Theatre and Dance

D.C. Wright

D.C. Wright

Professor - Head of Movement/Stage Combat
Office: Browne 106
Email: DC-Wright@wiu.edu

D.C. Wright is the Head of Movement and Stage Combat at Western Illinois University. D.C. received his BA in Theatre from Brigham Young University in ’95 and spent several years pursuing a career as a teacher of stage combat, as well as a fight director and stunt man. During this time D.C. taught or assisted classes at the ACT in San Francisco, the Denver Center, Colorado College, The Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Tuachan Theatre, Black Swan Theatre Company, Actors Repertory Theatre Ensemble, Pioneer Memorial Theatre, Brigham Young University, University of Utah, and Dixie College, as well as national, regional, and local stage combat and stunt workshops around the country, such as the National Stage Combat Workshop and the Winter Stage Combat Workshop in Las Vegas, the Fight Directors Workshop at Stanford, the Winter Wonderland in Chicago, the Rumble in the Rockies in Denver, and the International Stunt School in Seattle.

D.C. became a Certified Teacher of Stage Combat with the Society of American Fight Directors in 1998 and was recognized as a Certified Teacher by Dueling Arts International the same year. D.C. is now recognized as a Senior Instructor by Dueling Arts. D.C. went to Taiwan as a stunt man in a Wild West show for Leo Foo amusement park in ’96, and then in conjunction with Dueling Arts International wrote, directed and performed in another Leo Foo stunt show in ’99, and wrote and directed another show for ’00. D.C. has acted in several commercials and industrial films, and has been the stunt coordinator for several as well. Most notable is the DAI production entitled "And They Fight ..." which is an eight-volume stage combat instructional series covering all major weapon styles in which he is one of four primary instructors. He has also been helping coordinate fights for Straw Hat Productions independent feature film “Rite Time/Wrong Place.”

In 2002, D.C. finished his MFA in Theatre Education with a movement emphasis at Boston University. During this time he also taught stage combat at Emerson College, and helped organized the first Boston Tea Party stage combat workshop.D.C. has continued to pursue his professional career in addition to his teaching responsibilities. D.C. has spent three summers with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival as a performer/Fight Captain for two seasons playing characters such as Charles the Wrestler in

As You Like It, Barbarossa in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, and Valvert in Cyrano de Bergerac,and then as Fight Director for the '05 season of Macbeth, Henry VIII, and Twelvth Night.

His fight direction was recently seen Off-Broadway in New York in The Blowin of Baile Gall.

D.C. has also directed many fights over the last three seasons for the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, including Moonlight & Magnolias, Of Mice and Men, and a national touring production of Romeo and Juliet.

D.C. also continues to teach stage combat around the country, including during the past year workshops in Chicago, Eureka, IL, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Anchorage, Alaska.

More information: Stage Combat at Western