Julie Foh is a CT & NYC-based voice and dialect coach. She holds an MFA in Voice and Speech from the American Repertory Theater’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Training. With over ten years of professional experience, she has coached productions for Marvel, Tectonic Theater Project, BEDLAM, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre Center, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Westport Country Playhouse, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House, NY Stage & Film, Second Stage, New Georges, A.R.T., The Shakepeare Theatre of New Jersey, American Players Theatre, and others. She has worked with artists such as Moises Kaufman, Jo Bonney, Bill Rauch, Daniel Beaty, Thomas Kail, Terry Kinney, Moritz von Stuelpnagel, Peter DuBois, Bekah Brunstetter, Nico Tortorella, Alexa Junge, and Leslie Bibb. She has taught at UConn, Penn State, Rutgers, A.R.T., Harvard University, the Moscow Art Theatre School, Webster University, the National Theater Institute, HB Studios, The Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, and the Shakespeare Academy @ Stratford. She also holds a BA in Theater Studies from Duke University and is an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and a Master Teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork. She is a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association and co-author of Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training.

Background

I first encountered voice work as an undergraduate theater major at Duke University in North Carolina. I was interested in acting, directing, and playwriting, and work on the voice seemed to me to be a nexus of these different aspects of theater-making. As an actor, I could focus on my breath and how I was using my voice to help keep me present and spontaneous. As a director, I could work with actors on those things, as well. As a playwright, I could focus on how characters were using language to help craft moments. And so I took all of the voice classes my program offered: two Linklater-based classes taught by Christine Morris and a Roy Hart-based class taught by Rafael Lopez-Barrantes.

I first encountered Fitzmaurice Voicework (FV) as a graduate student in Voice Pedagogy at the American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard University (ART). I was drawn to it because of its foundation in anatomy and in physical action. Even its approach to muscular release was active - an exploration of the shiver reflex in order to literally shake tension out of the muscles. I studied with two Master Teachers of FV at ART - Nancy Houfek and Jeff Morrison. After obtaining my MFA in Voice Pedagogy, I was part of the eighth FV Teacher Certification, studying with Catherine Fitzmaurice, Saul Kotzubei, Cynthia Bassham, Micha Espinosa, Ilse Pfeifer, Dudley Knight, and Phil Thompson. I have been certified as an Associate Teacher of FV since 2010.

I first encountered Knight-Thompson Speechwork (KTS) also during my graduate studies at ART. Near the end of my first year of graduate school, Nancy Houfek recommended I take a speech workshop with two other Master Teachers of FV: Dudley Knight and Phil Thompson. I took a workshop called Experiencing Speech with them in NYC, and I was drawn to their approach because of its foundation in anatomy and physical action and because of its descriptive nature. It was a way to craft speech curriculum without teaching a standard pronunciation pattern. When Dudley and Phil offered their first KTS Teacher Certification, I was part of the cohort. I have been a Certified KTS Teacher since 2012, and, in 2021, I was certified as a Master Teacher of KTS. Also in 2021, I co-authored a book titled Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training with fellow Certified KTS Teachers Andrea Caban and Jeffrey Parker.