Physical Acting and Stage Combat Workshop>Faculty

Darrell Rushton
Society of American Fight Directors Certified Teacher & Advanced Actor Combatant

Darrell returns to Direct and teach at the 2nd annual Savage Mountain Summer Arts Academy. He currently teaches Acting and Stage Combat at Frostburg State University and is the faculty advisor for the Savage Mountain Combat Club. Last year audiences saw his choreography in Into the Woods, Abundance and he recently brought in Guest Artist and Film and Broadway Veteran Michael Chin, Fight Master with the SAFD to adjudicate his students. He also spent the summer at North Carolina School of the Arts, as Rapier and Dagger instructor to the Introduction to Stage Combat Workshop.

Prior to FSU, he was Assistant Professor of Movement and Acting at Ball State University where he served for two years as the Departmental Movement Coach, a responsibility which included his extensive choreography on The Miracle Worker with Guest Artist Shanga Parker, head of the BA Program at University of Washington and he was also the Fight director of Ball State’s Student Academy Award winning film, Perspective.

He is a Society of American Fight Directors Certified Teacher and Advanced Actor Combatant, proficient in 8 weapon styles, and choreographed over twenty productions during his time at Ball State, including this past summer’s Shakespeare Under the Stars at Minnetrista Cultural Arts Center production of The Complete Works of Shakespeare…Abridged directed by The Phoenix Theatre’s Artistic Director Bryan Fonseca.

After completing his undergraduate degree at Florida State University, Darrell spent from 1990-2000 working as a professional actor in the mid-Atlantic and south, performing in musicals and working for two years at Universal Studios Florida. In New York City he has appeared on One Live to Live, All My Children, and Saturday Night Live as well as acting in several movies. He has been in numerous movies and industrials in Washington, DC and Baltimore including Traffic, Runaway Bride, Shot in the Heart, an HBO Production and an Emmy Winning Red Cross PSA. He has appeared professionally at the Cumberland Theatre in Play it Again, Sam, Woman in Black, Bye, Bye, Birdie, Taming of the Shrew and Brigadoon.

In 2002 he completed his MFA in Theatre Pedagogy, at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he choreographed fights for The Rivals with pre-eminent Chicago Director Karen Kessler. In addition to teaching at VCU, he has been a guest artist at West Virginia University and has taught at regional Stage Combat Workshops around the country, including the Chicago Winter Wonderland, Seattle Sockeye, and Denver’s Rumble in the Rockies.

At Frostburg State, he has been fight director for Breath, Boom, A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum, Violet Hour, Romeo and Juliet, Flyin’ West, Fuddy Meers, A Soldiers Play, Loves Labors Lost, I Hate Hamlet and Man of LaMancha. Professionally, he has been fight director on Windwood Theatricals The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Shakespearience! at Huntington University in Indiana.

He is a member of Actor’s Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, American Federated Television and Radio Artists, Phi Mu Alpha and the Association of Theatre Movement Educators. Publications include articles in the ATME Journal, the Fight Master: Journal of the Society of American Fight Directors, and The Cutting Edge.

Craig Lawrence
SAFD Advanced Actor Combatant
Returning to his Alma Matter, Craig is delighted to be teaching for the Savage Mountain Summer Stage Combat workshop. A proud graduate of the Frostburg Theater Department, Craig has spent the years since working as an actor, teacher and choreographer in Washington DC and Baltimore. Already an Actor/Combatant before leaving FSU, Craig has since worked his way up to Advanced Actor/Combatant status, passing and maintaining skills tests in all 8 weapons.

He has performed with groups like Baltimore Opera Company, Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Integral Arts and Firebelly Productions. If you watch closely, you'll see Craig doing fight work for Step Up 2 The Streets.

Craig has also spent his days teaching, choreographing and lecturing on stage combat. High Schools like TC Williams, Fairfax, Churchill, Paint Branch and Lake Braddock have all been host to Craig's work.. He's spent the past two summers teaching for Fairfax County's Institute For The Arts program, as their resident stage combat instructor. He's also taught for Imagination Stage, The Noble Blades and Traveling Players Ensemble.

Sara Hodges
SAFD Actor Combatant
Sara is a graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, and has been a member of the Society of American Fight Directors since 2006. Since then, she has attended combat workshops all over the country, including two national workshops, the Winter Wonderland Workshop in Chicago (twice), and the Virginia Beach Bash (where she interned). She attended the Actor Combatant Workshop at the North Carolina School of the Arts in 2007, and was awarded Actor Combatant status with proficiency in Unarmed (Examiner's Award for Excellence), Broadsword, and Rapier & Dagger. Sara's choreography and fight direction have been seen in several shows at JMU and in the Harrisonburg area, including Arsenic & Old Lace, See What I Wanna See, and Twelfth Night.

Sara's movement background also includes dance training and martial arts. She holds a black belt in Japanese Goju-Ryu, and is currently studying Shito-Ryu and Goshindo.