Past Artistic Directors
2006-2019 | Scott Witt
Scott is an award winning arts practitioner who has been working in stage, television and film for thirty years in that time he has been acting, teaching, writing/adapting, fight directing, directing and or clowning on hundreds of shows and a wide variety of acting institutions. He was the President of the Society of Australian Fight Directors Incorporated from 1996 - 2007, is a Honorary Member of the British Academy of Dramatic Combat, Honorary Fight Director of Fight Directors, Canada, Affiliated Member of the Art of Combat and a Honorary Fight Director of the Independent Fight Directors Guild of America and Scott is currently the Artistic Director of the International Order of the Sword and the Pen. Scott has been a member of MEAA (Australia's Equity) since 1988. Performances Scott has directed have played throughout Australia, Malaysia, Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong. During 2002 and 2003 he was the Intern and Associate Director for the Queensland Theatre Company working under Michael Gow’s Artistic Directorship. In 2004 Scott completed a Master in Fine Arts: Drama at Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology and is the current Associate Lecturer in Movement at National Institute of Dramatic Art; Australia.
2004-2006 | Peppe Östensson
Peppe’s work mainly focuses on presence, awareness, listening and story. He is a trained performer and fight director who has been teaching and choreographing movement, acting and dramatic combat internationally for almost 30 years. Peppe started out as an actor, clown and storyteller in Scandinavia before moving on to working with movement, dance and dramatic combat. He was the Sword Master for “Arn – The Knight Templar” and “Arn – The Kingdom at Roads End”, which were nominated for Best Action in a Foreign Film at the Taurus Stunt Awards. He has choreographed fights for among others: “Fiddler on the Roof” for Malmö Opera, “Warriors” for Pontus Lidberg Dance at Norrlandsoperan, “Don Carlos” for Göteborg Stadsteater, “Romeo & Juliette” (Prokofiev) for Malmö Balletten, “Zorro” for Uppsala Stadsteater, “Twelfth Night” for Örebro Länsteater, “Hamlet” for Östgötateatern, “MacBeth” for Cressida Brown at Shakespeare and Company’s Bard En Seine Festival in Paris. He directed the dance performances “Crossroads” and “Heartquakes” (touring pieces in Sweden) as well as the monologue performance of Märta Tikkanens “Århundradets Kärlekssaga” (co-director). He has taught movement, acting and dramatic combat at College of William and Mary and Ann Arbor University in the USA, The Paddy Crean Festival in Washington DC in the US and Ontario on the Lake and the Banff Cultural Centre in Canada, The Cultural Academy in Riga, Latvia, The Theatre Academy in Oslo, Norway, Academy for Performing Arts in Fredrikstad, Norway, Endla Theatre, Viljandi Theatre and Nukku Theatre in Estonia, Teatr Groteska in Poland, The Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, and several other institutions. Peppe is the founder of the Nordic Stage Fight Society, where he has served as the chairperson twice. He is a Honorary Fight Master with Fight Directors Canada, and he was the Artistic Director for The International Order of the Sword and the Pen from 2001-2008. He is a two time recipient of the Paddy Crean award 2007 and 2015. In 2012, Maria Winton and Peppe Östensson founded the 2-year international professional training program in physical theatre called Acting and Collaborative Theatre / Linjen för Scenkonst in Linköping, Sweden. They ran the school together until Maria passed away in January 2016. Peppe continued working as the Artistic Director of the school until January 2018. Peppe currently practices Wudang Practical Tai Chi with trainer Mikael Wallin, a 2-time European Champion. Peppe considers his mentors to be: Maria Winton, Ole Brekke, Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, Erik Fredricksen, Brad Waller and Jonathan Howell. In the summer of 2017, Peppe married Hilde Veronika (formerly Høie, now Östensson), and together they now offer their services as freelancers internationally.
Inception-2004 | Brad Waller
Brad has been a teacher and fight director with The Shakespeare Theater (Washington DC). He has produced the International Paddy Crean Workshop with such cultural institutions as: The Shakespeare Theater, The Smithsonian Institution, The Folger Library, The Shaw Festival, The Stratford Festival (Canada), and the Banff Centre for the Arts. He is a certified teacher of stage combat with the Society of American Fight Directors, and Honorary Member of Fight Directors Canada. Brad is an internationally recognized scholar in 16th Century fighting systems. In 1995, he was guest curator of "The Sword and the Pen," an exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library exploring the relationship between combat and drama. He hopes to eventually raise the money to mount an expanded version of the show at the Globe Theater in London. He enjoys gardening with his two kids, Lillian and Alan.