Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance

About Sydney Schwindt

 Sydney Schwindt is an actor, fight director, and theatre educator in the San Francisco Bay Area and Colorado. She is also an illustrator and climate justice activist, both of which inspire her work as a theatre creative. 

Sydney has acted in many theatres across the Bay including the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival where she is a resident artist and serves on the engagement committee. She is an Associate Artist with SPARC Theatre and was recently seen as Pamela in The 39 Steps this past summer.  She teaches, acts, and fight directs at both of these institutions frequently. Sydney was the Education Director and an Associate Producer with Davis Shakespeare Festival for several years where she headed up several new programs as well as acted and fight directed in their festival season.

Sydney served as the stage combat instructor at the American Conservatory Theatre’s Graduate program (ACT) before it’s closure in 2022. There she taught a variety of weapon disciplines as well as fight directed numerous productions including Romeo and Juliet, Spring Awakening, Passage, The House of Yes, and others. Her fight direction has also been seen on ACT’s Main Stage in Gloria and A Christmas Carol along side Danielle O’Dea. Sydney's fights have been seen on stages with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Pocket Opera, Davis Shakespeare Festival, SPARC, B Street Theatre, Douglas Morrisson Theatre, and more. Sydney was part of the original cast and creative team of “Caribbean Buccaneers” a pirate stunt show in the Dominican Republic with Mirage Entertainment. She is a proud member of the Society of American Fight Directors where she is an Advanced Actor Combatant and Program Developer. She also has certifications with the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat, Stage Combat Deutschland, and Dueling Arts International. 

Sydney holds a B.F.A. from the Hartt School of Theatre, Music, and Dance in Hartford, Connecticut where there was a strong emphasis on Shakespeare and Commedia dell'Arte. Shortly after she worked in the Pennsylvania Renaissance Festival’s professional cast where she trained in character improvisation, stunts, stilt walking, and other circus skills. She believes deeply in the power of movement and comedy in story. She has trained at the San Francisco Clown Conservatory through the San Francisco Circus Center, Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo Italy, the Roving Classical Commedia Company in NYC, Naked Empire Bouffon, and has begun intro training with The Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies.

As part of Sydney’s climate theatre work she is on the Advisory Board for the Same Boat Theatre Collective. She is also heading up new educational materials on "Shakespeare and the Environment" and "Embodying the Natural World in Story”. Storytellers  have historically been at the front of cultural change. They have the unique capability of making the future tangible, sparking creativity, and generating hope. There is great power in story.