The SAFD governing body is elected by the SAFD dues paying membership and serves as an SAFD board of directors maintaining policy and direction for the SAFD. The SAFD Governing Body is constructed of two parts. The Executive Committee, consisting of the President, Vice President, Secretary & Treasurer, serve a term of three years. The four Member Representatives, consisting of a Fight Master rep, a Fight Director rep, a Certified Teacher rep and the Advanced Actor/Combatant + Actor/Combatant + Friend rep, serve a term of three years that has elections on a different cycle than the Executive Committee
Geoffrey Kent is a fight director, actor, stage combat teacher and director based out of Denver, Colorado. Geoffrey is currently the President of the Society of American Fight Directors, the largest organization of stage combatants in the world. He is the resident fight director for the Denver Center Theatre Company and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and the stage combat instructor for the National Theatre Conservatory and the University of Denver. When not staging violence, Geoffrey works as an actor and director along the front range.
John is an actor, fight choreographer, an SAFD Certified Teacher and currently serves as their Vice-President. He holds a Bachelors degree in performance from Illinois State University, where he was the recipient of the prestigious Jean Scharfenberg Acting Award. John has taught stage combat classes at DePaul University, Illinois State University, Ball State University, The Actor's Gymnasium, and was a Guest Artist at Roosevelt University. He has also taught at The Winter Wonderland Workshop (where he is the Coordinator), Seattle Sockeye, March Madness, Rumble in the Rockies, Havoc in the Heartland, and the North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Session: Introduction to Stage Combat. Currently, John teaches theatre courses at the College of DuPage and stage combat courses at Elgin Community College.
Select productions that John has choreographed include Ragtime: The Musical (Drury Lane Oakbrook); One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Summer People and Streamers (The Gift Theatre Co.); Of Mice and Men (Steppenwolf SYA); Accomplice, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Ruthless: The Musical (Noble Fool Theatricals); Temporary Help and Communicating Doors (Buffalo Theatre Ensemble); Robin Hood and The Glory of Living (College of DuPage); In the Blood and Bat Boy: The Musical (Ball State University); and Cyrano de Bergerac (Independent Players). Select roles that John has performed include Dr. Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Illinois Shakespeare Festival), Ronald in The Altruists (Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co.), Gerstein in Ghetto (Famous Door Theatre Co.), Dr. Astrov in Uncle Vanya and James in That Championship Season (Independent Players). John resides in St. Charles with his wonderful wife, Colleen.
Willie currently serves as Secretary for SAFD. He is an accomplished Advanced Actor Combatant. Check back for more complete bio information coming soon.
Lee Soroko is a Certified Teacher and Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. Lee earned his Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Texas where he studied under Jim Hancock and took additional Theatre study at the Jagielonion Uniwersytet, in Krakow, Poland and Peace Haven in London.
Lee is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSDC) and Actors Equity Association (AEA). Areas of movement study include Alexander Technique, Laban/Bartenieff and Feldenkrais. Lee is also a 1993 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship recipient for his work in Character Mask. He currently teaches at the University of Miami, Florida and previously was a Professor of Performance with the Savannah College of Art and Design. Prior to that Lee was an Assistant Professor at Guilford College and has taught at Yale University, North Carolina School of the Arts, New York University, Quinnipiac College and the University of Texas at Austin.
Acting and directing credits include productions with the Atlantic Theatre Company (off-Broadway), Actors Theater of Louisville, Long Wharf Theatre, State Theatre in Austin, Texas, Yale University and SCAD. As a fight director, his professional credits include productions at the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival (LORT) Savannah Shakespeare Festival (LOA), Triad Stage (LOA), as well as colleges and universities across the country.
Richard is an award winning Fight Director. He recently completed work as Stunt Coordinator on IRONCLAD. Other recent credits include Fight Coordinator on SHERLOCK HOLMES and also on GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, Swordmaster on EAGLE OF THE NINTH AND SOLOMON KANE and stunt coordinator on ROLLING THUNDER and FAINTHEART.
Other film work includes Fight Coordinator/Swordmaster on THE DARK KNIGHT (winner SAG Best Stunt Ensemble & Taurus Stunt Award Best Fight) as well as THE GOLDEN COMPASS, DRONA and THE LAST LEGION (nominated for Taurus Stunt Award). Perhaps his best-known film work is TROY, for which his Achilles vs. Hector fight was nominated for Best Fight in both Taurus World Stunt Award & MTV Film Awards.
'Master-at-Arms' to The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art he has accumulated over 300 stage credits and has worked for many major companies such as The Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of Ireland, Royal National Theatre, Cheek by Jowl, English National Opera, Royal Opera House, York Theatre Royal and Mercury Theatre, Colchester along with various West End shows and National Tours
As a fight director, Michael has worked in NYC at the Epic Theatre, Fluid Motion, Sonnett Rep and the Lady Cavalier Theatre Company. His national work includes productions at the Arena Stage, South Coast Rep, The Shakespeare Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth and the Theatre at Lime Kiln. His university work includes productions at Georgetown University, Catholic University, University of Maryland and his alma mater, North Carolina School of the Arts.
Michael created the stage combat program at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in DC and taught there for 11 years. He has been a regular teacher at the NY Summer Sling and the Cincinnati March Madness workshops. He has also taught at the Philadelphia and Chicago regional workshops, as well as the SAFD national workshops in Las Vegas and North Carolina.
Michael is the creator of the Knife discipline for the SAFD. When teachers of the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat wanted to create their own Knife discipline, they invited Michael to London to teach and advise them. Michael was recently elected to serve on the governing body of the SAFD as Fight Director representative.
A Senior Instructor with Dueling Arts International, D.C. is currently the Head of Movement and Stage Combat at Western Illinois University. D.C. has been very active in teaching at national, regional, and local stage combat workshops including the DAI Winter Workshop, DAI Teachers Symposium, DAI Fight Director and Performance Workshops, the SAFD National Stage Combat Workshop in Las Vegas, the SAFD Winter Wonderland Workshop in Chicago, the Rumble in the Rockies in Denver, the Stage Combat Training Workshop in Eureka, IL and the United Stuntmen’s Association’s International Stunt School in Seattle.
D.C’s work as a Fight Director has been viewed at numerous venues around the country including: the Off Broadway production of The Blowin of Baile Gall at the Donaghy Theatre at the Irish Arts Center, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and Henry VIII at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and Of Mice and Men and Romeo and Juliet for the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Additionally his work has been seen at the Boston Playwrights Theater, Boston Musica Viva, Boston University Theater, Boston University Opera Institute, Tuachan, Actor’s Repertory Theater Ensemble, Brigham Young University, University of Kansas, University of Utah and Western Illinois University.
In addition, In conjunction with Dueling Arts International, D.C, wrote, directed and/or performed in three Wild West Stunt Shows for Leo Foo amusement park in Taiwan and he has also acted in and/or been the stunt coordinator/fight director for several commercials and industrial films. Most notable is the recently released DAI production called “And They Fight…”, a 23 hr. six volume stage combat instructional series covering all major weapon styles in which he is a primary demonstrator.
Mike Speck is an Advanced Actor Combatant based in Minnesota. He was the Mid-America Regional Representative for the SAFD from 2007 to early 2010, and now serves as the Friend/Actor Combatant/Advanced Actor Combatant rep on the SAFD's Governing Body. He co-founded (and still co-coordinates) the Carnage in the Corn regional workshop at Drake University in Des Moines.
Past choreography credits include Jekyll & Hyde, Cabaret, and Grease for the Armory Dinner Theatre; Playhouse Creatures and The Long Christmas Ride Home for Saint Mary's University of Minnesota; and Henry IV pt 2 in a workshop production for the Lincoln Amphitheatre. Mike has an MFA from Western Illinois University and a BA from Luther College, and is currently pursuing degrees in Arts & Cultural Management and in Project Management at St. Mary's of Minnesota.