The fight call
Previews can be a frantic period - changes are happening on a daily basis and the cast are having to absorb a huge amount of information.
If I am not needed in rehearsal during the day, I take the fight call, which happens at 6.30 every day. This is an official call, during which the actors run through all the fights on stage before the show. It is sometimes my only chance to see and work with the actors during previews, unless there are any major changes. It is an important twenty minutes. I use it to reconnect with the cast and to give them any notes resulting from the previous evening’s performance. It is a fine balancing act to judge - I have to ascertain the morale of the group, try not to overload them with too many notes, give them plenty of encouragement, but most importantly try to adjust things that did not quite work the previous evening, so that I do not see the same mistakes. This could be anything from: the angle of the headbutt was slightly out, the punch went too far through, more attack on those body blows, bend your knees when you deliver that stomach punch...and so on! This show has five fights and most of them are big numbers, so I always have to be prepared for the fight call and give the actors specific things to think about for the coming show. I am lucky in that the cast do respond quickly to my notes and adjustments, and are very willing to give anything a go.
One problem I have been having is to create a knap which can be heard over a fifteen piece orchestra.
A knap is a sound that is made to give the illusion that contact has been made – for example, when there is a punch to the face. Usually the actor makes the sound himself as he executes the move, by clapping or hitting parts of his body. The importance of a knap cannot be over-estimated - the audience really react to the sound. I have tried everything - knaps onstage, knaps off stage into a mic and an off-stage slapstick, which although it was the loudest sound was too thin. Tamara was not happy with it, and I was running out of ideas. So I asked our sound designer Mick if he could help. I think we may have come up with a solution - I do not want to give it away – but fingers crossed for tonight’s show!
Posted by Kate Waters (Fight Director) on 11/10/2013 @ 14:02hrs