Voice & Speech Coaching / Dialects / Accent Acquisition
Your voice is one of the most important things you bring to your acting, and it's an essential component of who you are.
In addition to directing productions large and small, locally and regionally, I spend a lot of time working with actors and singers, helping them work on a specific role, audition, or just to help them develop the strength, ease, and quality of their communication. Sometimes this involves one session directed to perfecting an audition, and sometimes it's an ongoing coaching relationship. Not only do I work daily with my students at New York University, I also work with professionals, many of whom have acted on Broadway, National Tours, Regional Theater, Film and Television.
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"I've worked with Evan extensively as both an acting coach and a voice & speech coach, and I have to say that his work is truly first-rate. His knowledge of the material and subsequent attention to detail leads to an invalauble coaching experience--all in a comfortable and relaxed work environment. His dedication and passion shines through in all that he does. Without Evan's help over the past few years, I doubt I'd be making my Broadway debut at the age of 24!"
-Nic Rouleau Broadway: Book of Mormon |
"Dialects and heightened language such as Shakespeare and Chekov used to be some of my biggest fears, but beneath all of the words and sounds is something simple and human. Evan helped me to understand this. Once I knew the living breathing human within a dialect or language, the words and sounds that once scared me were suddenly mine. I could communicate instead of think 'I have no f*#%ing clue what I am saying.'"
-Jay Armstrong Johnson Broadway: Hair, Catch Me If You Can |
Voice & Speech Coaching
There was a great article by Atul Gawande in The New Yorker, October 3, 2011 called "Personal Best," which was about a surgeon's pursuit to improve his craft with the help of a coach. He made wonderful observations about the coaching process which are directly relevant to our work in the theater arts:
"No matter how well prepared people are in their formative years, few can achieve and maintain their best performance on their own... Expertise, as the formula goes, requires going from an unconscious incompetence to conscious competence and finally to unconscious competence. ...The coach provides the outside eyes and ears, and makes you aware of where you're falling short. ...Good coaches know how to break down performance into its critical individual components. [They] speak with credibility, make a personal connection, and focus little on themselves. ...Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance."
Send me an email, and get started working toward your goal!
Dialect Coaching
Need a dialect for your audition? For the role you booked? For the cast of your show?
Anyone can improve their dialect! While the bookstores are full of dialect books, what most actors are missing is the qualified outside ear. The dialect coach can help you tackle the dialect that you just can't get, and I can also help you turn your 'pretty good' dialect to something that is authentic, accurate and vocally free.
Send me an email, and let's start working on this!
Anyone can improve their dialect! While the bookstores are full of dialect books, what most actors are missing is the qualified outside ear. The dialect coach can help you tackle the dialect that you just can't get, and I can also help you turn your 'pretty good' dialect to something that is authentic, accurate and vocally free.
Send me an email, and let's start working on this!
Accent Acquisition (Accent Reduction)
Many people come to New York City from other parts of the country - and other parts of the world - and sometimes we bring our regional accents and dialects with us. Many people, from actors to businesspeople, southerners to foreigners, will contact me for help with acquiring a more neutral American accent, with the goal of becoming more clear and better able to communicate with others.
If you have the will to make progress in this area, and the time to dedicate to it - you can make a lot of progress towards your goal of more clear and neutral 'American' speech.
Generally, we have three principle areas that we can work with to make improvements:
1. Physical exercises that help build your awareness of the American speech sounds that we'll be looking to change or refine; as well as awareness of the articulators, 'mouth shapes,' and vocal placement that create these sounds.
2. Attention to specific sounds (phonemes) of the English language - and a gradual process of refining these sounds.
3. Work with conversation and text to bring together physical awareness, specificity of speech sounds, and the rhythmic and musical qualities of American English to make your communication in English natural, practical, fluid...and truthful.
Most often, students will work with me once a week, sometimes even twice a week. It's also possible to work less frequently - there is a lot of information you can get in a short time - but of course, like learning a musical instrument, it's the weekly practice that produces the most reliable results.
Of course, it depends on your time & budget realities, but I’m delighted to work with you for as many or as few sessions as we can work out. Send me an email, and get started working toward your goal!
If you have the will to make progress in this area, and the time to dedicate to it - you can make a lot of progress towards your goal of more clear and neutral 'American' speech.
Generally, we have three principle areas that we can work with to make improvements:
1. Physical exercises that help build your awareness of the American speech sounds that we'll be looking to change or refine; as well as awareness of the articulators, 'mouth shapes,' and vocal placement that create these sounds.
2. Attention to specific sounds (phonemes) of the English language - and a gradual process of refining these sounds.
3. Work with conversation and text to bring together physical awareness, specificity of speech sounds, and the rhythmic and musical qualities of American English to make your communication in English natural, practical, fluid...and truthful.
Most often, students will work with me once a week, sometimes even twice a week. It's also possible to work less frequently - there is a lot of information you can get in a short time - but of course, like learning a musical instrument, it's the weekly practice that produces the most reliable results.
Of course, it depends on your time & budget realities, but I’m delighted to work with you for as many or as few sessions as we can work out. Send me an email, and get started working toward your goal!
