John has taught stage combat classes at educational institutions such as DePaul University, Illinois State University, College of DuPage, and was a Guest Artist at Roosevelt University. Regional workshops John has taught at include The Winter Wonderland Workshop, Seattle Sockeye, Cease and Desist, Central Illinois Stage Combat Workshop, Rumble in the Rockies, and Havoc in the Heartland. John has also taught at the National Stage Combat Workshop and the North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Session: Introduction to Stage Combat.

John has choreographed violence in over 350 productions for companies such as Steppenwolf, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Lookingglass, About Face Theatre, The Gift Theatre, Route 66 Theatre, Actor's Theatre of Indiana, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble and Fox Valley Repertory. Most notably, John choreographed the violence for the world premiere A Red Orchid Theatre’s THE OPPONENT for which he won the 2013 Joseph Jefferson Award for Fight Direction, and won the 2019 Joseph Jefferson Award for his fight choreography for GIRL IN THE RED CORNER, produced by Broken Nose Theatre Company. John was also nominated for a 2015 Joseph Jefferson Award for his fight choreography in CAMELOT, produced by Drury Lane Oakbrook.

He holds a Masters degree in Directing and a Bachelors degree in performance from Illinois State University, where he was the recipient of the prestigious Jean Scharfenberg Acting Award. John is currently an Associate Professor of Acting/Directing at Illinois State University.