Meet the 2026 Instructors
Amie Root (she/her)
President, Society of American Fight Directors
Certified Teacher, Society of American Fight Directors
Amie Root is a multifaceted artist; she is a director, playwright, actor, fight and intimacy director and educator. Amie is President of the Society of American Fight Directors and a Certified Teacher who has toured the country creating theatre for the last fifteen years. She is the founder and lead instructor of the Central Illinois Stage Combat Teacher Trainer and creator of the Associate Instructor Training Program (AITP) cultivating opportunities for new teachers of stage combat. She recently directed Comedy of Errors (Starling Shakespeare Company), Coriolanus (Western IL Univ.) and The Mad Ones (Western IL Univ.). She was the Fight and Intimacy Director for Ironbound (Forward Theatre), Hamlet and Henry IV Part I (Utah Shakespeare Festival) and Misery (Peninsula Players), and Fight Director for Twelfth Night and The Heart of Robin Hood (Door Shakespeare), She Kills Monsters (Univ. of Southern Miss), five seasons with Unto These Hills (Cherokee, NC) and others. As a playwright, you can find her new works centered on women and queer characters at New Play Exchange including “A Pirate’s Life for She” and “Kegel Games”. Amie has her BA in drama from the UW Stevens Point and her MFA in Directing from Western IL University.
Chuck Coyl (he/him)
Fight Master, Society of American Fight Directors
Fight Director, Society of American Fight Directors
Certified Teacher, Society of American Fight Directors
Chuck Coyl has been a professional fight director for over 30 years. Recent credits include the Broadway production and national tour of “August: Osage County”, “The Crucible” and “Superior Donuts” at the Steppenwolf Theatre, “World of Extreme Happiness, “Magnolia”, “The Upstairs Concierge”, “2666” at the Goodman Theatre, “Porgy and Bess”, “Champion”, and “West Side Story” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Other notable productions include, the world premieres of Killer Joe, Bug, and The Point of Honor. He is a founding member of the Single Action Theatre Company and is on the faculty of the Actor’s Gymnasium and Roosevelt University in Chicago.
Patrick Kelly (he/him)
Certified Teacher, Society of American Fight Directors
Stuntman
Patrick currently works as a professional martial artist, fight choreographer, stunt coordinator and performer. He serves as the Director of Martial Arts at Indiana University, currently the largest academic martial arts program in the US where he has studied and teaches Kickboxing, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Savate, Escrima, Silat, Hapkido, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Fencing, and Traditional Archery.
He presented on Martial Arts in Physical Education to the Indiana Department of Education establishing a teaching pedagogy for attribute development/skill acquisition and served as consultant and action designer for The Wick Lab, a metabolic study of the energy requirements and injury analysis for the John Wick movie franchise.
He worked on the Stunt/Fight Team for the History Channel's “Vikings”, Netflix’s “Vikings: Valhalla” and Amazon’s “Bloodaxe” television series filmed in Co. Wicklow, Ireland and is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA.
He has served as Stunt Coordinator for several feature films including So Cold The River, Runner, We Strangers, starring Kirby Howell-Baptiste, The Duel, starring Dylan Sprouse and the docu-drama I am Patrick, starring John Rhys-Davies in addition to various music videos and mo-cap projects.
As a theatrical fight choreographer, he has designed violence for multiple stage productions including “Romeo and Juliet”, “Julius Caesar”, “Star Cross'd Lovers”, “Titus Andronicus”, “The Great Gatsby”, “Deathtrap”, “Misery”, “The DaVinci Code” and “To Quiet the Quiet”, directed by David Anspaugh.
He has taught combative, competitive and performative martial concepts and fight design courses at seminars and workshops in New York, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Washington and California.
Tammy Everett (she/her, they/them)
Director of Training, Fight Directors Canada
Fight Master, Fight Directors Canada
Fight Instructor, Fight Directors Canada
Fight Director, Fight Directors Canada
Tammy Everett is a certified Fight Instructor and Fight Director with FDC. She is a singer, actor, actor-combatant and martial artist who has performed in Canada, the USA, and Europe working in theatre, music theatre, film, television, and recording studios. Her work as a martial arts instructor has fostered a strong understanding of the body, and a passion for helping students grow safely past their original expectations of their physical abilities, while her work on trauma and the actor roots her practices firmly in creating spaces where actors can explore their characters, and the work safely mentally and emotionally, as well as physically. Fight Director credits include Shadowed (Galant Productions), Don Giovanni (Highlands Opera Studio), Cabaret (RCPA), White Elephant (Jaded Pictures), Love and Anger (Durham Shoestring Performers), City of Angels (RCPA), Les Miserables (Marquee Productions), August: Osage County (Whitby Courthouse Theatre).
Tommy Wedge (he/him)
Certified Teacher, Society of American Fight Directors
Tommy Wedge is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Saginaw Valley State University where he mentors student actor combatants, fight choreographers, directors, stage managers, and arts managers. He holds an MFA in Directing from The University of South Dakota and a BS in Communication Studies & Theatre from South Dakota State University. He is a Certified Teacher with the SAFD, is an Associate Member of SDC, and is an active member in Region III of the American College Theatre Festival. He has been a part of Mitten Mayhem since the beginning and is ecstatic to be on teaching staff!
Joe Wright (he/him)
Co-Coordinator, Mitten Mayhem
Certified Teacher, Society of American Fight Directors
Fight Instructor, Fight Directors Canada
Joe is a movement coach, fight & intimacy director, stuntman, actor, and general movement enthusiast based out of South-East Michigan. He is a Certified Teacher and Theatrical Firearms Instructor for the Society of American Fight Directors, a Certified Instructor for Fight Directors Canada, a founder/co-coordinator for the annual Mitten Mayhem Stage Combat Workshop held at the end of October, and a founder/lead instructor for Theatrica Gladiatoria (which teaches ongoing classes and certifications in Theatrical Combat). He has taught for the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) School of Music, Theatre, and Dance as well as Eastern Michigan University’s Department of Theatre. His general mission is to help make the magic of movement and storytelling accessible to everybody (and every -body-).
Jen Pan (she/they)
Co-Coordinator, Mitten Mayhem
Certified Teacher, Society of American Fight Directors
IDEA Officer, Society of American Fight Directors
Jen is a fight and intimacy director, movement teaching artist, actor, stunt performer, and occasional creative based in metro-Detroit, MI. Their work has been recently featured on the stages of Seattle Children’s Theatre, Detroit Public Theatre, Obsidian Theatre Festival, University of Michigan SMTD, Oakland University, Eastern Michigan University, and Croswell Opera House. They’re a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD), co-founder and lead instructor of Theatrica Gladiatoria (academy for stage and film combat in Ypsilanti, MI - www.fightglad.com), and co-coordinator of the annual Mitten Mayhem Stage Combat Workshop in October (www.mittenmayhem.com). Jen is passionate about lifelong learning, trauma-informed pedagogy, intimacy and consent work, and greater BIPOC and LGBTQ+ representation in the arts.