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Nick Pullin (MA ’95) has a whole lot of weapons in his basement. In his career as a fight director and choreographer, he has built an armory of about 125 knives, daggers, swords, rapiers, handguns, rifles, and even a slingshot.
“One of my pet peeves about theatrical productions, particularly those using edged weapons, is when everyone is carrying the same weapon,” Pullin says. “I love having multiple styles of weapons in a show, revealing the different classes and characters through their styles of combat and the complexity of the culture.”
Pullin, known professionally as Nick Sandys, has found a niche in Chicago’s theater scene while helping others hone their stage-fighting skills as an adjunct professor at DePaul University’s theater school. Whether he’s teaching actors to pull off a fight on the stage or teaching his students the ins and outs of medieval swordplay, Pullin pushes for authenticity.
“You’ve got to get good at what you’re doing so you can look like you can kill people,” Pullin says. “And you’ve got to be able to convince the audience that you are that dangerous while knowing that you are 100 percent in control physically, emotionally, and imaginatively.”
Pullin’s expertise is behind crossed swords and thrown fists at the Lyric Opera, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and the Goodman Theatre. But when he came to Chicago in 1995 with an acting resume and a Cambridge education, he struggled to break into the scene. In response, he pivoted to the subject that drives all of his careers: literature. He taught classes at Loyola while earning his master’s and working toward a doctorate.
“It was great to go back to school because I had left Cambridge in ’85 right as the theory explosion happened,” Pullin says. “I could really focus on learning the new theory…I could really focus on particularly performance theory. And so that became a wonderful second education.”
