Skip to main content

​​​​Acting in Accent

Course dates

July 2 to July 15, 2018

Application deadline

April 30, 2018

  • Perform any accent! Join top Broadway and Hollywood accent coaches and learn the skills to accurately and convincingly perform any character’s accent.
  • Add an important layer of storytelling to your acting with accent work.
  • Practice the skills to integrate accent work into your acting.
  • Receive individualized performance coaching with leading accent coaches.
  • Display your skills in a public student showcase performance.

Apply Now
 

COURSE NUMBER/CREDITS

undergraduate: DRAMA 420, 3 units
graduate/postbac: DRAMA 620, 3 units

MATERIALS FEE

none

WHO SHOULD APPLY

Actors (including voice actors) at an advanced level. A background in and affinity for voicework and International Phonetic Alphabet, and experience with accents is a plus.

HOW TO APPLY

  1. Submit a (one page max) letter of interest stating your experience in voice and accent training, and how this course in particular will support you in your performance training goals at this time. Additionally, submit a performance resume. You will be contacted to schedule an audition interview following receipt of your application.
  2. Submit/upload the materials listed in step one when you apply online by April 30, 2018.

COURSE COORDINATOR

Professor Andrea Caban
917-923-3439

Guest Artists

Phil Thompson​

Phil Thompson is a founder of Knight-Thompson Speechwork (KTS), a skills-based approach to training actors for detailed and nuanced accent work. Through the KTS Teacher Certification Program, he is training the accent coaches of the next generation. KTS coaches trained by Phil have gone on to coach A-list actors in major motion pictures and TV projects (including Rogue One and the upcoming Murder on the Orient Express starring Johnny Depp and Daisy Ridley), and have been featured as accent experts on countless viral videos (Wired Magazine and HowCast.com among them). Phil is the head of Voice and Text at the Utah Shakespeare Festival (USF) where he has been resident coach since 1999. He has coached more than one hundred shows at USF, and has coached 28 of the 37 plays in the Shakespearean canon. His work extends beyond Shakespeare, and he is often called in to work on plays with accents or unusual vocal demands. He has worked at numerous professional companies around the country including five recipients of the Regional Theatre Tony Award: South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, Denver Center Theatre Company, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Over the past 20 years he has coached more than 175 professional productions. Phil is a full Professor at UC Irvine in the Department of Drama and a designated Master Teacher of Fitzmaurice® Voicework.

Dawn-Elin Fraser

Dawn-Elin Fraser isHead of Voice and Speech for New Studio on Broadway/NYU and is also on the voice faculty at Yale School of Drama. HerBroadway accent coaching credits include Finding Neverland, Waitress, and the upcoming Once On this Island. Her Off-Broadway credits include Nat Turner in Jerusalem, SOJOURNERS, Her Portmanteau (NYTW), Barbeque (The Public), Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature), and Invisible Thread (Second Stage). National tours include The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Finding Neverland, and Waitress.

Jane Guyer Fujita

Jane Guyer Fujita is an Assistant Arts Professor in the department of Graduate Acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has coached accents and dialects for productions on Broadway as well as at the American Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Primary Stages, The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival, Signature Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theater, Ugly Rhino, and Shakespeare in the Parking Lot. She has coached accents for various film and television productions including Z: the Beginning of Everything, Red Oaks, and Power. She also has a private voice and speech coaching practice in New York City. Her previous teaching appointments include positions at the MFA training programs at the Yale School of Drama, the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, and the American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard University. Jane is the recipient of three certificates of distinction in teaching from Harvard University. She has worked with numerous graduate and professional acting students, preparing them for the voice and accent demands of the twenty-first century, both on stage and on screen. Jane is a Certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice® Voicework.

Nathan C. Crocker

Nathan C. Crocker is a professional actor, teacher and coach based in the New York City area. He is currently the speech instructor for Mason Gross School for the Arts BFA/MFA Acting Conservatory program at Rutgers University, focusing primarily on KT Speechwork. He has taught vocal production for the Atlantic Theatre Company/NYU BFA acting program, and voice and speech for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. His voice and dialect coaching credits include Detroit ’67 at Chautauqua Theatre Company, Too Heavy For Your Pocket at Roundabout Theatre Company, The Laramie Project at Marymount Manhattan College, and Passion Play at Santa Rosa Summer Rep Theatre Festival. He has also served as Artistic Associate and voice/dialect coach for Santa Rosa Summer Rep Theatre in CA. Nathan is a Certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice® Voicework.

Ron Carlos

Rob Carlos is a New York-based voice, speech and dialect coach. He currently teaches speech and dialects at the Yale School of Drama, and has taught at Harvard University, City College of New York, Marymount Manhattan College, Atlantic Theatre School (NYU/Tisch School of the Arts), The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, The National Student Leadership Conference, and Shakespeare Academy @ Stratford. His Broadway coaching credits include The Glass Menagerie, and It's Only a Play. His Off-Broadway credits include Privacy, Plenty, Sweat, Party People, and Gently Down the Stream (The Public Theater). His regional credits include Mary Jane, Assassins, Seven Guitars, WAR (Yale Rep), Grounded (Westport Country Playhouse), The Piano Lesson (Hartford Stage), Misalliance, Love's Labour's Lost (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), The Lily's Revenge, The Snow Queen (American Repertory Theater), and Master Harold…and the Boys (Gloucester Stage Company). Ron’s film and television credits include Orange is the New Black (Netflix), Madam Secretary (CBS), Power (STARZ), Unforgettable (CBS) and Fringe(Fox), Look Away, and The Week Of. He is proud to have received his MFA in Voice and Speech Pedagogy from the American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard University, and is an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®.

More Theatre Courses

Chicago-Style Comedy

July 2 to July 15, 2018

Performing Spoken Word Poetry: Black Girl Magic

July 16 to July 29, 2018

Lights, Camera, Fight! Film and Stage Combat

July 16 to July 29, 2018

Gwendolyn Mok smiling


French piano music: Painting with sound

​THIS CLASS HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Delve deeply into the magical piano music of Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, and their contemporaries in this immersive course. Work with outstanding pianist-teachers on interpreting these composers’ works while improving your technique, playing duets, and discovering how other art forms— dance, literature, painting—have influenced this style.

  • Work closely with world-renowned pianist-teachers in daily lessons, master classes, and interactive workshops.
  • Broaden your horizons and find new meaning in your work through special-topic classes on French piano music and its relation to visual art, poetry, and culture.
  • Perform for the public in solo and duet settings alongside other course participants. This course will culminate in a public student recital.


Jeffrey LaDeur Playing Piano 

COURSE NUMBER/CREDITS

Undergraduate: MUSIC 422, 3 units
Graduate/post-baccalaureate: MUSIC 622, 3 units

MATERIALS FEE

None​

WHO SHOULD APPLY

Pianists 16 years and older, including undergraduate and graduate piano majors worldwide are invited to apply. Applicants should be studying late-intermediate to advanced-level repertoire. Adult learners and experienced piano teachers who would like to learn about the pedagogy of French piano music are also strongly encouraged to apply.

HOW TO APPLY

  1. Prepare and submit the following materials:
    1. A high-quality, unedited video recording (link to YouTube, Google-Drive, or Dropbox is best) of two (2) contrasting works from the standard repertoire, memorized, of which one is by a French composer; no longer than 20 minutes in total.
    2. An updated CV.
  2. Submit/upload the materials listed in step one when you apply online by April 29, 2019.

COURSE COORDINATOR

Professor Omri Shimron
336-554-5621

Guest Artists

Jeffrey LaDeur – jeffreyladeur.com

Jeffrey LaDeur performs worldwide at venues from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the Shanghai Conservatory, and is praised for his “delicate keyboard touch and rich expressivity" (San Francisco Chronicle). LaDeur is founder and artistic director of New Piano Collective and the San Francisco International Piano Festival. In 2015, LaDeur began a survey of Debussy’s complete solo piano music, culminating in an acclaimed recital at Carnegie Hall. His debut album, featuring works by Debussy and Rameau has been hailed as “a masterpiece of understatement, simplicity, and ‘old school’ chord-playing where every note sings out with meaning” (Gramophone).

Gwendolyn Mok - gwendolynmok.com

Pianist Gwendolyn Mok has been performing Maurice Ravel's works in recital since 1995, and was invited to teach these works at the Royal College of Music, Welsh College of Music, The Dartington International Summer School in Devon, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Mok has recorded the complete solo works of Maurice Ravel on a restored Erard concert grand dating from 1875. Currently the Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at San Jose State University School of Music and Dance, Gwendolyn has studied at the Juilliard School of Music, Yale University, and SUNY Stony Brook. From there she went on to win several piano competitions and perform in major concert venues, including Alice Tully Hall, The Barbican, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Hong Kong Performing Arts Center.

Éva Polgár

Éva Polgár's vibrant musical personality shines particularly through her devotion to contemporary music. Her recent concerts have included concerto performances with conductors Tamás Vásáry (Budapest Danube Palace) and Horst Förster (Leipzig Gewandhaus). Polgár is the so-director of the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition. A committed educator, she has appeared at master classes and festivals such as the Bogotá International Piano Festival and the Tulsa University Summer Piano Academy in Oklahoma. A graduate of the Franz Liszt University, Sibelius Academy, and the University of North Texas, she is an adjunct faculty at UNT and Texas Womans' University.

Joel Schoenhals - joelschoenhals.com

From 2012 and 2016, Joel Schoenhals performed the cycle of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas in more than 70 concerts throughout Michigan. Schoenhals has also received praise for his recordings Bartók’s For Children, Lieder of Schubert Transcribed for Piano by Franz Liszt, and Musical Moments of Schubert and Rachmaninoff on Fleur de Son Classics. He holds a Master of Music, Doctoral of Musical Arts, and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Schoenhals is now Professor of Piano at Eastern Michigan University and Foreign Expert at Central China Normal University in Wuhan, Hubei, China.

Richard Shuster - https://twu.edu/music/faculty-and-staff/richard-shuster-dma/

American pianist Richard Shuster is Professor of Music and Director of Piano Studies at Texas Woman's University. Shuster is a versatile pianist and a dedicated pedagogue and mentor who integrates a natural approach to technique and focuses on injury prevention, sound/color production, and musical style. His most recent CD, Gabriel Fauré: The Complete Nocturnes was released in 2014 on the Fleur de Son label to great critical acclaim. Shuster has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar Grant to teach piano literature courses at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary in 2019. Shuster has served as guest teacher and adjudicator at a variety of institutions in the Philippines, Europe, Japan, and Taiwan. Shuster earned his Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music in Piano Performance degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

William Wellborn - williamwellborn.com

William Wellborn is an active performer, teacher, and lecturer, and has appeared throughout the US, and in Canada, France, and Brazil. A scholar of historic pianists, he hosted over a hundred programs on the San Francisco-based radio show "Piano Legacy." This summer he returns to teach at the Idyllwild Adult Piano Seminar and the Krakow Piano Seminar. The director of numerous European musical tours, Wellborn is planning a fifth Chopin tour for 2020. A faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1989, his students frequently win top prizes in state, national, and international piano competitions. 

More Music Courses

NewsletterDonate