Beth McGuire

Beth has worked as a vocal/dialect coach both on and off Broadway, in regional theatre, and in film and television for 40 years. She was a Professor in the Practice of Acting and served as the Director of Speech and Dialects at Yale School of Drama for 23 years. She is currently freelancing, teaching and coaching film, television and theatre. She occasionally still gets on the boards.

With colleague Jane Guyer Fujita, she teaches workshops in Phonology and Dialects teacher training. Her book, African Accents: A Workbook for Actors (Routledge press, November 2015), is the first practical comprehensive analysis of the genre. She is currently working on a similar workbook for Latinx accents, in collaboration with Stephanie Machado.

Most recent dialect coaching projects include Lady in the Lake with Natalie Portman, The Wild Robot (Lupita N'yongo) in the animated film of the same name and Ryan Coogler's SINNERS with Michael B Jordan.

Past favorites include:

He Brought Her Home in a Box by Adrienne Kennedy, at Theatre for a New Audience; KISS by Guillermo Calderón at the Yale Repertory Theatre; the Marvel action film, Black Panther and Jordan Peel’s sociopolitical horror flick US.

She received her MFA in acting from Brandeis University and BA from Oberlin College and acted for 30 years mainly on stage in new plays and classical works. She is grateful to be a member of The Actors Center Company and the opportunity to engage with the craft of acting.

Instagram: @bethmcguiredialects