Now Streaming: Veteran Fight Director Ron Piretti Featured On December's THEATER: ALL THE MOVING PARTS

Have you ever seen a fight in a play when tempers flare? How is it done? In this new episode of "THEATER: All the Moving Parts, Host Patrick Pacheco interviews Ron Piretti, a veteran fight director of theater and film, who turns slapping, slugging, and fencing into an art form.

He has fight directed both plays and musicals, including "West Side Story", "In the Heights", "The Miracle Worker" and "The Last Ship." The interview was recorded at The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in Manhattan. The show now streams at https://bit.ly/3pfvg0E.

Ron Piretti takes us behind the scenes to show how he trains actors to do stage combat. Piretti says that it's a combination of storytelling, exact choreography, communication, and safety. Since any improvisation would be dangerous, every movement is carefully mapped out. In the episode, Piretti demonstrates fight techniques with actors Clara Tristan and Dan Pavacic, simulating situations that might occur in a play such as "Extremities," in which there is brutality between a man and woman. Ron also talks about his experience on the 2009 revival of "West Side Story", directed by Arthur Laurents. "No holds barred", the director told him. Piretti says he loves his profession, "It's a lot of fun. It's like being a kid... How do we make this real? How do we make everybody happy?"

Patrick Pacheco says, "I love that Ron, at heart, is a pacifist and yet he enjoys the challenge of making fights look authentic on stage while creating a comfort level not only for the actors but also for the audience. One of the most unexpected lessons of his craft is that it is the "victim," not the aggressor who has control at all times of the situation.

"THEATER: All the Moving Parts" is a CUNY TV show, featuring in-depth interviews with top theater artists including playwright Theresa Rebeck, dramaturg Ken Cerniglia, intimacy director Claire Warden and choreographer Sergio Trujillo. Of Pacheco, Rebeck said, "I felt like I was being interviewed by someone who knows me better than I know myself." Go to THEATER: All the Moving Parts to see these and other episodes.

Patrick Pacheco is an Emmy-winning commentator and journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire.com, and many other periodicals. He wrote the 2009 Disney documentary "Waking Sleeping Beauty," and is the co-writer, with Maria Cassi, of the play, "My Life with Men...and other animals." He is the writer and editor of the Amazon best seller "American Theatre Wing, An Oral History: 100 Years, 100 Voices, 100 Million Miracles."

Ron Piretti has staged the fights for the Broadway, National and International productions of "West Side Story" and "In the Heights". Other Broadway productions include: "The Miracle Worker", "Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo" (additional fight direction), The Performers, The Last Ship. And has staged the fights for Hartford Theatre Works, Goodspeed, The Dallas Theatre Center and numerous theatres around the country. Ron appeared as Officer Krupke in the Broadway production of West Side Story directed by Arthur Laurents; Off-Broadway: Cherry Lane: "The Traveling Lady", Regionally: Clown in 39 Steps and toured Northern Ireland in Eugene O'Neal's Hughie. He has also appeared in numerous film and TV productions. He has taught acting, stage combat and directed at such colleges as Actors Studio MFA program at Pace University, Wagner College, Marymount College and many other colleges and universities around the country.