Workshop Staff (2026)
Analiese Puzon (she/her)
Associate Instructor (AI)
Analiese Puzon (she/her) is thrilled to join the Mitten Mayhem team this year! She has worked in professional theatre, opera, film, and outdoor event coordination in the New York City area and regionally for over a decade. She has served as the General Manager for Titan Theatre Company since 2018 and joined the Shakespeare In Kalamazoo team earlier this year as Managing Director. Having earned the rank of Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors in 2017 and Intermediate Actor Combatant status with Fight Directors Canada in 2026, Analiese is passionate about expanding access to theatrical violence education for all. After completing conservatory studio acting training at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC, she earned her Business Administration AA with honors and is currently pursuing her BA in Arts Administration for Theatre with an Accountancy minor at Western Michigan University.
Josh Coslar (he/him)
Associate Instructor (AI)
Joshua Coslar is a martial artist, fight director, armorer, published scholar, and teacher based in Newark, NJ. Joshua has served multiple traditional craft apprenticeships and is a certified personal trainer and folkstyle wrestling coach. His featured theatrical work includes The Four Swords (Renaissance Entertainment Productions), “Noah’s Story” (Cheap Heat Productions), Liberty Madness (Thinkery and Verse). His designs and crafts can be seen at Mayhawke Armory and Hawk Studio. Joshua is an assistant instructor and armorer at the Arte Violenta stage combat school in New York, NY and a resident artist at Thinkery and Verse in New Brunswick, NJ.
Instagram: @swords_and_stupidity
Kate Busselle (she/her)
Associate Instructor (AI)
Dr. Kate Busselle (she/her) is the founder of Heartland Intimacy Design & Training, an intimacy training company which offers academic, accessible, and affordable intimacy training entirely online. Kate is Assistant Professor of Movement, Intimacy, and Violence at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches foundational and advanced movement courses, stage combat, and theatrical intimacy best practices for performers and stage managers. She also serves as the resident violence and intimacy designer for all School of Drama productions, and provides mentorship opportunities to emerging intimacy professionals within the program. Kate is an Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD). In addition to her violence and intimacy work, Kate is a Level 3 Margolis Method Certified Educator and is President of the Women and Theatre Program+: An Allied Feminist Coalition, which aims to foster both research and production of feminist, anti-racist, and queer theatre activities and praxis. She is also a member of the Association of Movement Theatre Educators (ATME).
www.heartlandintimacydesign.com
@drdangerouswoman @heartlandintimacydesign
Rodney Rice (he/him)
Associate Instructor (AI)
Rodney is a long-time collaborator with Theatrica Gladitoria. An Advanced Actor Combatant and Fight Choreographer based out of Ypsilanti, Michigan, Rodney brings humor and a creativity that borders on the ridiculous (he once choreographed a fight with a microfiche machine).
@MackTheIceman
Amanda Buchalter (she/they)
Teaching Assistant (TA)
Amanda is someone who likes wearing many hats, and has found that she looks good wearing them (especially when there is a sword involved). She is a multi-hyphenate artist that always strives to improve her craft(s) and looks to her community for inspiration, education, and support. That support has be shown through awards of recognition as both an actor and director. Over her 15 year career, Amanda has found herself doing everything from crying in a closet next to a microphone to kissing a fish onstage to staring intently into the lense of a camera while the fire she lit glints off of her glasses. Now, she has settled down enough to pursue teaching artistry (like how to kiss without kissing or punch without punching) and is eager for the opportunity to give back to the community that has put so much into her.
Jonny Boeger (he/him)
Teaching Assistant (TA)
Jon Boeger is a fight director, equestrian, and historical martial combat performer from Southeast Michigan. He has been directing stage combat and performing at renaissance festivals around the country, as a street character and as a jousting knight with Equus Nobilis. Notable credits include Stage Combat Instructor/Fight Director of the St Louis Renaissance Faire 2013-2020, Knight and Choreographer with Equus Nobilis 2017-2026, Fight Captain for She Kills Monsters – Ann Arbor Civic Theater 2026.
Kyndra Wojciechowski (any pronouns)
Teaching Assistant (TA)
Kyndra has been doing stage combat for the past seven years, and is a founding member of Theatrica Gladitoria. They have an ever growing love of sinking their teeth into the juicy delicious meat of the stage combat world, refining techniques both martial and theatrical, and spending time with some of the best people she has had the honor of meeting (and fighting with).
She enjoys the intermittent forays into theatre, plays violin with both the Ypsilanti Symphony Orchestra and Dexter Community Orchestra, and spins flag with the occasional drum corps. She loves finding the connections between all the things that they do, and eating well.
Sarah Vicary (she/they)
Chief of Staff
Sarah Vicary has been practicing and performing stage combat, mostly with the Michigan Renaissance Festival for the past 9 years, over that time she has been able to train at many of the mid-west regional workshops, to expand her experiences. In addition to being a part of the Michigan Renaissance festivals resident cast fight shows, she is their costumer developing the new look as they transition to a Fantasy festival, from a historic-based festival. Most recently she played the role of Captain McMorris in Henry V for Livonia’s Shakespeare in the Park.
Cassandra Wilson (she/her)
Production Assistant
Cassandra is an Advanced Actor Combatant with the SAFD, and an Intermediate Actor Combatant with FDC. This is her third year at Mayhem, and is super excited to be joining the production side! Outside of fighting, she is a musical theatre major at Eastern Michigan University and an avid reader.
Instagram: @cass.andra_wils
Drea Brown (she/her)
Production Assistant
Drea Brown (she/her) is a stage manager and designer with a vested interest in stage combat! She received her BA in Theatre at Saginaw Valley State University. Recent fight credits include Mountain Language (FD), R.U.R. (AFD) and columbinus (AFD) at SVSU, as well as Newsies (AFD) at Midland Center for the Arts. She is an active stage manager, with credits at SVSU, Midland Center for the Arts, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, and Denver Center Theatre Company as well as several others. Drea is an Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors, and has a passion for weaving together safety and storytelling with her stage management skills!
Instagram: @drea.brown.sm
Dylan Smith (she/her)
Production Assistant
Dylan is a renaissance festival stage fighter working with a troupe of misfit pirates. She does little else.
Instagram: @ravens_quill_pirates
Heather Melville (she/her)
Workshop Medic
Dr. Heather Melville is a member of the Society for American Fight Directors, with SPTs completed in quarterstaff, single sword, unarmed, knife, small sword, sword and shield, and rapier-dagger, as well as Firearms. She’s also a member of Fight Directors Canada, certified in longsword, small sword, unarmed, and rapier-dagger. In her other roles, she is a doctorally educated nurse informaticist, teacher, fire spinner, artist, and writer, because she deals with boredom by finding another cool thing to go do. She has been lucky enough to train with amazing teachers and is overjoyed that other folks will be able to have similar experiences this weekend.
Mia Baker
Production Assistant
Mia is a stage fighter most often seen at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. They enjoy long walks on the beach, throwing hands, and pretending to fight their wife for money.
Instagram: @Ravens_Quill_Pirates
Mia Kang (she/her)
Production Assistant
Mia is an actor, singer, dancer, and theater maker who specializes in movement-based devised theatre. Over the past twelve years she has studied stage combat through Fordham University's London Dramatic Academy, the Moscow Art Theatre School, and Theatrica Gladiatoria. Presently, she is an Intermediate Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors and Fight Directors Canada. She cares deeply about creating welcoming and accommodating spaces for performers of all abilities, and the ways all bodies can be vehicles for powerful and creative storytelling.