2025 tEACHING staff

Skye Bronfenbrenner

Skye Bronfenbrenner (she/her) is a fight and intimacy director currently serving as Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts with specialties in Movement and Theatrical Intimacy Education at Marymount Manhattan College. She holds an MFA in Theatre from the University of Houston where she was also taught Movement for the Actor in the BFA program. She has taught movement and stage combat for Houston Grand Opera's Butler Studio and YAVA programs, Rice University, the Hight School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and as a teaching artist for the Alley Theatre. As a fight and intimacy director her work has been seen at the Houston Grand Opera, Catastrophic Theatre, Rec Room Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, the University of Houston, and Rice University; and as a performer she has toured with the national tours of Beauty and the Beast, Guys and Dolls, and the international tour of Shrek the Musical.

Bill Gordon

Bill Gordon (he/him) is a newly minted Certified Teacher with the SAFD. He has choreographed at many theatres all over Chicago and Cleveland. Using techniques learned all over the world (Sydney, Moscow, USA) and developed over a decade of practice and research, Bill provides a unique character centric approach to his choreography and performances. Bill is a represented actor, fight director, and intimacy designer. His most recent work can be seen at Trapdoor Theatre in Chicago and Shakespeare and Co. in Lenox, Massachusetts.

andrew dylan ray

Andrew Dylan Ray (he/him) is an actor, director, fight director, motion capture performer and educator who works from coast to coast. He is a Certified Fight Director and Certified Stage Combat Instructor with the Society of American Fight Directors that holds a BA in Theatre from The University of Kentucky and an MA in Theatre from Louisiana Tech University where he studied performance and stage movement and currently teaches acting and directing. He also teaches stage combat at the University of Kentucky Fine Arts Institute. On top of that he teaches stage combat and directs fights in New York, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Florida. He also spends time in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Wisconsin and New York working as a motion capture performer and fight coordinator. He is one of the lead motion capture performers for the Agents of Mayhem, We Happy Few, Saint’s Row and Borderlands video game franchises. He also works as a motion capture actor for Penn and Teller.

DARRELL RUSHTON

Darrell Rushton (he/him) is a Fight Director, Certified Teacher and Theatrical Firearms Instructor with the Society of American Fight Directors, and a member since 2000. He is also a member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers, Actors Equity Association and SAG/AFTRA.

He received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and has also been a guest artist at Oklahoma University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Rider University, Shenandoah Conservatory, and West Virginia University, and has taught at regional Stage Combat Workshops around the country as well as the National Stage Combat Workshop.

TV and Film appearances include Raising Heroes in NYC and Shot in the Heart directed by Agnieszka Holland for HBO Productions.in the DC/Baltimore area. Regional Theatre appearances include The Woman in Black, Hairspray, Jekyll and Hyde, Bye, Bye, Birdie, Taming of the Shrew and Brigadoon.

At Frostburg State University, Darrell teaches Directing, Acting, Stage Combat, Physical Comedy and Musical Theatre History, and was the director for PUFFS in the fall of 2024.

Recent Directing credits include directing The Taming of the Shrew at the Cumberland Theatre, and Fight Director for A Few Good Men, Evil Dead, the Musical, and The Play that Goes Wrong, all at The Cumberland Theatre.

Sam-claire bieber

Sam-Claire Bieber (she/her) Is an actor and fight director currently based out of Knoxville, TN. She has served on staff at workshops across the country including in Chattanooga, Dallas, Minneapolis, and the National Stage Combat Workshop. Select Fight Direction credits include: How to Defend Yourself, Anon(Ymous), Gianni Schicchi, La Cage aux Folles, Silent Night, Fences, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When not performing or crafting moments of violence for the stage you can find Sam-Claire demonstrating her stunning impression of a crow or advocating for disabled performers within movement arts.

aNDREW rATHGEBER

Andrew Rathgeber (he/him) is a Chicago-based Actor and Fight Director. Andrew is a fully-recommended Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. As the company Fight Director for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Andrew has choreographed nine productions with MSIP, and toured on seven more as an actor. Andrew also works locally as an Actor/Fighter with Lyric Opera Chicago, Fight Director for Oak Park Festival Theater, and has collaborated with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Remy Bumppo, Commission Theatre Co, Raven Theatre, The House Theatre, Haven Theatre Co. and side project theatre co. Regional credits include: American Players Theatre, Forward Theater Company, Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, Montana InSite Theatre, Tippet Rise Art Center, and Bozeman Actors Theatre. Andrew is actively pursuing Certified Teacher status with the SAFD, and is a certified Consent Forward Artist with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators. He teaches stunts and stage combat locally with Open Gate Movement Arts and The Actors Gymnasium, as well as on the regional circuit at workshops and universities around the country. He works as a motion capture performer for the Call of Duty video game franchise, on-camera as a stunt performer, and holds rank in aikido and judo at Chicago Aikikai and Tohkon Judo Academy. Andrew serves as an elected board member of the Society of American Fight Directors, representing the Advanced/Intermediate Actor Combatant membership on the Governing Body.

Will Snyder

Will Snyder (he/him) is an SAFD Advanced Actor Combatant based out of Chattanooga, TN. He is the owner of BattleKat Combat which seeks to provide stage combat training opportunities as well as quality fight direction to the underserved areas of Tennessee and North Georgia. Every October, will coordinates Scenic City Slam, a regional stage combat workshop based in Chattanooga. Will is an Associate Member of SDC.

Kira cornell

Kira Cornell (she/they) is currently a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and holds Advanced Actor Combatant status with the SAFD. She enjoys choreographing and teaching in her area, most recently choreographing The Lonesome West for the PATP @ UNC-CH.

David Saldivar

David Saldivar (He/Him) is a certified Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors, an Associate Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and a licensed pyrotechnician. His most recent work includes Julius Caesar, King Lear and Hamlet at Shakespeare Dallas, World Series at Bishop Arts Theatre, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Sleuth, and Carrie at Theatre Three, Death Trap and Into the Breeches at MainStage Irving. He is the current lead instructor for monthly Fight Nights at Theatre Three. When he is not working on projects he spends his time finding hole in the wall taquerias with friends.