Ian Borden

Fight Director

Dr. Borden teaches Theatre Studies and Performance for the Carson School, and is a scholar and translator of Renaissance English and Spanish drama.

He is a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors, and has choreographed violence on stage and film in Canada, the USA, Ireland, Spain, and the Bahamas. Recent stage combat work for Nebraska Rep includes Julius Caesar, The Play That Goes Wrong, Sense and Sensibility, POTUS, Shakespeare’s R&J and Bright Star. Internationally, he staged violence for You Can Lead a Horse to Water at Shakespeare in Paradise in Nassau, the Bahamas, as well as Numancia in Málaga, Spain. You can see his cinema work in the Hollywood film Hide and Bleed, which won the won the Best First Time Filmmaker award at the Cannes Short Film Festival.

You may have seen his staging of The Importance of Being Earnest at Nebraska Rep, and in summer 2026, he directed and fight directed Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood for West Virginia Public Theatre.