The Meaning of Accents

TV and stage actress Kristen Sieh loves languages and has developed a talent for creating her characters’ voices. When Kristen nails a character’s voice, she fully inhabits her – or him as is sometimes the case. She has played Teddy Roosevelt in the play RoosevElvis, an Israeli in the musical The Band’s Visit, and a New Jersey mother in the 1940’s in the upcoming HBO adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel, The Plot Against America. Developing the sound of a character is a different process on the set of a TV series than it is onstage. And Kristen says it’s not just about getting the region right; it’s also about finding those idiosyncrasies of a certain place and time period that feel authentic and recognizable. Kristen and I talked about landing the voices and styles of characters who are visibly different from her. Different gender, different ethnicity. What are the situations when that feels out of bounds? And what discoveries has she made in her many transformations? 

More about Kristen:

https://www.nytimes.com/video/theater/100000002522251/in-performance-roosevelvis.html

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2734920/

http://theteamplays.org/about/core-company/kristen-sieh/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.