SAFD Fight Director & Certified Teacher
Intimacy Director

Tonya Lynn

Tonya Lynn is a Pittsburgh-based fight director, intimacy director, and educator whose choreography credits span more than 180 productions in theatre and opera. Career highlights include Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Tosca, and Pagliacci with Pittsburgh Opera; the world premiere of Storming Heaven with West Virginia Public Theatre; the original production Sword Play at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia; the Pittsburgh premiere of She Kills Monsters at the University of Pittsburgh, including a sold-out encore performance at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center; and 18 productions with Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks. She currently serves as the Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

Tonya has trained with the United Stuntmen's Association and has been an active member of the Society of American Fight Directors for more than 20 years. She is recognized as both a Fight Director and Certified Teacher and currently serves on the organization's Governing Body as Fight Director Representative.

She is the co-founder of Brawling Bard Theater, whose mission is to reimagine classical works while creating opportunities for young artists to train and perform stage combat. Her recent honors include the 2024 KCACTF Award for Distinguished Achievement in Fight and Intimacy Direction for ≈ [Almost Equal To] at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and a 2025 KCACTF Commendation for Excellence in Stage Combat for The Inseparables.

As an educator, Tonya recently served as the Richard E. Rauh Teaching Artist-in-Residence in Performance at the University of Pittsburgh. She has also taught at Carnegie Mellon University, Point Park University, and the Community College of Allegheny County, and has worked as a teaching artist with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, City Theatre, Gateway to the Arts, and Hope Academy for Music & the Arts.

Committed to developing the next generation of theatrical storytellers, Tonya is co-founder and Workshop Coordinator of the Allegheny Alley Fight and co-coordinator of the Fight Director Training Workshop. Through her company, Eclectic Mayhem, she teaches ongoing public stage combat and theatrical movement classes.