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Mike Walsh-NYC Dialect Coach
I've always loved accents and dialects. When I was little I became the house's greatest annoyance, running around acting all of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" by myself, switching accents at a moment's notice. I don't have any idea if it was good or not--honestly that wasn't the point. The joy in assuming new and exciting parts of my identity brought forward by my voice was thrilling enough to create a lasting bond.
Flash forward 15 years, to Columbia University's MFA Acting program, where I met Susan Cameron, a renowned dialect and speech coach, and my very first exposure to learning accents academically. I'd always been fascinated by language and phonetics, but combining the International Phonetic Alphabet with accent work allowed my very visual brain to translate all of the information swirling around in my mind into teachable sound systems. IPA and Susan Cameron's teaching became the bedrock of my approach. I dialect coached my very first production that summer.
As time has gone on, I've built a resume concurrently as a dialectician, an actor, and an educator; I've taught at New York City public schools and a variety of private schools, working on bringing Shakespeare text and making it accessible to children and teenagers; as an actor I've played Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company and SoHo Playhouse and regionally at Greenwood Lake Theater, Riverside Theater, and Ivoryton Playhouse.
Marrying these two skill sets into my dialect coaching has enabled me to appeal to each individual's learning style and to involve acting techniques and vocabulary into my methods. These are essential for ensuring my clients not only do the accent "right," but making sure they find themselves in the expression of sound and language through the text and dialect.
I'm currently a member of Actor's Equity Association and Voice And Speech Teachers Association. I'm on faculty at two conservatory programs in New York (AADA and IAMT) and have coached top-level actors and several productions both throughout New York, in Hollywood, and on television.
Client
Testimonials
Dialect work is scary, and you deserve to know you're in good hands. Hear first-hand from some of the students I have taught over the years how my approach has not just taught them, but empowered them in their learning process:
Erica Spyres
Carousel, Once-Broadway
After executing a difficult Polish dialect on stage, an audience member who heard me speak in the lobby said, “Wait, that’s how you actually talk?” I was so proud of the work I had done that Mike had facilitated. Rather than focusing on my lines, we honed in on the way the dialect felt in the body and how it changes the vocal timbre and tempo. It very much helped me develop the authenticity of my character.
Brian Geragthy, 1923 (Yellowstone), The Hurt Locker
“I love working with mike!”
“He’s not only great at what he does, but he’s patient,
efficient, and a lot of fun.”
“He was able to quickly get me in the place I needed to be
with my Appalachian and Boston accent, so that I could
show up on set confidently.”
"I’ve had the pleasure of working with Mike over the course of two separate projects. Prior to his help I was terrified of inauthenticity with my accents, anxious of where to turn for help, and constantly scouring YouTube for examples that I thought were accurate to the dialect I was trying to learn. With Mike’s training I was able to see how each dialect is unique and specific, while not getting overwhelmed by the process. Mike possesses an innate ability to understand phonetics, which allows the student to quickly start the transition process away from their natural speech intonation and move, step by step towards familiarizing with the new dialect. Furthermore, Mike is extremely patient and thorough with his students. Never did I feel like I was in bad hands or worried of “not getting it right”. Mike lives and breathes language, along with all the different, fascinating, and beautiful ways that it is spoken through each and all of our voices."
John Brodsky
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