Regardless of which version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol your theatre is staging, Paul can help! His unique and comprehensive dialect study includes a reading of Dickens’ entire novella (divided into five sound files, one for each stave), plus in-depth dialect analysis of all 36 speaking characters. (The complete, uncut reading, is audio-book style, with full characterization from Paul, while his character dialect recordings are a little slower and flatter, focusing on dialect, and allowing the actors the freedom to make the roles their own.)
For $349, your entire cast have access to more than 40 streaming-audio files for the duration of your rehearsals and performances. (The recordings include the aforementioned complete reading of the original 1843 text, plus one dialect-coaching recording for each of the 36 characters, large and small. Each of those recordings includes all the lines spoken by that character plus Paul’s analysis of the dialect, intonation, rhythm, stress, etc.) You will also get the accompanying text, as PDF files. (Click here for a free download of one of the character (Belle) PDFs.)
To get things started or to simply find out more, e-mail Paul. He’ll also be glad to discuss options that might better fit your budget, in addition to one-on-one Skype coaching that can focus not just on the original Dickens text but the specific lines in YOUR version of the play.
And from now until January 3, 2025, Paul is providing, as a holiday gift, his full reading of the first edition of A Christmas Carol. Go here to listen.
Listen to an excerpt from Paul’s full audio-book style reading of the novella:
Listen to an excerpt from Paul’s dialect coaching of Bob Cratchit:
We realize there are hundreds of versions of Dickens’ holiday classic. Some of the best-known adaptations include those by David Edgar, John Mortimer, Romulus Linney, Ed Monk, and Gary Peterson. Or perhaps your local theatre is performing an original version. But because Paul’s dialect studies are exhaustive and offer insight into not just specific lines but the characters themselves, your production will surely benefit from Paul’s insight. And thanks to his full reading of the novella — narration AND character speeches — your needs will be served regardless of how the narration is distributed among the actors.
Giving you online access to the sound files and PDFs takes just minutes. We will create a private, password-protected webpage for you and your cast, containing your recordings in streaming-audio format, playable on any internet-connected device. Click here to see what your page will look like. (If you don’t have access to a computer or the internet, Paul can lease the recordings to you on CDs, with a refundable deposit.)
Even better, Paul includes a registration key to his Cockney and Standard British (Received Pronunciation) ebooks for each actor, for free! That amounts to roughly a $600 value in itself. And although your access to the materials will expire when your production is complete, Paul will restore your access at a 50% discount (just $175) each year you revive your production.
A Christmas Carol is just one of the nearly 200 plays and musicals for which Paul has created a unique dialect/accent study. Click here to learn more.
