Stage One - Dialects with Emily

Emily Burnworth joins Stage One to discuss dialects.

Stepping away from all of the singing and dancing that exist within the world of musical theatre, the Stage One students got to spend some time with their speaking voices and dialects with the talented Emily Burnworth.

Emily is an actress and dialectician. Originally from Pennsylvania, Emily obtained her BFA in Acting and Minor in Linguistics from Brigham Young University before migrating back east. Emily has assisted as a dialect and vocal coach on numerous projects. Some of her favorite projects include Mr. Bellpond’s Materpiece; For Robbing the Dead (retitled: Rdemption); an enhanced dialect production of the musical, The Scarlet Pimpernel; My Fair Lady; Persuasion; Roofsliding; The Hasty Heart. Some of her favorite acting credits include Dancing at Lughnasa and the film Unicorn City. Emily is a graduate of Signature Theatre’s Overtures program and has been a huge fan of both Signature Theatre and the DC theatre scene ever since.

Emily answers questions
about rules when it
comes to speaking
with an Irish dialect.

As a dialectician, Emily clearly knows what she is talking about. Some tips, tricks, and insider info she had to lend the Stage One students during her master class included:

• Speak to and utilize friends, family and strangers that are native speakers and practitioners of the language and culture you are seeking to copy.

• Familiarize yourself with the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) and how to use sound substitutions in your dialect practice.

• Be able to hone in on particular sounds and alter them in a slight way to make them suit your given dialect.

• Establishing "rules" and consistencies in a dialect in regards to particular vowels, consonants and sounds can make learning a dialect a snap.

• Most books and plays come with a key or breakdown for particularly tricky words or phrases. These are often in IPA to differentiate the specific sounds from letter to letter and word to word.

• Always listen to people around you, particularly those with dialects and voices that interest you.

• A person's voice holds great sway over their personality and behavior. Be sure not to forget that a characters voice is just as much a part of them as the rest of their body. 

The 2014 Stage One class practices
their Irish Brogue.

Over the course of her master class aside from dispensing dialectic wisdom to the students, Emily also worked on an Irish dialect with the students. The students spent the rest of the class exploring, establishing, practicing and presenting the quick progress they made with the Irish dialect thanks to Emily.

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Posted in: Dialect,Emily Burnworth,Irish,Masterclass,Performance,Stage One