The First Rule of Fight Call is "Nobody Talks About Fight Call.."

The Title comes from our Technical Director, Pat Orndorf, making a play on the phrase "Fight Call," by quoting "Fight Club," and it is, unfortunately, a rule I am about to break. The picture is of my boys getting in touch with their tough side during a fight rehearsal while we were still in the rehearsal hall. Fight Calls come after the opening. They exist, in a 15-minute block about an hour before curtain, to ensure that anyone involved with punching, kicking, pulling hair, slamming someone in the back with a pick (it happens...) is completely on their game for each performance.

Onstage, a bar room brawl is a carefully timed, intricately choreographed event. Every step taken, every punch thrown, every bottle smashed to bits against the side of the bar is placed deliberately by the performers. It is an exact science set up specifically to look like chaos. Otherwise, people get kicked a little too hard and punches actually land on singer's jaws. Onstage fights are performed by humans however, which is what makes a fight call necessary. After a couple of days off, muscle memory begins to break down a bit, and it takes a dry run of the movement to bring people back up to speed.

It's rare to run a fight call where someone doesn't completely lose a movement from their musculature, where we don't hhave to go back at least once and run the fight again after making sure each person knows exactly where they are stepping and how they are landing. I also worry, when standing somewhat helplessly in the house, that performers, in their preshow jittery states, get a little slap happy and lose sight of the seriousness of the situation. Oftentimes Nick, our young fight captain, has the singers run a fight over again simply because someone started laughing in the middle. He wants to make sure that they are aware of what they are doing in all seriousness; that the steps didn't land properly by mere coincidence.

I worry about my boys. When I am on stage it doesn't hit me as hard, but when I am in the audience, I mull over so many things that can go wrong and I worry like a mother. These boys are strong though, and every stomach punch, elbow in the jaw, pick in the back, gun butt in the eye that goes right makes me infinitely proud.

We had our final show at Dade County Auditorium last night. I recovered today by shopping and going to see "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which I must say was my favorite film adaptation thus far. I know a lot of people have complained that the script cut out a lot of important/wonderful moments from the book. I don't, however, see how they could have pushed anything else into the film. It showed exactly what it needed to show. I try to remember, going into the films, that they are NOT the books. They are a celluloid representation of the mind of J.K. Rowling, and for that I am grateful and awe-struck. I thought this film was wonderfully dark and had just the right mix of emotional life with sheer action/adventure. I was especially fond of the Quidditch World Cup and Ralph Fiennes' creepy-as-all-hell portrayal of Voldemort, which conjured up images of Fiennes at his wierdest during the depths of "The Red Dragon." The film set up everything it needed to for the sequels (including, contrary to a lot of personal opinions, Dumbledore's faith in Snape as a reformed Death Eater). I loved it. I was smiling as I left the theater, and that wasn't just because of the free Milk Duds..

So....now that everyone knows I'm a dork....

The show moves to Broward Center for the Performing Arts this week, with an opening on Thursday. We do two shows there, and I'm curious to see how different it seems in that space. I've never moved a show from one theater to another in such a short time. "Pearl Fishers" I took all over the country, but there was always at least six months in between, so we had a full rehearsal period to recover and adapt. This will be interesting to see everything put together and the lights focused and the singers comfortable with the space in a mere three days time.

In other news, I miss John like mad. We had a terrific Thanksgiving at Terra Restaurant in San Diego. We also talked and laughed and loved each other as much as we possibly could in the mere 48 hours we had together. Separations are so difficult to handle when you have so much love and affection for the other person. I am looking straight through the next few weeks to his arrival in Miami in mid-December. The knowledge of his travel here is what will keep me going through the beginnings of "Daughter of the Regiment."

I'm off to spend a little quality time with my cat. I'll keep everyone updated on the changeover as we work through the week.