Resources

STAGE COMBAT TRAINING

For performers, training in stage combat greatly increases comfort levels, safety, credibility and marketability. More and more, professional actors are bringing to auditions skill sets that include high levels of stage combat training.

In addition to his work as a fight director, Joe is the Founder and Managing Director of Swordplay, New York City's oldest continuously running stage combat school. Swordplay offers classes and workshops in all styles and weapons, including classes for beginners, for advanced students, and Skills Proficiency Testing (sometimes called "Certification") in the weapons recognized by the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and Fight Directors Canada (FDC).

Take classes with Joe:

SWORDPLAY - STAGE COMBAT TRAINING

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Joe has extensive classroom experience in academia, workshops and private classes teaching subjects ranging from the basics of stage combat to advanced techniques such as contact improvisation, wounding and killing, close - quarter combat, Renaissance sword and buckler, Medieval grappling and dagger techniques, fighting on camera, and more. He holds teaching certifications from both the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and Fight Directors Canada (FDC). He teaches stage combat to Columbia University's Acting MFA candidates and Stage Management MFA candidates, and he heads the stage combat program at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, NYC. Since 1995, he has served as Managing Director for Swordplay, an NYC based school specializing in training professional actors in fight techniques.

TEACHING RESUME