Adam Pictures - The First Name in Entertainment

Assassins' production team insisted on using real firearms for the show, requiring weapons training for each of "the assassins" and extensive rehearsals with veteran stunt coordinator Tom Proctor.

Producer Adam Jackman first met Proctor when incorporate bullwhips into a junior high school production of Taming of the Shrew. Proctor recalls first meeting Jackman and his sister Meggie* on that project:

"Meggie kept making challenges about what I could hit and how close I could come with the whip. Knocking that guy's hat off, that kind of thing. She kept pushing my buttons, can you hit this, can you hit this, and Adam had this smirk on his face. I thought, you know what, that little bastard wants me to miss. He wanted it to be an accident, sure, but he wanted me to pop somebody."

Having escalated from bullwhips to live munitions in Assassins, and the production plagued by seemingly endless scandal (more), weapons master Margie Rogers suggested "gunshot" sound effects instead of loading each gun with blanks and putting them in the hands of actors.

Despite the strict rules and meticulous care with which every weapon was handled in the show, it is near-impossible today to imagine any high school production in which actors point .38 pistols into the audience.

- Anne Chuity, (contact)

*Jackman and sister Meggie McAffee do not collaborate as often as either would like, à la Talent Family co-conspirators David and Amy Sedaris

	Assassins: An American Institution		The Exhibit: GUNS
	Margie Rogers's hand-written handgun handiwork

			Assassins' production team insisted on using real firearms for the show, requiring weapons training for each of "the assassins" and extensive rehearsals with veteran stunt coordinator Tom Proctor. Producer Adam Jackman first met Proctor when incorporate bullwhips into a junior high school production of Taming of the Shrew. Proctor recalls first meeting Jackman and his sister Meggie* on that project: "Meggie kept making challenges about what I could hit and how close I could come with the whip. Knocking that guy's hat off, that kind of thing. She kept pushing my buttons, can you hit this, can you hit this, and Adam had this smirk on his face. I thought, you know what, that little bastard wants me to miss. He wanted it to be an accident, sure, but he wanted me to pop somebody." Having escalated from bullwhips to live munitions in Assassins, and the production plagued by seemingly endless scandal (more), weapons master Margie Rogers suggested "gunshot" sound effects instead of loading each gun with blanks and putting them in the hands of actors. Despite the strict rules and meticulous care with which every weapon was handled in the show, it is near-impossible today to imagine any high school production in which actors point .38 pistols into the audience. - Anne Chuity, (contact) *Jackman and sister Meggie McAffee do not collaborate as often as either would like, à la Talent Family co-conspirators David and Amy Sedaris