bad accent
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Directing
Forum Discription: For questions about handling shows, actors, crew, board members, children ...or do we repeat ourselves?
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2064
Printed Date: 11/23/24 at 3:34pm
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Topic: bad accent
Posted By: eveharrington
Subject: bad accent
Date Posted: 10/06/06 at 2:37am
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I'm directing an upcoming show set in an italian restaurant that will undoubtably bring out some farflung attempts at an accent from someone. I will tell them no accents at the auditions of course, but I'm considering telling the final cast to forgo the accents altogether. My question is this, do you find it more distracting if an actor is missing an accent it seems like they should have, or has an accent that is not quite right or over the top? ------------- "If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the footlights." |
Replies:
Posted By: B-M-D
Date Posted: 10/06/06 at 8:13am
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I think you'll need to decide if accents are necesary for the show. If they are then you may want to see who makes the best attempt at one during the auditions but you might be left in unenviable position of deciding on the best actor or the best accent. Good luck! ------------- BD 
"Dying is easy, comedy is hard." |
Posted By: suzecue1
Date Posted: 10/06/06 at 8:31am
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I think it is more distracting to have some doing it and some not. If the cast can't all do it believably, then don't do it. When I played Emma in "Over the River and Through the Woods" we purchased Italian Dialect tapes from Samuel French. It worked wonders and was fairly easy to speak with a slight Italian accent. Luckily we were all able to pull it off. The important thing is to start working with the tapes early enough (way before the cast is off book) that it becomes second nature. ------------- Sue ***** So many hats.....so few heads! |
Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 10/06/06 at 11:39am
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I have used the "Acting with an Accent" by David Allen Stern... They are availalbe through French.. We used his CD's for a NYC accent for Lost in Yonkers and we are currently using his British and Cockney CD's for Scrooge... good resource for a convincing accent.. ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |
Posted By: Topper
Date Posted: 10/06/06 at 12:40pm
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In my opinion, a bad accent is more distracting than no accent at all. I remember attending a community theater production of "South Pacific" and the actor portraying the handsome and romantic Emile De Becque was attempting some kind of accent that at once was familiar for some inexplicable reason. It didn't sound quite right for the character and was driving me crazy until my friend attending with me pointed out that this dashing, romantic leading man sounded exactly like Andy Kaufman's "Latka" character from the sitcom Taxi! Needless to say, every time that poor actor tried to speak or sing, I got an uncontrollable case of the giggles that was difficult to suppress. I kept expecting him to say "Tenkyouverrymuch." ------------- "None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public." -- Keith Johnstone |
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 10/06/06 at 2:46pm
Now, if he had sung "Some Enchanted Evening" in an Elvis voice, I'd have paid to see that! Most definitely, bad accent <<< no accent. Is there some need to do accents anyway? I've been in a lot of Italian restaurants -- a LOT of Italian restaurants ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
-- and very few of them had people with Italian accents inside. Posted By: Shatcher
Date Posted: 10/06/06 at 3:08pm
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My rule for pryo applies here: When in dought leave it out |
Posted By: red diva
Date Posted: 10/06/06 at 3:36pm
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If they all can do the accent fairly convincingly, go for it. If not, no-one should do it. All or nothing at all, I guess! I think certain shows almost require an accent because of the distinctive language used (eg: anything by Noel Coward, Brian Friel, Tennessee Williams.... where the language used is obviously typical of a certain locale and the cadence of the lines almost produces the accent automatically). It doesn't have to be heavy. The gentleman who helped my cast develop their Irish accents for "Dancing at Lughnasa" suggested that we pick out one or two elements of the accent and only use those, focusing on the "lilt" or cadence of the language instead of the sound of the words. And Neil Simon is just as funny (well, some of his plays are funny) without a New York/Jewish accent. Just make sure you focus on the "Simon Rhythm". red diva ------------- "I've worked long and hard to earn the right to be called Diva!" |
Posted By: Aimee
Date Posted: 10/06/06 at 6:06pm
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We just did Diary of Anne Frank. Oh how I wish they left the accents out. I totally agree with Red Diva, if ALL the actors can't make it sound right, non of them should have it. It really can be distracting if all the characters are German and you have a few that sound southern. Good luck with it! ------------- Aimee |
Posted By: A-M-K
Date Posted: 10/19/06 at 8:24pm
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Here's an interesting accent story for y'all. In a fairly recent community theater production of Peter Pan, at one rehearsal, Smee suddenly began sporting a french accent! He had told the director he just wanted to try it out. Needless to say, the rest of the pirates stood there, chins dropped to our chests, and finally started giggling. Someone finally said, "You're kidding, right?" and the director said she'd told him he could try it! Picture Smee saying, in a very horrible french accent, "Oui oui, mon capitain, I will tie up zee Indian for you" Oh god it was almost to horrible to be funny. Also, in terms of all or none with accents, think Kevin Costner in Prince of Thieves!!! What the...? |
Posted By: A-M-K
Date Posted: 10/19/06 at 8:30pm
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Oh my god...my husband, who is also a member, just pointed out that I used the wrong "to" in my previous post!!! I'm mortified! I'm a teacher, and my mom taught english for 30 years! Oy! Okay, so the correct spelling would be "Oh god, it was almost too horrible to be funny" Phew. Don't judge too harshly, I'm tired.  (this is slightly tongue-in-cheek) |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 10/19/06 at 9:03pm
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She?ll b e right AMK, just use the ?Edit? button at the bottom of your post! As I couldn't hear or pick on any problems with accent? 
------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: A-M-K
Date Posted: 10/21/06 at 3:56pm
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Thanks for the absolution, Gaafa. I needed it! Speaking of accents, (and I've a couple friends from your part of Australia) why do you think it is so much easier for Brits and Australians to do an American accent, and it's not so good the other way around? I'm thinking of two popular t.v. shows starring British actors.. House and Without a Trace And you can never hear the Britishness come through! Thoughts???? |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 10/21/06 at 7:46pm
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Good point could it be that it?s engineered by the American agents
insistence, that an American accent is a prerequisite prior to being
hired. Or because it is not so defined as the British in accent
location eg Scots, Welsh, Irish plus 50 odd dialects. Sure you have geographically defined accents but possibility not as pronounced as the pohms & more as subtle as the Aussie. With TV shows it is not as bad as Jane Leeves [Daphne ] accent in Frasier. She is supposed to be from Manchester but it sounds more like a mixture of Yorkshire & Cornish, lapsing into her native Sussex dialect at times, cotton wool in her moth. Although what does seem incredulous in the old historic films of Britain, is the fact they have all got American accents. There was never any thought of being authentic, which in practice is still being carried out today, especially in theatre. So as to the question could it be because the show is produced there & they are living with the familiarity of the American accent all the time. Much the same if the situation was reversed, it would not take anyone long to pick up a Scots or Irish accent living there. ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 10/24/06 at 5:58am
I forgot to ask what area in Western Gondawandaland are your "sandgroper? mates? ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: A-M-K
Date Posted: 10/24/06 at 4:33pm
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Well, I had two friends from Perth, but I lost touch with them a few years ago. They were definitely proud of being from Perth! They told me stories about fishing for octopus....Clive used to work in a mine, I swear I think it was a diamond or gold mine...he said it was really dangerous and his wife didn't want him to do it anymore. He came here to the states to work as a lifeguard. We used to make his wife Deirdre say "No" all the time, because she managed to say it in about three syllables!!! Lovely. |
Posted By: Nanette
Date Posted: 10/24/06 at 6:15pm
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I recently saw a production of Fiddler. Tevya had the only believable accent on stage and he kept it up through the entire performance. "L'chaim" started out sounding okay, and then very midwest less than halfway through. If you can't do an accent well, you simply shouldn't do it. Of course, the entire audience thought it was wonderful; so believable! I guess if you don't know any better .... ------------- In a world of margarine, be butter! |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 10/25/06 at 4:55am
That?s a pity AMK! Strine not being my native tongue, As I'm still considered to be a Pohm. I can see this could be exasperating! The diamond mines are 2000K away in the Northwest of the state, with the gold 1000K to the west of Perth. Mind you there only about 2 million people in what arguably is the largest state in the world, with 1.2 million living in Perth metro area & the balance in the rest of the state. Some of the mines in the top end are that isolated, I have driven for a day without seeing another vehicle or town. Similar with the gold mines around Kalgoolie, which are on just straight endless roads. In fact it takes about 12 hours, non stop driving to leave the state, going to the east from Perth. We live just 4K from the Ocean near Fremantle, my wife loves fishing & is quite accomplished. While I only seem to feed them all day & get completely bored. Although Ocy is not my teabag! I prefer cray fishing which is much easier where we used to live. All I had to do was sling out the baited cray pots, read a book & pull them in for dinner later. This link might help catching up with your mates again;- http://www.adfa.oz.au/~lpb/misc/telstra.html If you wish or have a hassle you could always ?pm? me & I?d be glad to help you find them locally. ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: doublezero420
Date Posted: 4/14/07 at 5:30am
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My rule of thumb is if the show takes place in America (or where ever you are) with foriegn characters, they need to have an accent.
If the show takes place in another country, no accents are needed b/c they are "speaking" in their native tounge, and therefore would not have accents anyway.
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Posted By: doublezero420
Date Posted: 4/14/07 at 7:36am
| Forgot the obvious exceptions like My Fair Lady/Pygmalion and others where accent is key to the plot. |
Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 4/15/07 at 9:54am
I don't know about the Australians but I think British actors are more extensively trained in dialects. There's a great clip on the special edition of Dr. Strangelove of Peter Sellers demonstrating one British dialect after another and finally getting to an American accent. |
Posted By: avcastner
Date Posted: 5/20/07 at 12:19pm
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A bad accent story:
We were doing Much Ado (set in England instead of Italy), and all of my actors except two had good British accents. one kept sounding Jamaican and the other Indian. We ended up scrapping the accents altogether.
This past week we finished Earnest, and all of my cast were capable of a decent British accent. I had to coach them on pronunciation of "Bunbury," "Shropshire," and the like; but they did well without tapes. ------------- |