with several fight masters, including members of the Society of American Fight Directors, and deepened his craft through study in seven Asian and Western martial disciplines. His experience as dancer, actor, and teacher has given his choreography its hallmark qualities of rhythm, control, and narrative clarity. Over the decades he has trained more than 8,500 actors, and many of his former students now teach and choreograph in their own right.
His résumé reflects not only scale but a rare continuity of collaboration across decades of work, attesting to his consistency and the trust he inspired. His range extends from canonical texts (Hamlet, Julius Caesar, The Three Musketeers, Othello, Richard III) to contemporary drama (August: Osage County, The Quality of Life, Time Stands Still), and from the grand tradition of opera to world premieres such as Ishi: The Last of the Yahi, Kinjeketile, and Red Virgin.
A former director for the Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival and Valley Players, Richard has also lectured on period style, Elizabethan textual analysis, and historical fighting systems. He has conducted seminars for USITT, Theatre Bay Area, and innumerable theatre professional companies, and his writings have appeared in DramaBiz and Fight Master.
Through Weapons of Choice, he continues to advance the art and craft of stage combat. His published Textbook of Theatrical Combat and online video library form a living, continually revised archive of performance-based combat instruction—an evolving culmination of five decades devoted to translating real danger into staged truth, and technique into art.
[For a glance at my resume just follow this link.]
Edward Pallaziol, Master Armorer,
…. was the chief swordsmith for Swordcrafters of San Diego and then exclusively for Weapons of Choice. Prior to that he was a physician in San Diego and Guadalajara; before that, foreman of electricians at the Long Beach THUMS oil drilling islands.
He has repaired, built, operated (and occasionally crashed) sports cars, motorcycles, airplanes and watercraft of every description.
Among his many inventions and innovations which grace the Weapons of Choice selection are:
- Four new fight-worthy blade styles specifically designed for actors.
- Designed and crafted a dozen unique sword hilt styles.
- A line of NEF-based blank-fire rifle and pistol replicas.
- An improved fight-worthy “pirate” hand hook, stronger than its predecessors and allowing for more natural movement.
- …… and improved and refined every idea made by Richard.