OnStage Blog: Fight choreography is a unique part of theater storytelling. It is done because we want to make a scene appear as real as possible without anyone getting injured. Fight choreography isn’t just involved when the actors are called to fight but also when weapons are involved. In the past three years, I have been involved with several shows where I got to see this happen. I was able to watch right from the start and see how the actors first learned the safety aspect of things and then how to make it look real.
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Fight choreography is definitely an underappreciated art form. I have quite a few friends that love fight choreography and are amazing at choreographing it too. It's not easy to find a way to make someone look like their head got slammed into a wall, or make a punch look believable, but when done correctly, an audience can be fooled by perfect timing, sound effects, and amazing actors that make it all happen. The Fight Call, as mentioned in this article, is definitely one of the more important parts of stage combat, because without it, actors could go on stage and it's a lot more likely for something to go horribly wrong, than for everything to go right. It's also very important for the stage manager to make sure that the fight call happens every night, and early enough before the show so that audience members will not see it. This has to be factored into call times of the actors and communication with wardrobes as well.
Fight choreography is an art in itself. Not only are the actors involved putting a lot of emotional effort into the acting, but they are putting a lot of physical effort into the choreography. The show that I have seen with the most fight sequences is “The Miracle Worker”. In this show it is not your typical fight scenes with swords or guns, but it is tackling and restraining and dragging the actor that is playing Hellen. When I saw it at Lambs Players Theater I actually got to watch their fight call. In the fight call they basically ran most of the show because there was just so much fight chorography involved. I talked with the actress after the show about her fight call and she said the same thing that this article said. She said that the fight call was so important because if one night something just wasn’t going right due to physical fatigue or possible injury they would realize that in fight call and if worst came to worst they tweaked the choreo for that show. The fight sequences in that show were flawless and I bet that was partly in response to the safety techniques that where employed by the actors and the protocols enforced by the production staff. Safety is the most important thing with fight choreography because first off, you don’t want to have an injuries. And second of all, if the actors feel safe they are more likely to do their best work, which will make the show so much better.
This summer, I stage managed a production of Carmen that, for some reason, had about as much stage combat as a particularly rough production of West Side Story would. While it was very stressful to have so much stage fighting with thirteen opera singers who had little to no combat experience, it definitely gave me a lot more appreciation for the art. It is incredibly difficult to make stage combat look real while not actually allowing anyone to get injured. At the end of the summer, the fight choreographer for the company had a stage combat class for the whole tech staff, which was a lot of fun and gave me even more perspective on how difficult it is. Fight call is often something that can be brushed over or rushed through, but it is enormously important to practice those moves every single day to make sure that everyone feels safe in what they are doing.
Fight choreography can really improve a performance if it is done well, but it can also ruin a show if it is not. It is important to have someone who is trained to create the fight choreography and then someone to be the fight captain and watch to make sure it is being executed properly everyday. I am glad that they mentioned that fight call really makes a difference because I think people often take fight calls for granted. If you do not take fight call seriously or you do not do it, there is a possibility that you or someone else can get hurt because you are not focused on the moves that you are doing. It is very easy to get caught up in an adrenaline rush during a show and actually mess up your fight choreography and hurt someone. It is important to take a little of yourself out of the acting side and focus on the mechanics of the fight in order to make it believable and safe.
I am huge proponent for proper training and fight choreography. I had the opportunity to work hand in hand with the fight Choreographer that we brought in for Three Musketeers last year, Mike Rossmy. Mike was a phenomenal fight director and had a very brilliant way of approaching fights that help to not only create safe and effective choreography but fights that created and supported the story line. It is so important for proper safety. It is for this reason that Actor's Equity has so many regulations about fight choreography, stunts and weapons. One unclear moment in a large fight, especially when there are are many people involved, can cause for a major injury and if the actors are not properly prepared other injuries. There are so many aspects to stage fighting that I have really enjoyed learning about and have motivated me to continue to learn more to help create environments where actors can successfully and safely participate in fight choreography.
Fight choreography is definitely an art and if it’s executed well it will take the performance to a whole new level and engage the audiences better as this is the more intense interaction among the characters onstage. Last semester during Stage Management seminar we had a guest fight choreographer come in and teach us the importance of fight safety and some physical tricks during the fight. Transparent communication before the fight and eye contact during the fight are some of the most important things to guarantee safety. All details should be communicated properly and thoroughly between the parties that are involved in a fight and a fight call should be arranged before every show to make sure the exact choreography will be executed onstage. For actors I feel like it’s pretty tricky to balance staying in character and also staying aware of safety in fight scenes as you cannot be completely in character and do whatever you want, rather, you have to do make sure you are watching out for your fight partner as a person.
Fight choreography is a very unique part of theater. Last semester I had a big introduction to working with fight choreography in The Three Musketeers. We had 17 different fight sequences, each with different actors and props or weapons being used. It was a long process in the rehearsal room, on the first day it was just practicing holding the swords and how to move around a space with them, to the actually staging of a 3 minute long fight sequence with 10 actors at once. As a stage manager it was something very new to me, I had only had experience with small fight sequences in the past. Arranging the fight call was a huge undergoing as well, because we needed to be able to have the crew still pre set the show, give the cast enough time to get into costume, and allow each fight to be looked at for safety. It was interesting going through fight call everyday, because there were times that the actors did very little and others when they did take it very seriously.
The article states that "Fight choreography is done because we want the scene to look as real as possible without anyone getting injured. The whole point of putting on a play is to both entertain the audience and to make our story as believable as possible. We want the audience to feel like they are part of the action and when fight choreography is done properly, that can be achieved at the highest levels." There is also something I wish to add to that statement and that is when fight choreography is done poorly than it will break you out of the realism of the world you are watching faster than someone turning on the house lights in the middle of the witches scenes from the Scottish Show. That being said I believe our industry has made great leaps forward to having fairly believable fight choreography be more available than just to those with large budgets. Just loot at the fight choreography of tv all of 10 years ago to today and you can definitely see the difference.
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