The Accent Artist

For Kristin Hill ’25, voice has always held power that transcends words. As a child, she would bring fairy tale characters to life by reading each one in a different accent during story time. Now, as a dialect coach, she trains actors to do the same.

“I focus on the rhythm of their speech and the way the vowels and consonants sound.” Hill explains. “Your voice is like a fingerprint of who you are. It carries so much of your personal history and personality.”

Hill, a double major in theatre arts and communication, recently wrapped up her role as the dialect coach for “Noises Off,” a production by local theatre company Palo Alto Players. 

Though this was her first time as a head coach, Hill has worked in this space for several years. Assisting her mother Kimberly Hill, a professor of theatre at Santa Clara, she honed her skills in sound analysis and teaching by helping actors adjust their accent to support the play’s storyline.

At rehearsals, Hill works with her head down, buried in her clipboard, as she listens to the show and makes notes for the actors. “I’m hearing the show, not seeing it,” Hill explains. “There are so many jokes I miss because I’m just there circling and writing words.”

Hill finally got to watch the show in its entirety when it debuted during its three-week run at Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto in January 2025. 

When working on a project, Hill starts by reading the script over and over to understand the play’s time period, setting, and characters. “Noises Off” features different British accents, including the Cockney and Received Pronunciation (colloquially called “Queen’s English”). 

She notates the different dialects in the script, cross checking her work with the phonetic alphabet and a global database of international accent recordings. Hill collects this information into a packet for each actor, highlighting key details about their character’s relationship to the story. In one-on-one sessions, she teaches them how to authentically execute their sound, and by showtime, all the dialects come together to tell one cohesive story.

After graduation, Hill looks forward to blending both voice and movement in her future career. Her goal is to work in theatre as a dialect coach, choreographer, or teacher, or in corporate communications, where she could help professionals with public speaking. “I’m excited to say yes to new opportunities,” she says. “It’s going to be a period of discovery for sure.”

Digital Extra