The Philadelphia Stage Combat Workshop was created in 1999 by SAFD Fight Directors John Bellomo and Charles Conwell. On creating a workshop, John has said, “I wanted to see my friends and thought having a workshop and inviting them all would be the best way to do that.”

Over the years, the tasks of organizing, coordinating and running the workshop have changed hands, some locals have moved away and some have returned, but the sense of community the workshop started with goes on.

Today, teachers, practitioners and masters of stage, screen, and historical combat from around the globe make their way to Philadelphia to share their knowledge and talents with students and colleagues, and an entirely new generation of performers has risen in the nearly twenty years since the workshop was founded.