Friday, July 23, 2010
Life in England serves well for theater tutorials
Priscilla Richardson is columnist The Botetourt View. You can contact her at 981-3430 or via e-mail.
Priscilla Richardson
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It comes as a surprise to many, but people from England have different sorts of accents they use in speaking English. Troutville's Celie Holmes, 40 -- no kin to the famous Sherlock -- knows how to use these accents herself, and how to teach those accents to others.
You may wonder how someone came by this skill. The answer: she lived it. Now an American citizen, Holmes was born in Norway. Her father, an officer in the Norwegian Air Force, died when she was only five. Her Norwegian mother then married an officer in the Royal Air Force, so they all moved to England when she was nine.
While living in England, Holmes said, "my mother made sure I learned proper English." Then at age 19, she moved here with her family.
Holmes had already finished a year of college. And since she'd attended a large school before, she chose to go to Roanoke College for more one-on-one attention. "It was the best time of my life. I loved singing more than anything." She participated in choir and a select group of eight singers called Collegium Musicum. And today she directs a group called Star City Sounds Chorus, an a capella group with 11 or 12 members. "We sing for fun, at adult care centers, for events."
After college, she landed in the management training program of a car rental agency. "I moved around, to Charlottesville and Danville, and took advantage of promotions. I enjoyed some of it. The compensation was great, camaraderie was great, but after two and half years of that I did not want to work 60 hours a week for the rest of my life."
Another job hunt resulted in a 12-year stay at a Roanoke contracting business. "I started as a secretary-bookkeeper, and then [worked in] management and finance. It was a really good grounding for me to understand how a business is run."
By 2008, Holmes wanted a new challenge, to do something by herself. "I had been in charge of making sure the computer systems were running smoothly and answering questions, so I started looking at a way to do that with a franchised business." She bought into Fast-Teks almost exactly 2 years ago. She has computer experts on staff who go out on troubleshooting calls to homes and businesses. They also install and repair networks.
This spring, Holmes volunteered with Attic Productions, playing a role in "Angel Street." So when Attic decided to present "My Fair Lady," set in Edwardian England, they asked Holmes to play a part and to coach all the other cast members on the accents they need to sound authentic.
She plays Mrs. Pearce, housekeeper to Professor Higgins. "Mrs. Pearce is above the servants. She speaks the way you would say now is middle class, almost posh, but not posh." To drill the accents into the others, Holmes uses training by rote. "Like the Eliza character does in the play. I say something for them, and they repeat it back."
For the lower class or cockney accent, she teaches them to use "rine" for "rain." They drop their "h's" before words and pronounce "with" as "wiv." The posh, or upper class speakers, must enunciate all their "t's" and "s's" and hard consonants. "The biggest challenge is "can," said the American way. But "can't" gets a long "ahh" sound, as in "cahhnt."
You can hear all this for yourself during one of the eight performances starting July 29. And meet the offstage voice professor afterwards. See you there!
For more information on Fast Teks, go to fastteks.com. For service, call 540-266-7799. Ask for the special discount Holmes offers for a first visit.
For tickets to "My Fair Lady," call the box office 540-473-1001, reservations recommended. Evening performances start 7:30 pm, Saturday matinees at 2:30 pm, July 29 - 31, and August 5 - 7.
