Beth McGuire: Approach to Learning Dialects (12/12-12/14)
Company Workshop Beth McGuire: Approach To Learning Dialects Friday, Saturday, & Sunday Afternoon Dates & Times Friday, December 12, 2025 – 1:00pm-5:00pm Saturday, December 13, 2025 – 12:00pm-4:00pm Sunday, December 14, 2025 – 12:00pm-4:00pm Amanda Selwyn Dance Studio, 412 Broadway (at Canal Street), 2nd Floor This workshop is only open to participants, we cannot accommodate observers. About the Workshop Voice and dialect coach and former Yale faculty member Beth McGuire returns to The Actors Center in December for a three day workshop on approaching dialects. A dialect is not a believable one, unless it is fully embodied. This process depends on the individual actor’s access to their instrument. Beth will guide participants in exploring melody, rhythm, pace, oral posture, phonemic changes, source and path of the resonance, and focus of articulation. “This may sound technical,” says Beth, “but inevitably, aspects surface as pathways for the actor to weave the accent into the matrix of transformation. The modality that the actor chooses in their approach can change as one moves from one accent to another, but there are landmarks that can help the actor embody any accent.” We'll start by working with multicultural Parisian accents, branching outward across the globe exploring a French accent of your choice. About 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, and occasionally still gets on the boards. With colleague Jane Guyer Fujita, she teaches a series of teacher training workshops covering Phonology, Text, Dialects, and production coaching. Her book, African Accents: A Workbook for Actors (Routledge press, November 2015), is the first practical comprehensive analysis of the genre. Most recent dialect coaching projects include Lady in the Lake with Natalie Portman, Lupita N'yongo in The Wild Robot, Ryan Coogler's SINNERS with Michael B Jordan, the Marvel action film, Black Panther, and Jordan Peel’s sociopolitical horror flick US. Selected work in theater includes: African Voices Now: 3 One Acts, Almasi Collaborative Arts, Harare, Zimbabwe; He Brought Her Home in a Box by Adrienne Kennedy at Theatre for a New Audience and KISS by Guillermo Calderón at the Yale Repertory Theatre both directed Evan...

