Sunday, September 16, 2007
Accents, dialects play big role in 'My Fair Lady'
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "'Any skill you have and can put at the bottom of a resume, anything you can do to set yourself apart to get your foot in the door is valuable,' he says."
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5 comments:
I think the most interesting part of this article is the very last sentence, or at least the most applicable to our business. Special skills on resumes seem to be a big help in some jobs, and a hindrance in another. To use an example Boevers did last year, it may be great that you can drive a truck if you want to be a mover, but maybe not so much if you want to be a stage manager. On the subject of the article, dialects have always been something that interested me. I did Steel Magnolias in high school where I had a heavy southern dialect(MUCH different from a Texas accent, which somehow ends up on some words I say), but I also learned about the different dialects in high school, but I'm pretty sure they were wrong, as that teacher had no freakin' clue what she was talking about.
comment above written by cfolger, sorry.
To add to the resume comment:
I think that's one of the hardest parts about writing a resume is figuring out just what to list and what doesn't matter. And of course, you always have to tweek it depending on what you're using a resume for. It seems like sometimes what matters most to you or what youre most proud of doesn't matter at all to somebody else.
As far as the article goes, I think it's really interesting to read about the process an actor goes through to learn dialects. I never would have thought of learning accents through the physical movement of the mouth rather than just listening. I don't think any of us think very much about actually moving to talk, we just think about making sounds. I wonder what the difference is for learning accents when singing versus when speaking, or even when speaking in a foreign language for part of a role or something. I'd be curious to know how they train you differntly for that.
Oh, and I'm glad to hear someone acknowledge that we don't all sound alike in the south and that some us don't really have accents at all, just our own funny slang, like y'all. But hey, don't they have their own version of ya'll here in PA?
Its funny how in our political correctness no one feels right teaching proper pronunciation to anyone but actors. Where I'm from, some people's pronunciation is so bad that I end up just pretending I understood them so that I can get on with my life. I think it would good for everyone to take diction class, because even if you do retain your accent people might be able to decipher it at least.
what i found most interesting about this article was the part where they would say that a particular accent, referring to cockney was different to almost every person that you act and i think thats tru with most accents, in the eye or in this case the ears of the beholder, there is always some way you can do something different...its just interesting that it affects how an actor or actress might approach a particular job...
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