Proper English

I just had my first session with dialect coach Lynne Soffer today. I thought that my English accent was further along than it was. Geez, what a mess.

We started with a good foundation of Standard British, which most of the mid-to-upper class people will speak. Then we’ll degrade into the lower classes and more street lingo. Lynne is great (she was the dialect coach on Nicholas Nickleby at Cal Shakes last summer) and she’s very enthusiastic about what she does. She’s very sensitive to her students/actors. It’s encouraging to hear when I’m doing something correct, but I don’t want to hear it because she’s “sugar coating” it when she feels like I need it. I need to get it “straight” from people like her (who know their stuff) so I can be a better actor, not go through the process with my ego intact. I told the same thing to Julian… I expect a vigorous and productive discussion (even to the point of a debate) on various points through the process. It’s not just debate for the sake of debate, but challenging our ideas and concepts in order to really make it the best it can be.

I’ve got my iPod and I’ll be listening to our session over and over to work on my problem areas. It’s going to be really difficult in the beginning but it will come with time.