John McFarland

John McFarland is a Master Teacher with the BASSC and has been a proud member of the academy since 1998, one of the organization’s first four teachers. He holds an MFA from Brandeis University in Boston, and a BFA from Wayne State University in Detroit. He is a Fight Director/Certified Teacher with the SAFD and an Honorary Fight Master with FDC. An award-winning Actor, a teacher and theatre practitioner. John has been on faculty at Columbia College Chicago since 2000, teaching combat, acting process, intimacy, non-consensual intimacy and violence, fighting for film, vocal extremes, voice for the actor and single point yoked wire work. He is on staff with Roosevelt University’s MA program, where he is teaching combat to Teachers and Directors. Other credits, University of Wisconsin Madison, University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, workshops in Germany, Ireland, Spain, Canada and the USA. John was a co-founder of the Chicago’s The Winter Wonderland Workshop and was its coordinator for 6 years. Some of John’s fondest stage combat roles: Athos in The Three Musketeers, Lenny in Of Mice and Men, Ajax in Troilus and Cressida and Alsip in The Liar. He resides in Chicago with his wife, actor and dialect coach, Susan Gosdick.