Welcome cast members! I’m looking forward to working together and supporting your process.
John Proctor is the Villain is set in northeast Georgia. This rural location in the American South seems relevant to the story, and so we will aim to reflect the setting in the speech choices we make.
Perusing the video resources below, you’ll notice that people have a range of accents in this part of the world, from those that sound much like people might in any number of large US cities (so-called “general” American) to those whose speech definitely tells the story of their geography and/or class. We’ll work together to find choices that work for both you the actor and your character.
If you’ve never worked in an accent other than your own before, a good place to start is the How to Work on an Accent page. I’m always available for coaching support–don’t be shy about reaching out!
Selected Background Reading
Scholarly
“The American South faces negative stereotypes and prejudices, where accents are caricatured and associated with a lack of intelligence, sophistication, or culture. Even so, the South strives to differentiate itself by promoting values of earthiness, family, and spirituality, resisting language and cultural subordination despite external pressures for linguistic assimilation.”
“Hillbillies, rednecks, and southern belles: The language rebels”
in English with an Accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States by Rosina Lippi-Green
Popular Media
Why Does Every Southern Accent in a Movie Sound So Bad? New York Times March 26, 2024
Scout Brobst’s article argues that the exaggerated and generic “Hollywood Southern” accent amalgamates different regional accents, reinforces negative stereotypes and does not do justice to the complex linguistic reality of the Southern United States. While the industry may have made some progress, the article suggests that there remains a disregard for the cultural heritage and social intricacies of Southern accents, leading to depictions that, while intended to be humorous or symbolic, ultimately resonate as caricatures rather than respectful and accurate portrayals.
Dialect coach colleagues Erik Singer and Amy Chaffee took issue with some aspects of the above article and posted on social media. Erik noted:
“Not a single linguist or dialect coach quoted (or, apparently, even consulted). Why…is language the ONLY area…where journalists…think that the personal experience of being from a place is all the qualification you need to confidently opine on how it all works?”
And Amy explained that, especially in right-to-work states, “almost all TV and most films will skimp on…hiring a dialect coach…It takes a strong actor with a strong team of reps to insist they get the support for an accent that they need.”
Accent Models
The video resources linked below are intended as preliminary jumping-off points for a creative process. Let’s stay in communication about the accent models you’re using and how they fit into the larger accent dramaturgy of the play.
Here is an assortment of real-life examples of speech from northeast Georgia high schools:
- White County High School
- Gainesville High School
- North Hall High School
- Chestatee High School
- East Hall High School
While Helen County High School appears to be fictional, the real town of Helen is located in northeast Georgia, in White County. To give us more options and better reflect the diversity of our production, I have included samples from other areas of northeast Georgia as well.
The metropolitan area around Atlanta has experienced an influx of people from all over the United States in recent decades. As a result, Atlanta has a more cosmopolitan sound than other areas in Georgia. Many people from Atlanta, even if they were born there, do not speak with a strong Southern accent, or they might employ Southern accent features idiosyncratically or inconsistently. There is a range of accents found in northeast Georgia, differentiated at least partly by how much affinity (or lack thereof) people feel with the big city.
Some General Accent Features
Your character may employ some, all, or none of these features depending on their background and persona. I encourage you to find a real-life sample you connect with and then base your character’s speech choices on that model.
Remember, it’s just as important to get a feel for the musicality (the prosody) and mouth-feel (oral posture) of the accent as it is to recreate individual sound shifts. Be sure to spend lots of time listening to your sample and speaking aloud with it in a playful, experimental way. Your brain may understand what to do before your mouth does. Be patient and diligent–there’s no shortcut to this work!
For this family of accents, it is useful to understand the difference between monophthongs and diphthongs.
- Monophthongs are vowel sounds that maintain one shape/quality throughout their duration, e.g. “spa”.
- Diphthongs are vowel sounds that move from one vowel shape to another, usually weaker, “offglide” sound, e.g. “toy”.
Key Sounds
Unless otherwise indicated, practice phrases are excerpted from Lexical Sets for Actors by Eric Armstrong under a creative commons license.
Strong Rhoticity
The R sound tends to be prominent in contemporary Southern accents. Listen for strong tongue bunching on syllable-final R sounds in words like NEAR, SQUARE, START, NORTH, and NURSE. Sometimes this strong rhoticity can even sound like a separate syllable, e.g. “NEE-er”, “SQUAY-er”, “STAH-ert”, “NOH-erth”, etc.
PRICE Smoothing
The vowel sound in words like PRICE is a broad diphthong in so-called “General” American, where the beginning vowel shape and the final vowel shape are quite far from one another. In accents of the American South, the PRICE vowel may “smooth” toward a single vowel quality (monophthong) or a narrower diphthong.
Pin/Pen Merger
DRESS words with a nasal consonant (M, N, or NG) after the vowel may use the same vowel as KIT words. The following word pairs are homophones, pronounced like the first word in the pair: pin/pen; gym/gem; him/hem; windy/Wendy; sinned/send; etc.
Secondary Sound Features
These features are less prominent overall, but may still be present in certain speakers.
Vowel Fronting
The following vowel sounds may have a more forward tongue body placement than in so-called “General” American: GOAT, STRUT, GOOSE, MOUTH
Vowel Breaking
The following short vowel sounds (monophthongs in so-called “General” American) may start higher and obtain a mid-central offglide, “breaking” into diphthongs: TRAP, KIT, DRESS.
It may be helpful to think of these words as lightly gaining a syllable, e.g.:
- “Trap” moves in the direction of “TREH-up”
- “Kit” moves in the direction of “KEE-it”
- “Dress” moves in the direction of “DRAY-uhss”
Words like FLEECE may start with a laxer vowel and glide upward, e.g. “fleece” may move in the direction of “FLIH-eese”.