Its all in the Accent

An accent can make or break a production, seriously. It can add a sense of location when done well and is overly distracting if done badly.

I have to admit I have always found it easy to pick up accents (sometimes so easily I get them mixed up!) and I guess that is from years of impersonating characters off the radio and Tv. Pretty much all of the productions I have done, I have been able to get away with my natural speech or a slight English lilt. It wasn't until a couple of years ago when I did a production requiring an American Accent. I didn't even think about it. I just did it. The reviews however caught me off-guard. All were quite favourable but one in particular stuck out. It made the comment "His gentle American soap-star accent stapled neatly to him and never slipping (as indeed did all of the cast's accents remained impeccably pinned to their lips, never seen such a convincing lot) he engenders our sympathies with his torn plight." I for the first time realised the impact of a good accent.

But what exactly was it that I and my fellow cast members were doing to accomplish this? So I read up on the subject. I was initially surprised by the technical aspects of accents but then it all made sense.

In a global sense, there are two theatrically accepted and distinct English Accents, Received Pronunciation (Common British) and General American. For Australian Theatre we have General Australian. Underneath these, you have the many derivatives and subcultures. Each accent is placed physically in a different area of the head when spoken and will use the lips, tongue and jaw in completely different ways. Some accents would sound letters that weren’t there and then would drop those same letters when they were.

It really is quite a complicated sounding issue but surprising easy to pick up. I have found that once someone has developed a general feel for the sound of certain words, they can quickly adapt their speech without much effort. I was recently asked to help a few actors with American Accent development. One in particular had a rather broad Australian accent and they were worried that they would not be able to do it.

The 2 main differences between American and Australian accent are;
1)            Australians tend to speak with their lips spread across and Americans are more conservative preferring an up and down spread.
2)            Australians form their words mostly in the back of the throat while Americans are higher and more central, just the below the nasal cavity. For comparison, Received Pronunciation if located toward the front of the mouth and uses minimal movement of the lips in any direction.

Needless to say, once this actor exposed themselves to an instructional course of American Accents, they were able to complete the next rehearsal almost flawlessly. Quite an achievement in itself, but it just goes to highlight the ease that such a task can be accomplished with drive and dedication.

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