How can I practice a southern accent for a school play?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_American_English#Overview_of_Southern_dialects

This might help. Just practice. Talk to your director about which movies to watch. Sometimes they only want a light drawl and other times they want a specific type that might be done well by certain actors.

Answer 2

There is more than one kind of Southern accent. The two most often used in drama are the Texan accent, and the "Old South" accent. The best way to learn an accent is by talking to someone who naturally has it, but if you don't have access to such a person, watching an actor do it (like in a movie) will do. For a Texan accent, a good actor to watch is Robert Duvall, in such movies as Lonesome Dove, and Days of Thunder (he wasn't playing a Texan in Days of Thunder, but still had the accent). For the Old South accent, the obvious choice would be to watch Gone With The Wind (except for Clark Gable - awful accent). A more recent choice might be Kiefer Sutherland's performance in A Few Good Men.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Watch lots of movies and TV shows featuring people with southern accents. If you can, find someone that you know who can do a good southern accent, and have them help you a little. Just a bit of coaching and help with specific words can go a long way. Most of all though, just practice. A lot. It took me a long time to perfect my souther accent, but now it's really good, and it was worth the hard work.

Good luck with learning, and I hope you do well in your play as well!

Answer 4

I'd say watch movies with them, you can by tapes or CD's to help you.. but if you keep trying and it doesn't sound right and/or it doesn't stay consistant, then DON'T DO IT. One of the worst things is watching an actor try to force an accent. It's painful and embarassing. Learning an accent is possible... but some people just aren't meant to have certain accents. You could also try writing the lines out phenetically in a southern accent.

Expample: Say the real line is "You all are crazy!"
Spell out on your script right next to it "Ya'll er crazy!"

Goodluck and go with your instinct!

Answer 5

You could watch movies with people who have good southern accents and try to repeat after them. I do this all the time. It works for me, plus you can always rewind and hear it again exactly the same way!

Answer 6

Watch the country channel - maybe even tape it - or Paula Deen on the Foodnetwork ha a good accent - just tape it and pratice saying it back the way you heard it.

I lived in TN for 5 years and it took me about 1 year to get rid of the darn sound....lol

Don't fret y'all

Answer 7

Watch Steel Magnolias.

Answer 8

I been down south for about 15 yrs and i still don;t have an accent

Answer 9

this is the director's duty to prepare dialects or provide a instructor of dialects for his or her solid contributors. the whole difficulty you would possibly want to do is to take heed to actors in videos set contained in the south and examine out to imitate them. OR take heed to Paula Dean on the Cooking Channel.

Answer 10

Get somebody from that side to teach you!!