VOCAL COACHING HISTORY
Katie Bull has been a vocal coach for over 30+ years with Broadway, Film/TV, and stage credits.
Katie Bull teaches Whole Body Voice© a method of voice exploration she evolved from her work with the late great vocal coach Chuck Jones and a myriad of other influences. Whole Body Voice© is informed by jazz improvisation, post-modern dance improvisation, contact improvisation, Tibetan Buddhist meditation techniques, the Feldenkrais© Method, and Fitzmaurice Voice Technique©. Katie is a Certified Fitzmaurice Voicework© Lead Trainer. She is a North American Feldenkrais Guild Certified Feldenkrais© Practitioner FGNA.
Katie was first introduced to a voice/Feldenkrais Technique© integration collaboration in 1978 at SUNY Purchase when she had the honor of training with voice coach Chuck Jones and Feldenkrais Master Teacher Bob Chopra; it was Chopra's collaboration with voice coach Chuck Jones that set Katie on the lifelong path of curiosity around the voice and Feldenkrais integration.
“I worked closely with Katie Bull during the runs of RACE and AMERICAN SON [on Broadway]. Her consistent and unwavering support played a crucial role in my ability to sustain the intense physical presence, deep emotional commitment, and enormous vocal power that the play required of me throughout the run.”
Kerry Washington, Actress
PROFESSIONAL STUDIOS
Katie has also taught in various professional studios in NYC, including Michael Howard Studio, CayMichael Patten Studio, Larry Singer studio, and The Gate studio. She presents the Vox Lab at Atlantic Theater Company (ATC) Acting Studio and also teaches in the ATC Evening Conservatory.
FREELANCE VOICE COACHING
Highlights from 30+ years of Private Coaching include: Felicity Huffman in TransAmerica, Phoebe in Wonderland, Desperate Housewives (episodes), American Crime (audition) and the upcoming film Tammy's Always Dying; James Spader and Kerry Washington on Broadway in RACE; Kerry Washington in American Son on Broadway; Bill Irwin in Waiting for Godot on Broadway (Roundabout Theater); Mime artist David Shiner as the Cat-In-the-Hat in Seussical (Richard Rodgers Theater); Jonathan Cake in his role as Coriolanus at the Old Globe in London; Bradley Fleisher in the Broadway production of Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo; Maggie Kiley in Scarcity (Atlantic Theater Company); Mary McCann in the musical premiere of Spring Awakening (ATC); Kate Blumberg in The Syringa Tree (audition/Playhouse 91); Eva Longoria for a screentest/feature film; Eden Regal in All My Children (Emmy season); Karen Allen and Pamela Shaw in Summer Day at the Cherry Lane; Young Jean Lee in We Are All Gonna Die, at Lincoln Center; and many more.
UNIVERSITY VOICE COACHING
Voice Coaching Credits in Universities include: Brooklyn College (Graduate), and the Playwright’s Horizon Studio (NYU); NYU/Tisch Drama Dept. and Vox Level I, II, & advanced vocal production at the Atlantic Studio at NYU/Tisch since 1999 where she has been Head of Vocal Production from 2004 to 2020 and continues as a Senior Faculty Mentor to present. In her 25 years at NYU/Atlantic, she has mentored over 3,000 undergraduate students. Some notable ATC alumni who are now working actors and trained at Atlantic with Katie, include: DeWanda Wise, Elisabeth Olsen, Gina Rodriguez, Zoe Lister Jones, Ronald Peet, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Connor Perkins & Stephanie Hsu.
HER COACHING INCLUDES A SPECIFIC SEQUENCE OF PHYSICAL EXERCISES TO DEVELOP:
Greater Resonance & Power
Breath Connection
Vocal Honesty
INCREASED DRAMATIC RANGE OF EXPRESSION
My Memories of Chuck Jones
INSPIRED BY GEORGE FLOYD
AND BLACK LIVES MATTER
My memories of Chuck Jones inform the present moment and Whole Body Voice (c). They tell me that, were he alive today, Chuck would stand behind the intersectional justice movements of the 21st Century, including the vocal turning point that the heinous murder of George Floyd inspired, the BLM movement and actions for all BIPOC as well as actions for AAPI, LGBTQ, social justice, and earth justice.
When first training our voices as acting students at SUNY Purchase in the 1970s/early '80s, we teenagers were living through the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic. Our mentor, voice coach Chuck Jones was a 30-something-year-old white man who outspokenly identified as gay. He was openly partnered with a black man whom he lovingly remained with, in a domestic partnership, for the rest of his life. His teaching included these lenses:
Each day Chuck Jones came to class to teach voice, he spoke about the loss of his gay friends to AIDS and expressed anger about the homophobic response of our government and society, which was to deny, ignore, minimize, and cancel the truth of the AIDS epidemic. And he feared for his partner, expressing anger about racial injustice and the countless deaths that took place because of anti-LGBTQ bias and race hate. Chuck stood in his power and modeled holding a vocal center as he encouraged all of us to explore our voices, listen to each other - and together, "Be Heard."
Chuck taught from the position of LGBTQ and racial justice consciousness, imparting the idea that there comes a moment when we must voice our will and forcefully protect targets of hate. "Make your voice heard!" was his voice coaching call to empower voices both for artistic expression and to speak truth to power. For some of us, becoming "heard" was a call to consciously connect our creativity to visions for a better, more just world. The title of Chuck Jones’s book, “Make Your Voice Heard,” was therefore intended to have a double meaning.
My own vision for Whole Body Voice© evolved from this foundation. Perhaps it is because I was part of the '70's No Nukes and Greenpeace movement as a teenager while simultaneously first training in voicework that I instantly knew I had met a kindred soul in Chuck Jones.
Something I loved about Chuck was the way he would modulate his voice from the most sensitive and gentle sound to the strongest most voluminous sound - effortlessly. For me personally, twenty years ago on the anti-fracking climate-advocate trail, I recognized the echoes of Jone's message and the application of his technique, when I spoke out against the oil and gas industry's drilling, pipelines on sacred & public lands, and carbon emissions. I increased my own vocal power as a "fracktivist." As a white cisgender voice coach aspiring to allyship and in solidarity, I would like to affirm that we can and should, all be heard. From our deepest softness to our deepest power, we should all be heard. My memories of Chuck Jones remind me that there is no time like the present, to listen and use our voices.