2019 Instructors
Dale Girard - SAFD Fight Master
Dale Girard is also a certified Fight Master with Fight Directors Canada (FDC) and co-founder of the North Carolina Stuntmen’s Association; author of Actors on Guard; and director of stage combat studies for North Carolina School of the Arts. Dale also served the role of Sankur and served as second unit director and stunt coordinator for the film Eyeborgs. Dale is currently serving as stunt coordinator on Gary Wheeler’s The Trial starring Matthew Modine.
Denise Hurd - SAFD Certified Teacher
Denise Alessandria Hurd Currently teaches Acting and Stage Combat at City College in New York City. She is a company member of the Actor's Shakespeare Company Of New Jersey and a Founding Member of the Lady Cavalier's Theater Company. She has taught at several workshops around the country and privately in the New York/New Jersey area. She has choreographed numerous shows at Regional and Off-Broadway Theaters such as the Classical Theater Of Harlem (Macbeth, King Lear, Marat/Sade) and the Actor's Shakespeare Company of New Jersey (Romeo And Juliet, King John, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Passion's Slave, Kingdom For a Stage), including the Off-Broadway world premieres of the Pulitzer Prize nominated "Bulrusher" by Eisa Davis and "The Lost Boys: An Awfully Big Adventure"by Jake Lloyd, and the Presidential Award winning production of "Macbeth" for the Epic Theatre in New York. She is a member of AEA, SAG and AFTRA
Sam Kahn - BASSC Certified Teacher
Sam Kahn is a Director, Fight Director and Choreographer, and is a Certified Teacher with the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat. He has Designed and Directed Fights with a Large Variety of Weapons, from Historical Beatings to Fights of Fantasy. Current Projects include a 19th Century Prize Fighting Short, Designing the Fighting for Film Performance Test, Directing with the Group ‘Impact’- a Fight Unit for Film, Theatre and Television and working on his Sixth Feature. As regards Teaching, Sam has worked with many different educational organisations. His continued work with the International School of Screen Acting allows him to continually develop the Syllabus and Systems which he uses to teach Fighting for Stage and Screen, either for Serious Drama Students or for Groups looking for Fun Workshops
Rachel Flesher - FDC Certified Instructor, IDI Intimacy Director
Rachel is an Intimacy Director, Intimacy Coordinator, Violence Director, Movement Specialist, blood and gore designer, SAG-AFTRA stunt performer, a teaching artist, an actor, writer, and director. Her acting, fight choreography, and movement training guided her to try to find a better way to choreograph and help facilitate scenes with sexual, intimate, and highly suggestive content. Through studying mental health first aid, trauma, and abuse, and collaborating with other directors, psychologists, and mental health experts, she is developing techniques to help actors safely portray trauma and abuse (Traumaturgy) on stage and screen.
Rachel is an Instructor with the Fight Directors Canada, an Instructor with Tactics on Set, an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago and DePaul University. She has had the pleasure of traveling the world to teach workshops on consent, stage and screen combat, simulated domestic violence, and intimacy, for actors, directors, stage managers, and educators. She also specializes in consent and combat for youth. On stage violence and intimacy direction credits include Goodman Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, Writers Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Steppenwolf for Young Adults. Intimacy coordinating credits include GLOW on NETFLIX and THE RED LINE on CBS, as well as many other television shows and films currently in production.
Rachel is an Instructor with the Fight Directors Canada, an Instructor with Tactics on Set, an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago and DePaul University. She has had the pleasure of traveling the world to teach workshops on consent, stage and screen combat, simulated domestic violence, and intimacy, for actors, directors, stage managers, and educators. She also specializes in consent and combat for youth. On stage violence and intimacy direction credits include Goodman Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, Writers Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Steppenwolf for Young Adults. Intimacy coordinating credits include GLOW on NETFLIX and THE RED LINE on CBS, as well as many other television shows and films currently in production.
Mike Speck - SAFD Certified Teacher
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Mike Lubke - SAFD Certified Teacher
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