Podcast- Amy Stoller on Accents, Dialects & Voice Over
January 26, 2010 by: Tracy Pattin
Amy Stoller is an award-winning dialect coach based in New York City. She teaches accents and dialects to performers, and American English speech and diction to non-performers.
She has been literary manager of an Off-Off-Broadway theatre company, casting director for a Brooklyn Shakespeare company and an American musical-in-progress, director of New York workshops and readings, and production manager of two one-acts that journeyed from the US to Scotland.
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Tracy, thanks so much for this – wonderful to hear from Amy!
Doing VO with accents can be great fun, and it is definitely worth pursuing this kind of work if one enjoys it and has an aptitude for it. Some relatively low cost approaches if you just want to explore: 1) Gillian Lane-Plescia at http://www.dialectresource.com/ has a series of Dialects for Actors CDs that are very helpful; 2) youtube is a bountiful resource – if you have an actor in mind (e.g., Billy Boyd, Scottish; Simon Baker, Australian) you can look up interviews; 3) Films: e.g. My Left Foot, Dublin); 4) accent archives such as http://accent.gmu.edu/ and http://web.ku.edu/~idea/ 5) theater department at the local college. I was lucky to find a course at a nearby university called Dialects for Actors. Taking language classes from native speakers is a great investment. I’ve been auditing French, German and Spanish classes at the college in my town for years (you have to forget about the fact that you might be 2-3 times older than anybody in the class – ha!). Concentrate on a few accents with which you have some facility, work on perfecting them, read out loud with them, work with a dialect coach like Amy and, ultimately, market them – and have a blast!
Mary, thanks for the kind words! You’ve given some great advice – exactly what I tell my clients, and also my potential clients.
Preparation before you work with a coach can save you money, and as an actor myself, I’m all in favor of actors saving money! I’m just as happy to help someone polish work in an advanced state as I am to guide someone in the very beginning stages of their work.
Like you, I recommend highly the three online resources you’ve mentioned: International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA), Speech Accent Archive, and Gillian’s site – I use her CDs myself as part of my toolkit, and I’m pleased to say that she occasionally refers clients to me.
A word of warning about YouTube and films: They can be fabulous resources, but be cautious in your choices. Unless you know for sure that you are listening to a native speaker, you can waste time and effort heading down the wrong path. I provide clients with carefully prepared lists of reliable resources so that this won’t happen.
Incidentally I’m IDEA’s Associate Editor for New York City. Check out my contributions here: http://web.ku.edu/~idea/editor/stollera.htm There are more samples to come.
You’ll find more good resources on my links page: http//www.stollersystem.com/internetresources.html
I hope you enjoy exploring them.
Ooops! There’s a typo in the link to my links page! It should be http://www.stollersystem.com/internetresources.html
Checking back in to say that I just got off the phone with Amy! My first coaching session with her, to prepare for an upcoming gig. She was absolutely wonderful, just what I needed. I’ll be recording my scripts in the next few days and it’s great to know Amy is available for an hour to prepare for a one-time event like this, but I would certainly recommend on-going coaching if one has an on-going dialect commitment such as a show or theater production.
I know I’ll be calling Amy again!
Thank-you Tracy, for introducing me to a fabulous coach.
Mary
Hi Tracy,
I am trying to play the audio about Amy but it says ‘file not found’. Do you think it is possible to fix it please? I’d love to hear it!
Many thanks
Lesley Lyon