American Accent Coaching & the Actor's Craft: Interview with Alistair Nwachukwu

Curious about how I coach the American accent? Have a listen to this episode, which is an interview and mini accent-coaching session with Alistair Nwachukwu. Alistair is a UK-based actor and a recent LAMDA graduate who has been working with me on voice, acting and accents privately for some time. In this episode, we talk about his process for learning the American accent. Themes that come up are: 

• learning an accent is like learning a dance. You have to learn the steps first. We talk through what those steps are 
• Alistair talks about his process for approaching accents, which includes getting curious about environment, cultural context, phonetics and physicality 
• The intersections between accent work, character work and voice work
• I coach Alistair through the physicality of the accent to find more accuracy using his understanding of anatomy and character. 
• the importance of vocal intention to finding the resonance of the accent

Have a listen and see what you think! In addition to in-person coaching, I also have a digital American accent course that’s specifically designed for UK-based actors (which also comes with a live coaching component). It covers all of the material Alistair and I discuss and allows you to learn the accent in your own time. You can find out more about it at:

voiceandaccentcoaching.thinkific.com 

Or on the course packs page of: 

voicewhatmatters.com. 

In case you haven't noticed, I have recently released my first online video course, The General American Accent Course Pack for Brits. In this episode, I talk about the inspiration behind the making of this course and what the course entails. 

Designed to be like a digital book/online course/ accent coach in your pocket, the course has over 3 hours of content and is broken down into 59 (short and easily digestible) videos that cover everything you need to know to authentically own a General American accent in your own voice, which you can watch in your own time, at your own pace. You also get a LIVE 30-minute coaching session via Zoom with me upon completion of the course. It's specifically designed for UK-based actors and coaches who work with UK-based actors. As an American accent coach who spent almost a decade living in London, a huge portion of my portfolio in both my drama school work and private coaching business has been coaching this accent to UK-based actors, and along the way, I have learned the typical pitfalls they can fall into. This course is the culmination of that experience. 

But why an online video course instead of a live virtual or in-person class? In this podcast, I talk about what inspired this course: namely-- my own personal love for online education, which allows me to learn at my own pace. I discovered this love while I was pregnant during lockdown and I took this amazing birthing class online that was a series of videos which I could watch over and over again. In the midst of taking that course, it suddenly occurred to me: this is a perfect format for accent training! 

Listen to the episode to hear more about my story and the course. If you'd like to purchase the course, go to voiceandaccentcoaching.thinkific.com or to the "Course Packs" page of my website at voicewhatmatters.com. 

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at christine@voicewhatmatters.com. 

This episode is part of a series where I talk with actors I’ve worked with about how they incorporate voice work into their craft. Georgina Onuorah is a London-based actress, singer and dancer. Her professional debut was playing Alice Fitzwarren in Dick Whittington at the National Theatre and she is currently the alternate Cinderella in the West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella . She graduated from ArtsEd in 2020, where I was one of her voice and speech teachers. During our conversation, Georgina had some profound insights about how voice work has helped her find her authentic center as a performing artist. 

Themes that come up in the conversation are: 

• How voice work and warming up can give you something positive to focus on in the moment before an audition and help you present yourself more confidently in moments that matter— like introducing yourself in an audition 
• Georgina’s definition of voice work: a kind of centering— a centering in yourself so that you can fully bring yourself to the table. This includes a physical centering, a vocal centering and a feeling of centeredness in the psyche. 
• The difference between how Georgina feels about voice work now vs. what she thought it was going to be in her first voice class. There is a misconception about voice work (even among some voice teachers!) that it’s about “correcting” your voice or the way you speak. Now Georgina feels it’s much more about truly discovering your authentic self through your voice and even your vocal history. 
• How spoken voice work and singing voice work interlink
• Georgina’s experience working on the Olivier at the National Theatre in London— an infamously difficult stage to work on vocally 
• working with mics
• the value of using text work on songs rather than focusing solely on sounding good 
• the balancing act of the musical theatre performer between three disciplines and how voice work can compliment and work with those disciplines because breath is the unifying factor in each
• Georgina’s voice warm up and how it adapts to her day to day needs before a show

This one is a super interesting episode for professional actors, musical theatre performers and enthusiasts, actors in training, or anyone who is interested in what the craft of acting is all about. 

This episode is part of a series where I talk with actors I’ve worked with about their voices and how they incorporate voice work into their craft. In this episode, I talk with Sam Buchanan.  Sam is a 23-year old actor from Kent, England. He graduated from ArtsEd's BA Acting program in 2019, which is where we met. I was one of Sam’s voice teachers there. He has appeared on “EastEnders”, is currently shooting a new global thriller for Amazon called “The Power” and a new BBC3 series called “SuperHoe”, written by and starring Nicole Lecky.

Sam and I had a rich conversation about his evolving relationship with voice work and how it’s impacted his craft on both stage and screen. 

Themes that come up are:

— what voice work is vs. what it isn’t. Spoiler alert: it’s not about being loud and sounding posh. Sam talks about his process in drama school training—- realizing that voice work made the difference between feeling panicked and self-conscious and allowing him to be present, grounded, responsive and emotionally available in the moment. However, it takes awhile of being in the process to get to that place. 

—Sam talks about embodied voice work allowing an actor to have intimate moments (like a love scene on a park bench) on the Olivier stage but be heard in the last row. 

— we talk about the difference in voice work between stage and screen: how an adjustment of intention is required and how important voice work is for staying present, connected and emotionally available on screen.

— Sam talks us through a typical body and voice warm up he does before a show and the importance of having a warm up that’s responsive to what you need on any given day. He talks about how his priorities shift when he’s warming up for screen.

— the value of a cool down that allows you to come back to yourself after a show or a shoot

— Sam offers his advice to current and incoming drama school students: stay open to learning, trust the process and find ways to shift your attention off of yourself and onto receiving. 

This one is a super interesting episode for professional actors, actors in training, or anyone who is interested in what the craft of acting is all about. 

This episode is part of a series where I talk with actors I’ve worked with about how they incorporate voice work into their craft. In this episode, I talk with @willedgerton. Will is an actor originally from Wigan, who trained at ArtsEducational Schools London. He is currently in rehearsals to make his professional debut playing Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet at the Globe this summer, directed by Ola Ince. 

Will and I start by talking about his experience with adapting vocally to working in a large outdoor theatre space where you have to compete with the elements and random surprises, like helicopters overhead or a pigeon landing on stage. This evolved into a rich discussion of how voice and text work have helped Will find presence, confidence and a deep listening to to his character’s experience from a compassionate lens. 

Themes that come up from our conversation are:

— Why, when rehearsing and performing outdoors, it’s not so useful to think about volume and what you can do instead to stay safe vocally while being true to your character’s experience

— How important acknowledging your environment is as part of your performance and how that can help you develop a greater sense of ease, of listening and embracing the present moment that makes it easier to sustain the athletic vocal work that outdoor performance requires (Will tells a great story about working with a pigeon that landed on stage)

— What does it mean to be “in character”? We talk about how this idea can sometimes cause actors to get more tense and held and less present with what’s actually happening. We also talk about the difference between character tensions and actor tensions. 

— Demystifying the note to “drop the breath”

—Will defines two pillars for how voice and text work are a key way into character: the voice work gives you a receptivity to the text and to the present moment. The text work  gives you a sense of the rhythm of how the character breathes and speaks, which helps you experience how the character feels. 

This one is a super interesting episode for professional actors, actors in training, or anyone who is interested in what the craft of acting is all about. 

On the podcast, I've been doing a series on the ‘authentic’ voice— what does it mean to have an authentic voice? How do you find it? Where I’ve landed so far is that being an authentic communicator is not so much about a certain type of sound but about a feeling— how does it feel to you when you are communicating? Connected to your experience? Connected to the experience of who you’re talking to?

This can be extremely difficult, because society doesn’t exactly help us to be this kind of communicator. 

In this episode, I talk about how a voice coach can help you find your authentic voice. Here’s a hint: it doesn’t start with me, or any voice coach, telling you what your authentic voice is or what it should sound like. But if finding your authentic voice is about how you feel when you’re communicating, then a voice coach can help you access the tools to connect to that feeling. In the episode we talk about what those tools are and how they can help. 

Let me know what you think. What does authenticity mean to you? Has it changed or grown since listening to this series?

The authentic voice: how would you define it? This is the tiny, not at all philosophical topic I tackle in Season 3, Episode 4 of "Voice what Matters: the Podcast": ‘The Authentic Voice: Part 2’. 

In Part 1, I talked about what the word ‘authenticity’ means and what issues that throws up about how to find your own authentic voice. 

In this episode, I look at some useful and not useful questions to ask yourself if you are curious about communicating authentically.

The big theme that comes up is— it’s not about how you sound— it’s about how you feel. And your experience of how your listener feels. 

In part 3, I’ll explore how a voice coach can help you find your authentic voice. Stay tuned. 

Let me know what you think. What does authenticity mean to you? Has it changed or grown since listening to this series?

This is the first episode under the new 'Voice what Matters' title and, to celebrate, I've picked a juicy topic:

Authenticity. It’s definitely a buzzword these days. Everyone is talking about authenticity. It’s something we value in our friends, our partners, our leaders and ourselves. And it comes up a lot in voice coaching— clients often want to find their authentic voice. But what exactly does that mean? This is the first episode in a 3-part series where I look at this topic. In this episode I explore the conversation around the authentic voice—what is it?

I talk about the dictionary definition of ‘authentic’, and what questions that brings up from a communication perspective: 

What does authenticity sound like? And how do we know?  Can it change based on context? We often speak differently professionally than we do personally. Does that mean we are being inauthentic? To what extent is it ‘cultural’? 

And Who gets to decide— the speaker or the listener? both?

I talk about how your authentic voice relates to finding your authentic self, and why it’s not as simple as— if you have to think about it or rehearse it, it’s not authentic. For many of us, because of how we were raised, finding our authentic voices (and selves) takes practice. 

Let me know what you think. What does authenticity mean to you?

This is a brief episode to let you know that this will be the last episode under the ‘BeSpoke Speaks’ title. If you are a regular listener or subscriber, don’t fret. All of the old content will still be there, but everything is getting a shiny new name and logo. This is part of an evolution on my part. I am launching a new voice and communication coaching website and business, and I would like all of the content to have the same brand. 

So for those of you who have been listening for awhile, thank you so much for your support. Lindsay and I have loved working on this project together and we have learned so much (and podcasting has changed so much!)  along the way. I am still dedicated to using the podcast format as a way of making voice and communication training accessible, and I really look forward to continuing the mission through this new business. 

The new business and website will launch at the end of March, which means that all of the old bespoke episodes will have new episode and art work around that time. In April, look out for new episodes under the new name. If you want more regular updates on the launching process, the easiest way to get them is by following me on instagram @christinemottramvoice. 

And in case you hadn’t noticed, I have also created a YouTube channel. If you just can’t get enough of me and would like to see me as well as hear me, head over to my channel, www.youtube.com/user/clmottram. If you like what you see, consider subscribing. Your support with this project helps me continue to offer accessible voice coaching, so thank you! 

This  episode offers a warm up specifically for people who regularly speak publicly through technology, particularly podcasters. It’s a follow-up from a previous episode, ‘Vocal Consideration for Podcasters’, where I spoke with Ryan O’Shea, LA-based voice coach and podcaster, about what is helpful and not so helpful for podcasters to think about vocally. 

Where we landed in that episode is that the trap of podcasting is trying to listen to the way you sound and emulate a certain sound. Your audience will respond much more to you if you shift your focus to how you want your audience to feel, and then warm up your instrument so that you can connect to that feeling within yourself. Ryan joins us again in this episode to co-lead you through a warm up that will help you do that. 

The warm up includes: 

• a warm up for the articulators
• - some physical release and connection to the body and breathing
• - some orientation 
• - some priming and imaging work to connect to your own feelings and how you want your audience to feel
• marrying the image work and your intention to communicate with the physical sensation of sending your sound to the mic

Find out more about Ryan at www.voiceandspeechwithryan.com. 

 Let us know what you think!