U Jonathan Toppo - Fight Director

• Resident fight director, actor, and teacher at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for over 27 years.

• 3rd degree black belt (Aikido of Ashland) and 2nd degree black belt (Yoshinkan Aikido)

• Associate Instructor Dueling Arts International

• Level 1 Instructor Krav Maga

• Adjunct faculty member Southern Oregon University

Fight Director OSF 2019: Othello; Romeo and Juliet; Oklahoma; Destiny of Desire; Sense and Sensibility; Henry 5; The Way the Mountain Moved; Snow in Midsummer

In 28 seasons at OSF: Fight director, Bring Down the House; Julius Caesar; Shakespeare in Love; UniSon; Off the Rails; Hannah and the Dread Gazebo; Henry IV, Part Two; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Disney’s Beauty and the Beast; Hamlet; The Wiz; Richard II; Guys and Dolls; Fingersmith; Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land; Sweat;Pericles; Long Day’s Journey into Night; The Happiest Song Plays Last; Cocoanuts; A Wrinkle in Time; The Comedy of Errors; Water by the Spoonful; Richard III; Into the Woods; The Taming of the Shrew; A Streetcar Named Desire; King Lear; The Unfortunates; The Liquid Plain;Cymbeline; Romeo and Juliet; Animal Crackers; All the Way; Henry V; August: Osage County; Henry IV, Part Two; The Pirates of Penzance; To Kill a Mockingbird; Hamlet; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Ruined; Henry IV, Part One; The Merchant of Venice; American Night; Macbeth; The Music Man; The Servant of Two Masters; Don Quixote. Associate fight director, Vietgone. Assistant fight director, 1994–2008. Resident Fight Director, 2008–2020. 

Other Theatres: Sweat Broadway (Studio 54 and The Public Theater); White Noise (Suzan-Lori Parks, World Premier; The Public Theater); Julius Caesar (Theatre for a New Audience, Brooklyn, NY); Henry 4 pt 1 (The Folger Theatre, Washington DC); Othello (A.R.T. Boston) Sweat (Dallas Theatre Center); West Side Story (The Guthrie Theatre); Angels in America (Berkeley Repertory); Mojada (Portland Center Stage); Pericles (Guthrie Theater); The Pirates of Penzance (Portland Opera); All the Way(Seattle Repertory Theatre). 

Awards: Drama Desk Award for Best Fight Choreography - Sweat  (The Public Theater) Drama Desk Award Nomination for Best Fight Choreography- Julius Caesar (Theatre for a New Audience, Brooklyn, NY) Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Best Fight Choreography - Henry 4 pt 1 (The Folger Theatre, Washington DC)