Christopher Elst

Experience

Selected roles listed; full résumé available on request, including fight and intimacy direction

Education and Certifications

Skills

• EMC
• Certified Teacher and Fight Director, Society of American Fight Directors
• Intimacy Director Level 2+, Intimacy Directors International
• Associate Instructor, Dueling Arts International
• Former Secretary of the Governing Body, Society of American Fight Directors

Awards and Press

• "This attention to detail is also very much in evidence during the well-choreographed fight sequences that I could watch five times and still see something new. Under the direction of Christopher Elst ... each sword, chair and beer mug is a weapon of destruction that more than once garnered a gasp from the audience."
  -- Erica Bouska, Peninsula Pulse
  
  
• "Christopher Elst, as the mysterious piper, is at once otherworldly and vaguely unnerving, the picture of both spiritual calm and hard-edged revenge."
  -- Ryan Findlay, Urban Milwaukee
  
  
• "Christopher Elst treads a difficult path, playing Romeo with words originally written for Juliet. He plays a passive man in love who must be moved to action. Elst walks the razor's edge between script and gender stereotypes with deftness. The chemistry between Tyburski and Elst is strong enough to make one wish Shakespeare had written more scenes between them. They lend authentic gravity to their first meeting, and their balcony scene is charming."
  -- Russ Bickerstaff, Shepherd Express
  
  
• "Elst builds on his character’s overhyped niceness, letting his tension bleed through little by little until he finally explodes."
  -- Matthew Reddin, Urban Milwaukee
  
  
• "...but I should also point out an acrobatic fight scene choreographed by Christopher Elst in the first act between the wife in a nightgown and the would-be blackmailer-murderer."
  -- Dominique Paul Noth, Urban Milwaukee
  
  
• "...local sheriff Buster, well played by Christopher Elst."
  -- Dominique Paul Noth, Urban Milwaukee
  
  
• "The intimacy experts — consultant Tonia Sina and designer Christopher Elst — are certainly important to make the seductions both choreographed yet believable."
  -- Dominique Paul Noth, Urban Milwaukee
  
  
• President's Award, SAFD - 2020 and 2021
  
  
• "There is as much glee to be found in Christopher Elst’s larger-than-life portrayal of a Renaissance Fair-meets-WWE wrestling actor as in any other role on stage."
  -- Matthew Reddin, Urban Milwaukee
  
  
• "There are also compelling swordfights by Christopher Elst particularly in a slow-motion ghost scene..."
  -- Dominique Paul Noth, Urban Milwaukee
  
  
• Sunset Playhouse Volunteer Award - Favorite Actor 2010
  
  
• "There's a lot of fighting in this intensely physical play, and it's consistently thrilling." -- Mike Fischer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel