Teaching from Heart & Soul, Episode 1: Bill Fennelly & Sue Ellen Kuzma
Bill teaches in the world of acting and Sue Ellen teaches in the world of singing: Both teach voice.
Bill came to teaching as a way to positively impact the world while continuing to do his own creative work in the theatre. He found he could bring the creative and the scientific together through open-hearted teaching. He encourages his students to bring all their senses into the study of craft and technique by creating a safe, challenging, and nurturing environment where everyone grows as an artist, himself included!
Sue Ellen came to teaching initially as an economic necessity, that necessity quickly giving way to become the “essential river that I walk in.” The epic journey of finding one’s musical voice, the bravery of continuing to show up and commit to the work of the lessons, the centered focus on the breath and the sound that comes out, the joy of watching the engagement of love when people come into song - all this and more make up the flowing river that Sue Ellen calls teaching. “It’s all in how you love it,” she says. “It can change your life.”
Meet This Episode's Guests
Bill Fennelly
Bill Fennelly’s work has been seen on Broadway, Off Broadway and regionally. Director Fly By Night (Bay Area Critics Circle Award nomination for Best Direction), Frankenstein the musical Off Broadway, A Christmas Carolfeaturing F. Murray Abraham and Lynn Redgrave, Original Assistant Director Jersey Boys, Resident Director The Lion King, staff director with New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, Phil Killian Directing Fellow at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as well as projects at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Syracuse Stage Company, Dallas Theater Center, TheatreWorks Palo Alto, Playwrights Horizons, Hartford Stage Company, Goodspeed Opera House, Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage Company, Arizona Theatre Company, Fords Theatre, The Alliance Theatre, Glimmerglass Opera, American Musical Theatre Project, National Alliance of Musical Theatre, and Walnut Street Theatre among others. Associate Producing Artistic Director of The Acting Company and Assistant Artistic Director at Cirque du Soleil. B.M. from the Hartt School and an M.F.A. in Directing from U.C.S.D. Bill is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Sue Ellen Kuzma
SUE ELLEN KUZMA grew up in upstate New York. Her professional life as an actress and singer - opera, recitals, directing - took her to Europe, where she sang in Mozart's Da Ponte operas with director Peter Sellars, as well as leading roles in US opera companies (Miami, Boston, Portland). She was a
member of the Proposition Theater and taught for many years at Trinity-Brown Conservatory. She resides in Natick, where she maintains a voice studio. Her first book of poems "Aroused Angel" has just been published.
