About the Booklet and CD:
Analysis and overview of the General American dialect (the most common of those living in the United States) with practice material for actors.
Mastering different accents and dialects can provide a huge advantage to
your career. Dialects can instantly transform you into another person
by affecting the very essence of who you are in the world – your speech.
Dialects, for many actors, are enjoyable, useful tools.
Paul Meier, a leading teacher of accents and dialects, and dialect coach for theatre and film, has helped actors the world over for more than 40 years with his booklets and CDs, to improve their "acting with an accent."
Whether on stage or screen, much of the potential work available
requires an American accent. And as such, the ability to do an American
accent as an actor is an invaluable tool to have at your disposal. The General American Dialect (approximately 20 pages and 30 minutes of recording on the accompanying CD), is one in Paul Meier's acclaimed dialect instruction series, easy enough for the beginner, yet rigorous enough for the most experienced professional.
Learn to speak like the average American movie actor. For English-speaking actors – Canadian, British, Irish, Australian, New
Zealand, South African, etc., as well as American actors with regional
dialects – this is the dialect needed for American plays and films. Using the booklet and CD's clear demonstration and simple exercises, no matter what your level of training, you will quickly become proficient in The General American Dialect you need in films, theatre, TV, radio, voice-over, ventriloquism, and stand-up comedy. These proven materials demonstrate all the "signature sounds" of the dialect in simple word lists, then in practice sentences, and finally in more challenging practice material. Paul Meier also demonstrates rhythm, intonation, and tonal placement.
All practice sentences and monologues are expressed both in the International Phonetic Alphabet (I.P.A.) and in Paul Meier's successful "number keying" system for the non-I.P.A. user. He concludes the booklet and CD by speaking two great audition monologues (one male and one female) from a play or film in The General American Dialect.
About the Author:
Paul Meier is a dialect coach for theatre and film; a voice-over artist with many commercials and audio books to his credit; a theatre professor specializing in voice, speech, dialect, and heightened text; and works with clients on accent reduction and English as a Second Language (ESL). This has been his calling for over 40 years, both in his native London, in the United States where he is now based, and all over the world.