Brian LeTraunik teaches Chicagoans to stab, hit, and tackle each other without actually hurting anyone. The founder of the fledgling Chicago Stage Combat Academy, he’s been fascinated by stage fighting since he saw a swashbuckling rendition of The Three Musketeers when he was 12. Nine years later, as an actor in another Three Musketeers production, the Hoffman Estates native saw a fellow cast member get hit by a sword and receive a nasty gash in his forehead.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
LeTraunik, whose mother, Elayne LeTraunik, runs Red Hen Productions in Andersonville, began acting professionally when he was eight years old, doing commercials for companies such as Oscar Mayer and McDonald’s. Also a cellist, at 14 he got a summer job with the Bristol Renaissance Faire as part of a string quartet.
After that, LeTraunik’s friends began to ask him for advice on how to properly knock other cast members down, or get knocked down themselves. When he started at Columbia College in 1994, he began training under David Woolley, one of 11 members of the Society of American Fight Directors to attain the organization’s highest ranking, fight master; by his senior year LeTraunik was Woolley’s teaching assistant.
