The Ongoing
Self-Tape Gym January:
US DIALECTS
with Danny Ball and Linda Nicholls-Gidley.
Two scenes. Two US dialects. One powerful start to 2026.
January’s Self-Tape Gym is all about US dialects; a confident General American, and a regionally specific US dialect of your own choosing.
This month is not for actors who only want a General American in their toolkit, it’s for actors who want their US dialects to be embodied, playful and specific. It’s for the actors who no longer want to paint by numbers.
Across four weeks you’ll work on two scenes. One scene in General American, the other regionally specific.
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
THIS COURSE IS FOR ACTORS WHO WANT:
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To start 2026 with a bang: don't ease into the year, start audition season with a fire in your belly.
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A rock-solid General American: improve your castability.
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A jaw-dropping regionally specific dialect: stand out from the crowd with your skill, artistry and boldness.
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US dialects in the body: finally get American dialects sitting truthfully in the body and not wearing them like a hat in the scene.
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To Level up skill: deepen your technical mastery and become a highly respected and valued actor.
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New self-tapes for your reel: build a strong showreel for your casting profiles, pilot season or agent outreach.
Linda Nicholls-Gidley.
Trained as an actor and a voice/accents and dialects specialist, Linda has worked in the Industry for over 30 years. She has been on staff at many of Australia’s conservatory acting programs, and has coached actors across the globe. She has never met an accent she couldn’t teach.
Credits: Dial M for Murder, So Young, Daytime Deewane, Julia, Mary Jane, Betrayal, Primary Trust, The Half-Life of Marie Curie, Eureka Day, The Lover/The Dumb Waiter, Guys and Dolls, The Glass Menagerie, The Player Kings, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Cruise, The Lord of The Rings – A Musical Tale, The Inheritance, Yoga Play, Colder Than Here, The Cherry Orchard, Master Class, King James, The Odd Couple, Ride The Cyclone, Ulster American, Switzerland, Isolde and Tristan, A Case for the Existence of God, Zombie, Gaslight, Alone it Stands, Grain in The Blood, The Lonesome West, Dream Circus, Murder for Two/ Murder for Two Christmas, Memory of Water, Fade, Miss Saigon, Tina – The Musical, Benefactors, Consent, Clyde’s, Suddenly Last Summer, The Rocky Horror Show, Beautiful - The Musical, Breaking the Castle, Cinderella, 9 to 5, Let The Right One In, The Caretaker, Slow Boat, Photograph 51, Jekyll and Hyde, An American in Paris, Jagged Little Pill, Girl from the North Country, A Chorus Line, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Black Cockatoo, Counting and Cracking, How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek, Saturday Night Fever, The Bodyguard, and Dirty Dancing. Film and Television includes Sleeping Dogs, We Will Never Die, Shantaram, Wellmania, Year Of, Gorgo, Mary: The Making of a Princess, The Chase Australia, Jungle, The Hollow, and Vincent. Linda discusses accents on her podcast Say You Say Me. Her play Ladybird Ladybird was shortlisted for the prestigious Rodney Seaborn Playwriting Award.
