Paul Dennhardt

Master Instructor, Master Fight Director
Normal, IL

Paul Dennhardt is a professor of theatre at Illinois State University where he heads the movement training for the MFA in Classical Acting. He is a Master Teacher/Fight Director with Dueling Arts International, a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique (M. AmSAT) and a Fight Director/Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. Paul’s fight direction has been seen at numerous venues including: The Shakespeare Theatre Company and the Folger Theatre, Washington, DC; Perseverance Theatre, Alaska; the Dallas Theater Center; the Taipei National University for the Arts; Milwaukee Shakespeare and Madison Rep, Wisconsin; Shakespeare Festival St. Louis; Florentine Opeara Company, Milwaukee; the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Paul holds an MFA in Theatre (Directing) from Western Illinois University. Professor Dennhardt’s directing credits include: Rabbit Hole, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Spring Awakening, Private Eyes, Medea, Bus Stop, Stop Kiss, Laughing Wild, Zorro, The Lion in Winter, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, and Hedda Gabler. He has directed and/or choreographed numerous musical theatre productions including: West Side Story, Carousel, Merrily We Roll Along, A Little Night Music, Dames at Sea, The Boyfriend, Lil’ Abner, Cinderella, Fiddler on the Roof, Anything Goes, Little Mary Sunshine, The Music Man, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Wind in the Willows, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Annie, Guys and Dolls, Kiss Me Kate, Peter Pan, Chicago, Assassins, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and others.

Mr. Dennhardt has been on the teaching staff for the National Stage Combat Workshop and has conducted workshops in stage combat and the Alexander Technique at the Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy for Classical Acting, the University of Montevallo, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the National Stage Combat Workshop, numerous SAFD regional stage combat workshops, the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC), the Taipei National University of the Arts, the Igor Neils Kreinig International Arts Academy in Moosburg, Austria, the Illinois High School Theatre Festival and the American College Theatre Festival.