Acting classes in-person Chicago, NY, LA or online coaching from master teacher Broadway director Dexter Bullard for auditions, self-tapes, screen acting or theater.

TODAY PREPARES FOR TOMORROW

I am focused on the tectonic-shift career circumstances for today's performers and creators: self-taping; not-for-profit, commercial and regional theater re-shaping; under compensation in the industry; production and technology changes; market mobility; creative and image rights protections; management and agency connectivity; AI generative dialectics around theatrical “natural” Intelligence; as well as ways screen-lit isolation can shift to brighten in-person art communities. I prepare actors TODAY to be PREPARED in our rapidly unfolding TOMORROW.

 

EXPERTISE

My teaching expertise has been largely advanced acting fundamentals, scene study in 21st century diverse playwrighting and on-camera acting with current screen writing.  I also teach monologues, improvisation for actors, script analysis, on-camera technique, self-taping audition, career preparation, and ensemble/physical theater.  My teaching confluences are Stanislavski (through Benedetti and Group Theatre diaspora), Viola Spolin, my Northwestern Professors David Downs (Alvina Krause) Frank Galati (adaptation of literature) Lee Roloff (Jung/myth/folklore) Dwight Conquergood (performative anthropology); games of Augusto Boal, later work of Michael Shurtleff, Ruth Zaporah’s actiontheatre; ideas from my dance experience in authentic movement, contact improvisation, Butoh, corporal mime; the “poor” stage; and with real pride, CHICAGO ENSEMBLE "STOREFRONT" acting style: visceral, muscular, immediate, ensemble-driven, brave, satiric and emotionally forward.  I received my MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Performance – my “palette” spans beyond traditional theater into experimental, immersive, performance art, art-action and event.  I have dedicated myself to living writers and artists in present cultural spaces and conversations. 

​​

MASTER ACTING TEACHER

I have taught acting technique and scene study classes at BA, BFA and MFA and Professional levels for over twenty years – mostly in conservatories.  I have learned that many teach how actors “should” act, I teach them how “to” act. From over years of contact with thousands of high talent actors, I have developed a teaching METHODOLOGY of my own.  I have innovated practical and useful pathways for training presence, sensation, attention, embodiment, response, action-playing, building relationship, evoking “beyonds,” physical transformation, personalization, text exploration, and my most recent work on intentional tools: “tasks” and “drive.”  I have hundreds of successful former students who are working in theater, television, film, voice-over and media every day.

​

PHYSICAL THEATER PIONEER

I am a physical theater artist who created my own company in 1995 called PLASTICENE.   As the founding artistic director, I developed, with the company, seventeen fully-mounted original ensemble-created productions.  Plasticene was known as a "pioneer physical theater company" (Chicago Reader.) The Chicago Sun-Times said of our work, “if you were to try locating Plasticene on a map, it would be found somewhere along the overlapping borders of theater, dance and cinematic light, in a place that bristles with ferocious physical energy, biting humor, edge and feverish imagination.  Plasticene is required viewing for anyone with an interest in the development of new languages for the stage.”  The Chicago Tribune wrote, “Bullard’s work with Plasticene is never to be missed.”

​

IMPROVISATION SPECIALIST

I am further a specialist at Spolin-based improvisation.  I had the distinct pleasure of working at THE SECOND CITY in Chicago – inarguably the "mecca" for improvisation worldwide.  I directed one of the National Touring Companies and went on to co-create/direct two original comedy revues – for Second City Detroit and ETC Chicago as well as an original, award-nominated work Reverie for Just For Laughs Montréal.  I have taught improvisation specifically for training actors – not just the kind for comedy – though I am skilled at that as well.  I have found the practices of scenic, contact, and physical improvisation are essential tools in training ownership, bravery, listening, resourcefulness, complicity, and trust in collaborators.

​