What is your current job, and what do you do on a daily basis?
I am currently a voice teacher and an accent/dialect coach for actors. I mainly work in drama schools or with individual actors preparing them for auditions or any upcoming or current projects they have in theater, television, and film. My days vary greatly. Most days I’m in a classroom at a drama school teaching any number of different accents or I’m working from a set or a rehearsal room. I also do ESL work within the context of a drama school. This mainly requires me to help students with a certain level of specificity in their articulation of English geared towards performance. I also do work in corporate with presentation skills and public speaking.
Why did you choose to go into the industry/industries that you have since graduating from UVM?
I was always really into theater and performing but I knew that I didn’t want to be a performer for the rest of my life. After UVM I did some internships at some theater companies in New York and I met a lot of people and just asked them about what they did and how they had gone about doing that. I had told someone that I studied Linguistics and I was interested in doing something with language and theater and they’d recommended that I speak to a voice coach. I had a lunch with a voice and accent coach and then decided that it was something that I could definitely do.
How has your degree in linguistics been useful in the work you’ve done since graduating? Are there any particular skills you’ve developed from linguistic coursework that have been especially helpful?
My linguistics degree has been immensely helpful for my work. On a practical level phonetics is something that I am very grateful for. It wasn’t my favorite course during my undergrad or my graduate degree but it’s really helped me in this profession. The process of knowing how sound is made and how speech sounds are made are integral to my line of work. Being a voice coach, however, is also about language not just sounds. Linguistics gives me a different insight into how to break down a piece of text and a very specific vocabulary for it as well. Knowing how to breakdown information, distill it, and then give it to an actor is a crucial part of my job and my linguistic degree is really helpful in that.
Do you have any advice for students interested in your line of work and/or work you’ve done in the past?
I’ve got such a niche job! I have no idea how I could’ve possibly prepared for it if I had any idea that’s what I was going to do back at UVM. I think it’s about following your passion and your interests. There’s a common misconception that you need to study acting and drama in order to teach accents and I think there’s a perspective that those who have studied outside of that realm can bring in that’s really beneficial to the industry. If you’re interested in accent and dialect work I say go for it but also start practicing with friends or volunteer at the theater. Communicating is one of the biggest components of being a successful coach and teacher so the more you practice you get with that the better. Also keep in mind that being able to do an accent doesn’t mean that you can teach it. It’s the specificity of your work that students/actors need.
If you would like to speak with Aundrea about her work, she can be reached at aundreafudge@gmail.com.
If you are a UVM alum and would like to share your experience, please contact us at uvmlinguistics@gmail.com.
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