Every theatre seems to have its own rules about fight calls, and every fight director has a preferred way of conducting them. In some cases, there may also be requirements imposed by unions, contractual agreements, institutional policies, or local laws and regulations. These requirements take precedence over anything I recommend here. What follows is the approach I have developed over years of experience, and the reasoning behind it. You may find other methods that work just as well for your production, but whatever approach you choose, the safety of the performers must always come first.
A fight call is a short rehearsal of the fights in a show, conducted before each performance. It should begin with the first technical rehearsal and continue through closing night. If your show contains a fight, even if it is only one shove, you need a fight call. I would love to see one scheduled before every rehearsal from the day after the actors first learn their choreography, but I know that isn’t realistic for most productions. By first tech, however, it must become part of the regular call schedule. You can’t shortchange this vital aspect of actor safety.
The purpose of fight call is not to rehearse the fights all over again. That work has already been done. The actors have learned the choreography, rehearsed it, and brought it up to performance speed. Now we want to make certain that the choreography remains as it was taught, and to correct any little problems that may have crept in during previous performances. In other words, fight call is not intended to strengthen muscle memory. It is intended to verify that muscle memory remains trustworthy.
For my money, the best way to accomplish this is with a single, deliberate run-through at about half speed. I want the actors consciously examining their movements, checking distance, balance, targeting, timing, and their physical relationship with their partners. It’s much like practicing kata or refining a dance. Slowing the movement allows you to recognize small errors that can easily disappear into the momentum of performance. It is not enough merely to remember what comes next. The actor should be aware of precisely how each movement is being executed. If a particular movement needs closer attention, slow it down further and examine it separately.
Some fight directors prescribe running each fight two or three times at progressively increasing speeds, sometimes finishing at full performance speed. I see little value in that as a nightly routine. Repetition can reinforce errors just as readily as correct technique, particularly when actors are relying on habit rather than conscious attention. There is also no reason to exhaust the cast before a performance. They have an entire play to perform, and the fight is only one part of it. A fight call should be long enough to accomplish its purpose and no longer.
Of course, some problems become apparent only at performance speed. Momentum may carry an actor too far, a recovery may become awkward, or a particular exchange may feel rushed. But we can trust our actors to recognize these difficulties during performance and bring them to the next fight call. The actors should be encouraged to speak up about anything that felt awkward, uncertain, or different during the previous performance. They are the ones performing the choreography, and their observations are often the first indication that something needs attention.
We can then examine the troublesome movement slowly, identify the problem, and correct it. If the correction requires changing the choreography, the fight choreographer must be consulted. And if the correction can only be evaluated safely at a higher speed, that should be addressed under appropriately controlled rehearsal conditions. There is no need to put the entire company through repeated run-throughs simply to investigate one troublesome movement.
Running the Fight Call
Whenever possible, fight call should take place on the actual stage, before the house opens. This allows the actors to review their choreography in the space where they will perform it, with the relevant scenery, obstacles, and changes in elevation. But this isn’t always practical, nor is it necessarily essential for every fight. A single shove or slap may be reviewed perfectly well in another suitable space. Use common sense. The important thing is that the chosen location allows the actors to examine their movements safely, without introducing conditions that differ significantly from those of the performance.
The same principle applies to costumes. Some theatres insist that every actor be in full costume for fight call. I don’t believe this is always necessary. But actors should wear the actual performance footwear and any costume pieces that materially affect their movements, such as long skirts, capes, gloves, or restrictive jackets. The important thing is to reproduce the conditions that matter to the safety of the fight, not to turn fight call into an additional dress rehearsal.
Fight call is also the time when prop weapons should be closely inspected by the fight captain or other designated qualified person. Every weapon should be checked for damage, looseness, or anything else that might make it unsafe. Granted, it would be better to inspect the weapons immediately after the performance as well, but that rarely happens. Incorporating inspection into fight call at least ensures that it becomes part of the nightly routine. Any questionable weapon should be taken out of service until it has been properly examined and cleared for use.
The fight call is ordinarily run by the fight captain, but scheduled and called by the stage manager. Actors may resent having to arrive early, and I don’t blame them. Nevertheless, attendance is mandatory. Anyone who misses fight call should not participate in that night’s staged violence. Make that clear at the first company meeting, and make certain that the schedule gives everyone a reasonable opportunity to attend.
Beyond that, be flexible. You may need split calls if there are many cast members with different makeup and costume requirements, or you may need all the fighters to arrive twenty minutes before the rest of the cast. The specifics don’t matter so long as a practical routine is established and maintained.
When There Are Too Many Fights
In a play with a huge number of fights (The Three Musketeers, for example, which can easily have twenty or twenty-five), running every fight during fight call would be tantamount to rehearsing the entire show. In such cases, I prefer to select one large group fight that involves most of the actor-combatants, one or two of the more difficult smaller fights, and any fight that an actor feels needs special attention because of something that happened during the previous performance.
Naturally, fights with particular hazards may need to be checked individually regardless of this abbreviated schedule. The object is to get everyone thinking about their choreography, not to exhaust them by repeating the entire production.
I generally prefer to keep fight call to about twenty minutes. If a problem is discovered, take the time to examine it, correct it, and move on. If it cannot be resolved safely in the available time, the affected choreography should not be performed until it can be properly addressed. There is no benefit in repeatedly running an entire fight in the hope that a particular problem will somehow disappear.
Rehearsal establishes the fight. Performance tests it. Fight call maintains it.
The aim is simple: refresh the actors’ conscious awareness of the choreography, inspect the equipment, address any difficulties, and send everyone into the performance confident, prepared, and physically fresh. The fight call is there to serve the actors and the production, not the other way around.