English Speech Services - Dialect Coaching

Dialect Coaching

I can help actors to produce any target dialect. My own experience as a screenwriter and filmmaker means that I understand speech not just technically but also from the perspective of the dramatist, actor and director.

I offer coaching to individual actors for audition or performance, and also coaching services for your whole production, whether in rehearsal or on set/location.


	Perfect accents require practice, but it’s possible to achieve noticeable results quite quickly. For Discovery Channel's Celebrity Doubles, I had just one hour to help each of the lookalikes pass for the originals in encounters with the public. Here are clips of “Kristin Davis”, “Catherine Zeta-Jones” and “Geri Halliwell”:

What’s involved
RESEARCH Especially if the target dialect is relatively uncommon, it's advisable that I research it, with specific attention to the vocabulary, period and social setting of your script. FOCUS ON SOUNDS My work with you the actor starts by focusing on those aspects of the target accent which differ from your own accent – not just vowels and consonants, but rhythm, melody and the overall "resonance". It’s important to train not only your mouth (e.g. with mirror work) but also your ears, so that you create an aural image of the sounds you’ll need in performance. FOCUS ON SCRIPT We then apply our work with target sounds to your text, building from words to sentences. Some actors prefer to develop the target accent before learning their lines, in which case I can devise substitute sentences using appropriate vocabulary. BACKUP It’s useful to reinforce our work together with your own practice. To assist you in this I can provide:
	• recordings of our sessions • purpose-made practice materials • a marked-up copy of your text

How and where
I am based in the London area. I can also coach you, wherever you are in the world, by phone or online via Skype, Yahoo Messenger, etc.

Rates
Rates vary depending on several factors including my travel costs and whether I need to do research in advance. Discounts are available for pre-paid packages of sessions, and I accept payment via PayPal (for which you don't need a PayPal account). Please contact me for a quote.