Dialect
CDs for Plays and Musicals
Paul has a huge CD library of his dialect designs for the many plays and musicals he has coached in the theatre. A. My Name is Alice, And Then There Were None, Angels in America (Millennium Approaches and Perestroika), Anna in the Tropics, Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, Born Yesterday, Blood Brothers, Brigadoon, Broadway Bound, Cabaret, Bullshot Crummond, By the Bog of Cats, Candida, Chess, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Dancing at Lughnasa, Drood, Easy Street, The Fantasticks, Fiddler on the Roof, The Freedom of the City, Frozen, The Gaol Gate, The Glass Menagerie, Guys and Dolls, The Heart of a City, The House of Blue Leaves, The King and I, Last Night of Ballyhoo, Lend me a Tenor, Look Back in Anger, Music Man, My Fair Lady, Necessary Targets, Oliver, Once in a Lifetime, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Our Country's Good, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Pygmalion, The Real Thing, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Secret Garden, Shadowlands, A Shayna Maidel, Streetcar Named Desire, Sweeney Todd, Talley's Folly, Translations, South Pacific, West Side Story; these are just a few of the hundreds of plays and musicals he has coached over his 25-year career in England and America.
His acclaimed recordings consist of one CD per character. Paul demonstrates the character's lines in dialect -- pronunciation, intonation, tone and rhythm, isolating and discussing the actor's choices. He avoids giving "line readings" by working slightly under tempo, allowing the actor to hear the dialect more clearly; he concentrates on sounds rather than character intentions.
He also explains the idioms and obscure vocabulary of the play, talking about the society presented by the play and how that character fits into it.
He provides links to free on-line recordings of native dialect speakers as real-life models (and in some cases, to online recordings of native speakers speaking the names, terms, and idioms used in the play you are producing). Hundreds of actors have used Paul's recordings and played their dialect roles with skill and confidence knowing they have the sounds right and understand the cultural nuances. If Paul doesn't have CDs for the show you're working on, he'll be glad to discuss making them for you.
Listen to an excerpt from Paul's 2-CD set for Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (later in the musical My Fair Lady); or from the 2-CD set for Henry Higgins. (Although only two minutes in length, these files could take several minutes to download, depending on the speed of your connection, so let them download while you continue browsing. You need the free flash player to hear these files.)
Cost and Ordering Information: You may lease the CDs for an entire show (one CD per character) for $349 plus $5 per CD refundable deposit plus shipping. Included in that cost is one complimentary copy of each dialect instructional booklet and CD appropriate to the show for you to keep after you return the show-specific CDs for your refund. (If you want additional copies of these booklets, we make them available for a nominal $7.50 per copy, just to cover our costs.) To get a quote or place an order, e-mail Paul with the title of your show, the name of your theatre, and your rehearsal and performance dates; or to ask about leasing the CDs for selected characters only. We can then send you a Paypal e-bill, allowing you to remit online by credit card, or, in the case of educational institutions, we will ship from your purchase order. Or see Payment Options
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