ACCENT REDUCTION - Part 1: 6 Week Class with Susan Finch, Speech and Voice Teacher, Professional Actress, Acting Teacher and Coach

Tuesday, February 2, 2016, 6:30pm ET / 3:30pm PT

Our Accent Reduction class is designed for the actor whose first language is not English or who is bilingual but has a strong foreign native language accent or the actor who has a heavy regionalism. You'll work with the amazing Susan Finch who will help you to isolate and identify English sounds that are not in your native language and you'll practice producing these sounds in a natural, fluid manner, minimizing your native accents or regionalism.

You'll also practice breathing techniques which will support clearer pronunciation and articulation. Susan will also introduce The International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA) which will be used to correct habitual speech problems.

From there you'll transition to practicing storytelling and delivering monologues, concentrating on clear speech with minimal native language pronunciation issues, integrating proper phrasing, inflection and rhythm.

All class participants will receive a copy of "Speak With Distinction" by Edith Skinner which Susan will use and refer to in your class.

Susan asks that you please bring these tools with you to every class:

-Textbook: SPEAK WITH DISTINCTION -A small mirror -Sharpened pencils with eraser -Paper

Susan Finch has been teaching Accent Reduction for over 28 years. She is on the faculty of The Atlantic Theater's Conservatory program where she teaches and serves as vocal coach for productions. She is an alumna of The Juilliard School where she studied speech and voice under Timothy Monich, Elizabeth Smith and Robert Williams and was awarded the Drama League Award and The Edith Skinner Prize (in speech). She annually returns to Juilliard to coach productions. She is an alumna of John Houseman's The Acting Company where she toured for 2 years. She headed the Speech Department at Playwrights Horizon's Theater School from 1989-1999 and has taught speech at Marymount College and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her private teaching includes, accent reduction as well as accent and dialect work for actors. She teaches courses in accent elimination/presentation skills for numerous Fortune 500 Companies. Recent coaching includes: Emily Mann's production of Antony and Cleopatra -The McCarter Theater, Public Theater Mobile Unit- Richard lll, Red Bull Theater-Irma Vep, Shakespeare on the Sound- Much Ado bout Nothing. Teaching credits include: Head of the Speech Department at The Atlantic Theater School, NYU from 1987-2010, Playwright Horizons (1987-1997), Marymount College, and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Voice Fellow at The Public Theater's Shakespeare Lab. She is an actress who has appeared in numerous productions in NYC.

TESTIMONIALS:

"Susan is a great teacher. She has a great ear, and is passionate about her students getting it. I learned a lot. I found the progress for all my fellow students amazing." -Frank Van Putten

"Loved Susan! Great teacher! Very enthusiastic, great technique." -Leticia Schwartz

"I walked into Susan Finch's class with the with a New York accent that rivaled The Jersey Shore kids. I walked out with the tools and knowledge that gave me the versatility to play any character from anywhere. I am forever in her debt. I don't think Carlisle Cullen with a thick New York accent would've worked. :)" -Peter Facinelli/ Actor "star of "Twilight" and "Nurse Jackie"

"Working with Susan is a fantastic experience. I was somewhat self-conscious about my Mexican accent, and with her coaching, I am able to communicate clearly and more importantly, confidently and with ease on my design presentations." -Fernanda Franco, Senior Designer/Fortune 500 Financial Company

"As a Vice President at one of the world's finicial firms, my work demands I communicate effectively and clearly in a quick paced environment. Susan's teaching has given me the confidence and skill set to speak with professionalism and grammatically correct consistently. I highly recommend Susan's teaching to anyone in any field, including acting, finance and marketing!" Susan Donlon, VP / J.P. Morgan Chase

"Susan's teaching technique is individualized to each student. She is a speech surgeon who fixes the root of the problem. I have tried other private speech classes but none of these compare to Susan's method." -Laksana Pat, Import Specialist /Fashion Industry

"I had the pleasure of working with Susan through my two years of conservatory training and I'd be hard-pressed to name a better teacher, let alone speech teacher. She is one of those rare teachers who can pinpoint exactly where you're going wrong and what you need to do to fix it, who will offer you the care and support you need to get there, but who will also keep pushing you until you're there. She won't lob softballs and tell you you're doing great if you aren't, but she will keep encouraging you to move in the right direction. Praise from her may be hard-earned, but it is definitely well-deserved when won. Having graduated eighteen months ago, I'm happy to be able to call Susan not just an old teacher of mine, but also a friend. An anecdote: I was shooting a Toyota commercial over the summer, and it was all done on green-screen with a teleprompter feeding me pages and pages of text. And not simple text: long descriptions of VVT-i technology, double-fluidic wipers with mist control, and seatbelt pre-tensioners and force-limiters. It was all a big mouthful, but I got through it all thanks to the speech and tongue exercises that I learned in Susan's class (and practice almost every day.) But the lip and tongue endurance and muscularity needed to get through all the text must have been too much for one of the other actors because the next day the producers fired him and brought me back in to finish his job. Thanks to Susan, I was able to come in and save the day! (and make another $2100.)" -Adam Bradley/Actor

"Susan is a gifted, classy, artistic and fun speech and voice teacher. She has a very discerning diagnostic ear. By the end of class I had my speech prescription to continue using in my daily practice. I am bilingual English/Spanish and her amazing way of teaching has helped me communicate clearly and confidently. I've used her teaching techniques with much success in both languages. If I want my original Bronx Spanish accent, I have it, but it's a dream come true to be able to communicate without it. As an Actor and Human Being your voice and speech is your calling card. Now I am so happy to say I have a powerful, confident calling card." -Vivienne Jurado

Susan Finch

Susan Finch has been teaching Accent Reduction for over 28 years. She is on the faculty of The Atlantic Theater's Conservatory program where she teaches and serves as vocal coach for productions. She is an alumna of The Juilliard School where she studied speech and voice under Timothy Monich, Elizabeth Smith and Robert Williams and was awarded the Drama League Award and The Edith Skinner Prize (in speech). She annually returns to Juilliard to coach productions. She is an alumna of John Houseman's The Acting Company where she toured for 2 years. She headed the Speech Department at Playwrights Horizon's Theater School from 1989-1999 and has taught speech at Marymount College and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her private teaching includes, accent reduction as well as accent and dialect work for actors. She teaches courses in accent elimination/presentation skills for numerous Fortune 500 Companies. Recent coaching includes: THE GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY, The Public Theater, IPA, MTC, Emily Mann's production of Antony and Cleopatra -The McCarter Theater, Public Theater Mobile Unit- Richard lll, Red Bull Theater-Irma Vep, Shakespeare on the Sound- Much Ado bout Nothing. Teaching credits include: Head of the Speech Department at The Atlantic Theater School, NYU from 1987-2010, Playwright Horizons (1987-1997), Marymount College, and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Voice Fellow at The Public Theater's Shakespeare Lab. She is an actress who has appeared in numerous productions in NYC.