Stage Combat Workshop Faculty

Learn from the best

Darrell Rushton

Darrell Rushton is a Professor of Theatre and Dance specialist in Acting and Stage Combat. His Television and Film appearances include One Life to Live, All My Children, and Saturday Night Live in New York and Traffic, Runaway Bride, and Shot in the Heart in the DC/Baltimore area. Theatre appearances include Twelfth Night, Woman in Black, Bye, Bye, Birdie, Taming of the Shrew and Brigadoon at the Cumberland Theatre and Regional appearances in Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois.

His MFA is in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he studied with Broadway Fight Director David Leong, and choreographed fights for The Rivals with pre-eminent Chicago Director Karen Kessler. He has instructed Stage Combat at regional workshops around the country, including the Chicago Winter Wonderland, Seattle Sockeye, Denver's Rumble in the Rockies and this year's Eureka Stage Combat Workshop, where he will also teach Theatrical Firearms Safety. He has been a guest artist at West Virginia University, Huntington University and Frankfort Middle School.

At Frostburg State, he has been the fight director for Midsummer's Night Dream, Ruined, Of Mice and Men, Urinetown, Breath, Boom, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Violet Hour, Romeo and Juliet, Flyin' West, Fuddy Meers, Loves Labors Lost, I Hate Hamlet and Man of LaMancha. Professionally, his fight choreography has been featured in Windwood Theatricals Urban Cowboy and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Cumberland Theatre's Jekyll and Hyde and Brigadoon. Professor Rushton has also directed Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Recent Tragic Events at Frostburg State University, and is currently the teacher of the Directing class. He is a member of Actor's Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, the Society of American Fight Directors, and Phi Mu Alpha. His publications include articles in the ATME Journal, the Fight Master: Journal of the Society of American Fight Directors, and The Cutting Edge.

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D.C. Wright, SAFD CT

Certified Teacher, D.C. Wright has been directing fights and teaching stage combat to others for over twelve years. Recent professional credits include the Off-Broadway production of The Blowin of Baile Gall at the Donaghy Theatre in the Irish Arts Center, Of Mice and Men and Romeo and Juliet at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and Macbeth, Henry VIII, and Twelfth Night at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. He has also been busy at in academic circles as well directing fights for Communicating Doors, The Monument, Henry IV pt.1, and Zastrozzi at Western Illinois University, as well as Romeo and Juliet for the University of Kansas. D.C. also helped direct and performed in two wild west stunt shows for an amusement park in Taiwan.

D.C. has taught combat classes at institutions around the country including Brigham Young University, University of Utah, Boston University, Emerson College, Ball State University, Western Illinois University, Colorado College, and Dixie College, as well as at several local, regional, and national workshops including the SAFD’s NSCW, Winter Wonderland, Rumble in the Rockies, Boston Tea Party, Las Vegas Winter Workshop, and the Eureka College Combat Workshop. D.C. holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Boston University’s School of Theater Arts Professional Theatre Training Program, and a BA in Theatre from Brigham Young University. D.C. is an Associate Professor at Western Illinois University where he is the Head of Movement/Stage Combat.

D.C. has a beautiful wife, Heather, two of the cutest girls you have ever seen, and a brand new baby boy, born with a sword in his hand.

Ms. Holly Rocke, Coordinator

Holly Rocke, Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts and Drama, teaches the acting here at Eureka College.  She recently became a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.  A member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, she is interested in teaching actors to combine their body movements and speaking voice to create interesting characters.  She is currently a member of the Society of American Fight Directors and for the past three years has served as the coordinator of Central Illinois Stage Combat Workshop to be hosted on the Eureka camps.  She served as co-host and workshop coordinator of the region III Kenedy Center American College Theatre Festival for multiple years.  She has worked with theatres in London, New York, and Los Angeles and has earned the following:  a B.S. in Theatre and Mathematics, Eureka College; an M.F.A., in Acting Illinois, State University. Instructor of Theatre Arts and Drama.

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