Dialect Coaching
Film
Theatre
The Red Sea Diving Resort – Filmed on location in Luderitz – Namibia; Pele – Northern Cape SA; kwaZulu – Natal; and in Cape Town. Working together with native language consultants, American actors were coached in a variety of accents and languages, including German, Australian, Sudanese Arabic and Amharic. Local actors were coached in the General American dialect.
Cabaret – Set in the heart of Berlin between the two World Wars, the dialects in this piece required some historical linguistic research. At that time, the prevailing model for foreign speakers of English would have been British RP. Contemporary German speakers are more likely to be influenced by a General American dialect of English.
Riding with Sugar – Set in Cape Town, South Africa, this film features British actors in the three main roles. The protagonist is a refugee from Zimbabwe with a Shona accent. The antagonist from Ghana speaks with a Dagbani accent and the love interest is a middle-class Cape Town girl of mixed heritage.
West Side Story –Set in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the dialects reflect this multicultural, blue-collar neighbourhood of the mid-1950s. The rivalry between recent migrants from Puerto Rico and working class white American boys is underscored by the accents of Caribbean-Spanish and the non-rhotic New York dialect of the time.
Bring it On: Worldwide Showdown – The ensemble cast were drawn from Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, the Caribbean and South Africa. With such diverse backgrounds, the actors were required to blend into an All-American team! I devised phonetic drills for each actor’s individual challenges in adopting a consistent General American accent.
Orpheus in Africa – A little-known story of the American impresario Orpheus McAdoo’s Virginia Jubilee Singers who visited South Africa in the 1890s. As educated descendants of slaves, they would have been under social pressure to conform to the norms of white society, which is reflected in a non-rhotic dialect of Southern-American.
Escape Room – Filmed at Cape Town Studios and at various locations around the city, standing-in for Chicago, all of the main roles were filled by American actors. My brief was to prepare local actors to deliver dialogue in General American, and to provide them with on-set support.
Cardenio – Shakespeare’s ‘lost play’ is said to be based on a section of Cervantes’s Don Quixote. The Spanish essence was embodied in the characters of the proletarian class; actors in these roles were assisted in adopting the necessary accent. The entire cast was coached for consistency in the Incidental use of Spanish names and phrases.
Honey 3 – This instalment of the franchise is set in Cape Town; my brief was to neutralise the local accents of the ensemble for the ear of an international audience. Using General American as a model, a gently exotic idiolect was achieved for each character, with due attention given to intelligibility and consistency.
Villa Sofia – Set in the period between the two World Wars, this play explores themes of reconciliation and redemption as schisms between people of different cultures and religions persist in the aftermath of the recent Balkan War. Accordingly, members of the cast were coached in delivering their respective performances in Croatian and Serbian accents.
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