Fight Call

So every night before our rehearsal, we have what is known as a ‘fight call’. Where the actors run through all the fights in the play – but not with any acting, or anything – they just run through the fully choreographed moves. Like it’s a dance. Or a tricky trapeze maneuver. Our fight choreographer is incredible. He’s also doing The Color Purple right now – which is about to open on Broadway – so he is one busy busy man. We had one rehearsal devoted to the fights. Just move to move to move … He showed up with everything plotted out, based on his multiple readings of the script, nothing done on the fly here, he had it all written out on a piece of paper, who does what, who goes where, and each move was numbered. So when they would go back to run stuff again, he refers to the number: “We need to run 3 again – that punch was a little sloppy …” And everyone moves back into position, as if on rewind. It’s FASCINATING. The fights need to be choreographed so specifically so that no one gets hurt, obviously. And you have to run the fights a ton of times with NO ACTING – because when you start acting – you start to have emotions – of rage, and fear – an adrenaline rush – and that can make you more sloppy when executing the moves. You have to run it plainly, and with no emotion – as though it were a dance move you were practicing. You have to be able to eventually have the rage that you would have – in the middle of a fight – but still be able to go from number to number to number through the choreography. That takes a lot of practice. If you get a bit sloppy and grab someone by the shoulders as opposed to by the biceps – that could mess everything up. People could get hurt. If your timing is off, and you are one foot to the left of where you are supposed to be … then the sequencing and placement is off … and someone eventually could get hurt. Fights (on stage) need to be CLEAN. But they need to LOOK messy. It’s a bit different in films. Fights need to actually be realler in films, because of the medium. Also – because you have multiple takes – you can work it out and then just go for it – once – full-out – and then you’re done with it. But on stage, if you have a long run – you have to be able to run the damn thing over and over, ad nauseum, you have to be a bit more calculated. It’s fascinating to watch actors work on this, and it’s fascinating to watch our wonderful choreographer coach them through it. (I’m not in any of the fights – but I still show up for fight call, because I love to watch it.) And now – the fights are starting to come alive. They are able to do them “at speed”. During the fight call, they are not run “at speed”, which means – as fast as it will happen during the performance. It can’t look like fight choreography, it has to look real. We’ve all seen shows where the fights look embarrassing, and fake. But for fight call, they are slowed down – and the actors “mark it” – meaning they go through the choreography from number to number to number, with no acting. Just the fight moves. One of the actors in the show has been chosen as “fight captain” – because our fight choreographer will obviously not be there throughout our run, and we have to have a fight call before every performance. Things inevitably get sloppy during the run of a play … and with fights, you need to keep them crisp, and specific. So someone needs to keep an eye on the fights – and our fight captain was coached by the fight choreographer in how to look for certain things, what to keep his eye on …

And then, during our run-thrus, of course, the fights are run “at speed”. They are no longer isolated pieces of choreography – they are a part of the plot. They happen within the context of the play. There is acting going on. People are attacking one another. Punches flown, people choking each other, what have you. And now, they’re saying their lines as well, they’re not just doing choreography – they’re pursuing their objectives, and playing the scene. What is thrilling is that you can STILL see them going from number to number to number through the choreography – but because they have worked it so hard in isolation, worked each move so specifically, and so repeatedly – you no longer can see the specific numbers of the choreography moves standing out. The fights flow together.

And this is a credit to our fight choreographer. The fights look REAL.

There’s one moment where one of the actors picks up an actress – who has been struggling with him – and he scoops her up in his arms and drags her struggling towards the car. She is flailing about, fighting back at him, and he is being a caveman, basically, dragging her off. Last night I got goose bumps watching it. Because I could see that they were being faithful to the choreography – there was NOTHING in their movements that was spontaneous. But it LOOKED spontaneous.

Fantastic.

This entry was posted in Personal. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Fight Call

  1. peteb says:

    Sounds like everything is coming together, Sheila.. but, you do know that the first rule of Fight Call is, you do not talk about Fight Call. The second rule of Fight Call is, you DO NOT talk about Fight Call.

  2. Jon F. says:

    LOL, Pete!

    Red – I love reading the inside scoop from you. Awesome!

  3. Mark says:

    Pete, I’m glad you said it; it saved me from doing so.

    And remember: if this is your first night at Fight Call, you HAVE to fight.

  4. red says:

    I would have loved to witness the fight calls for Fight Club.

    Yum.

  5. amelie says:

    mmm, fight call for fight club.

    awesome post, red! really made it come alive.

Comments are closed.