Voice, Speech, Dialects
One of my primary responsibilities at Michigan State University is to teach all of the voice, speech, and dialect courses that we offer as part of the BFA and MFA in Acting. I also coach department productions and serve as a resource for students.
My approach to voice, speech, and dialects is eclectic. I draw from my experience as a performer and director, as well as the excellent training I've had from master teachers including Catherine Fitzmaurice, Louis Colaianni, David Smukler, and Beth McGee. I train the holistic actor, always focusing on the vital interconnectedness of dialect to character, sound to movement, and breath to thought and emotion. My actors receive in-depth training in the physiology of vocal production and vocal health, work towards releasing tensions that inhibit full-body sound, learn phonetics using Colaianni's innovative process, and deepen their connection to character through the window of their vocal instrument. They explore the connection between breath, thought, language, and emotion.
Recent professional work includes serving as the dialect coach for The Williamston Theatre, an Equity theatre in mid-Michigan, on their production of A Miracle on South Division Street directed by Rob Roznowski. I also just finished dialect coaching some extraordinary actors in a professional Equity production of Athol Fugard's Master Harold and the Boys, produced by The Wharton Center and directed by Bert Goldstein. While living in New York City I coached various new works, Equity Workshops, and Fringe productions.
From NYTheatre Magazine: "The actors' execution of the countless accents is spot-on, thanks to Deric McNish's dialect coaching." Eagle Squadron, Go! was performed at the New York International Fringe Festival.
Recent coaching at MSU includes 60/50 Theatre Project and William Shakespeare's Land of the Dead, both directed by Christina Traister, and the musical Peter Pan, directed by Rob Roznowski.