Jared Kirby
Certified Fight Director and Head of NYCSS
Jared Kirby has been involved in Combat for Stage & Screen and Western Martial Arts for 30 years. He teaches in New York City (and the metro area) and has choreographed fights Off-Broadway, Nationally, in London and Sydney.
As a Fight Coordinator, Jared has worked with stars such as Peter Sarsgaard, Steve Guttenberg, Cameron Douglas and has trained performers who are working on hit shows. Jared is a member of Actor’s Equity and SAG/AFTRA.
He is the president of Combat Con in Las Vegas, past president of Art of Combat, and served for six years on the board of the International Order of the Sword & Pen.
Jared currently teaches fencing at SUNY Purchase, Sarah Lawrence College and is a Master of Arms (Maestro d’Armi) through the Martinez Academy of Arms. Jared has an ongoing Combat for Screen & Stage class in New York City and teaches at the prestigious Tom Todoroff Conservatory as well as the NY Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.
He teaches a variety of workshops across the US and around the world including Canada, England, Scotland, Finland, Italy and Australia. He has taught at the Paddy Crean International Art of the Sword Workshop, the International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Convention (ISMAC), Rapier Camp and the Western Washington WMA Workshop just to name a few.
Jared is the editor and one of the translators of “Italian Rapier Combat”, the first complete, professional translation of Capo Ferro. He is also the editor and wrote the introduction for “The School of Fencing” by Domenico Angelo and annotated by Maestro Jeannette Acosta-Martínez. Most recently “ A Gentleman’s Guide to Duelling ” was released in February 2014 and a reprint of Donald McBane’s The Expert Swordsman’s Companion was released in January 2017. For more information, see Amazon.com.
Tony Mita
Company Manager & Certified Instructor (Unarmed, Sabre, Longsword, Rapier, Knife & Quarterstaff)
Tony is driven by a mix of his passions for historical martial arts and nerd culture to create a blend of the martially realistic and the out-of-this-world fantastical in his work.
Tony began working with Jared in 2010 as a Classical & Historical Fencer, and soon after in Combat for Stage and Screen. This all began while working on his degree in Theater from SUNY Purchase. He continues to train in Western martial arts (particularly favoring the Dueling Saber).
Tony is a teacher with New York Combat for Stage & Screen and as a choreographer he has had the honor to be involved with projects such as Hamlet with the Classic Stage Company, the original musical La Maupin and Margaret: Shakespeare’s Warrior Queen (Winner: Best Original Choreography, Broadway World Off-Broadway Awards).
Kaitlyn Garden
Intensive Producer & Certified Instructor (Unarmed, Saber, Longsword, Quarterstaff & Knife)
Kaitlyn is a passionate storyteller whose approach to combat and fight design is fueled by her background in multiple movement disciplines as well as her work as an actor and musician. She loves using the physicality of combat to enhance story and reveal the complexity of human nature.
Kaitlyn has worked and trained in combat for over 10 years, beginning with NYCSS in 2013. Her training has also taken her all over the world, most notably to Sydney Australia where she is certified as an advanced combatant with the Australian Stage Combat Association. She is also the resident fight choreographer with RudeGrooms, an ensemble based theatre company out of Queens.
Her fight direction work has been seen far and wide, from city parks with Hudson Warehouse, to Off Broadway (BFF; A DARK COMEDY) and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (SWAN SONG). Other favorite credits include producing, being the assistant choreographer and star of her own action series, The Hunted: NYCSS (now streaming); working on the US premiere of NEVERWHERE, adapted from the Neil Gaiman novel, with Red Monkey Theatre Group; and most recently working with Raye Levine & Sawyer Spielberg on Misha Calvert’s short film PINK FLAGS.
Vincent Lane
Educational Outreach Coordinator & Certified Instructor (Unarmed and Saber)
Vincent loves to blend his wealth of martial arts training and experience with physical storytelling. Vincent bases his work as an instructor and as a performer in actual martial technique. He loves engaging audiences, actors, and production teams with true to life violence which elevates the story being told.
Vincent started training for his career with NYCSS in 2012. Vincent has studied several different styles of martial arts throughout his life including Shaolin Kempo, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, Kobudō, Iaido, Northern Italian Dueling Sabre, Classical French Foil, and Germanic Longsword. Since then, he has fight directed productions including: Come Here, Sweet Boy (SOOP Festival 2023), Macbeth (The Meade School), She Kills Monsters (Staten Island Shakespearean Theater), Man in the Iron Mask-(Hudson Warehouse), and The Addams Family (Bedford Community Theatre). Additionally, he has appeared in several stage and film productions as an actor. Some recent acting credits include: “Santa”(The Polar Express Train Ride),“Edmund” (New York Renaissance Faire), “Max” (The Hunted NYCSS), and “Lead Thug” (Laila).
Olivia Ball
Certified Instructor (Unarmed)
Olivia was drawn to stage combat work through her lifelong love of storytelling, Shakespeare, and swashbuckling. With her background as a drama teacher and director, Olivia is particularly excited about helping other fighters understand how moments of violence can aid in developing character and moving a narrative forward. She deeply values the collaborative and supportive nature of this discipline.
Olivia has been training with NYCSS since 2019 in unarmed combat and a variety of weapons (she has a special place in her heart for anything she can dual wield).
She has been the Assistant Fight Director for Hudson Classical Theater Company’s productions of Macbeth, Coriolanus, and Margaret: Shakespeare’s Warrior Queen (Winner: Best Original Choreography, Broadway World Off-Broadway Awards). She particularly enjoys opportunities to introduce young people to this art form, and has incorporated fight work into the Drama curriculum she teaches with fifth through twelfth grade students.
Instructors-in-Training
Assembled and led by Jared Kirby.
Katherine Lerner-Lam
Assistant Instructor
Katie incorporates mindful movement in her work and applies balance techniques from ballroom dance and Peking Opera to her fights. She loves to explore new ways to bring character into a fight and aims to add safety and awareness to every performer’s toolkit.
Katie began training as a stage and screen combatant with Jared Kirby in 2014. She has worked as Assistant Fight Director for the Staten Island Shakespearean Theatre Company’s production of Richard III, Hudson Warehouse’s production of Sense and Sensibility, and the short film “Down on Delaware“. Previous stage acting credits include Beijing Playhouse’s A Christmas Carol (Jacob Marley) and Collaboration Town’s Horror Show (Ensemble); film acting credits include the short films “Sharper”, “The Underwear Ordeal”, and “The Demon Inside”.
Mabon Gibson
Assistant Instructor
Mabon Gibson (They/Them) is an actor/singer originally from Ohio. They hold a BA and MM in vocal performance and found their love of stage combat towards the end of their graduate studies. They’ve been training with NYCSS since the start of their stage combat journey.
Adam Garden
Assistant Instructor
Adam is a trained actor, and an accredited Fight Director with the Australian Stage Combat Association. Adam has studied various styles of combative arts with the Action Acting Academy since 2013, then supplemented that with Historical European Martial Arts, including English, Italian, and Germanic styles with the Stoccata School of Defence since 2014. He later took up Boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Kickboxing, Wrestling, and MMA in 2020 to be able to be as versatile as possible when performing and creating choreography. He moved to NYC in 2024 to refine his skill base, and continue his combat journey with NYCSS.