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consistently in that world, not an easy job with between sixty to seventy speaking roles. I came to think that my job was to provide a dialect style to the show, in much the same way that a production designer or a director of photography creates a look or feel that permeates an entire production.

Once filming started on March 25, it became my job to create dialect notes on the set, indicating which takes of a particular slate were to be preferred in editing. Obviously dialect is only one of many factors which influence the director and editor in editing choices, but Ang wanted to have dialogue and dialect notes for every scene. Also on set it became my job to whisper in Ang's ear, or perhaps to the script supervisor if things were going awry and some corrective was needed. Fortunately, given the generous rehearsal time, these occasions were relatively few, and often my notes were on the simple level of clarity and intelligibility. On these issues of course, the sound recordist's superb ear also provided feedback to director and script supervisor.

What was truly remarkable about this particular job, was both the level of encouragement from my department here at the University of Kansas, and the willingness of the film company to honor my teaching schedulethe best of all possible worlds! There is acknowledgment here at KU that a theater faculty artist's most usual mode of "publishing" is in professional opportunities like this one. It helped too that James Schamus, the film's writer/producer is a film faculty member at Columbia in New York and continued to honor his departmental responsibilities. So there was a very welcome interface between the world of the commercial film and that of the academy, something of a rarity I would imagine.

I and some other "VASTA-TEKKIES," with Eric Armstrong taking a strong lead on behalf of Dudley Knight and the board, are actively researching ways to exchange sound files through the internet and by e-mail. The day is clearly not far off when we will be able to swap primary source material through our computers! I can imagine a time very soon, when we will be able to summon appropriate primary sources from around the globe in just a few hours, instead of the days and weeks that are now involved. One might prepare a home page for the show one is coaching and embed in it sound files that the actors can click on and download, and provide links to other sites also providing primary sources (or allowing them to order tapes and

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CD's via internet), enhancing the analysis and instruction that the coach will always be called upon to provide.

Much to my delight, Ang offered me a nice role as a Missouri plantation owner (pro-union AND pro-slavery) whose anti-secessionist politics inflect the plot in an interesting and sophisticated way. My scenes didn't shoot until late June. Until then I had a glorious time helping the actors use dialect to create character and a sense of time and place.

My deepest thanks go to all my VASTA colleagues who have been so supportive in this adventure.

Paul Meier is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Film, and Voice Coach for the University Theatre at the U. of Kansas. He teaches Voice and Speech, Accents and Dialects, Shakespeare Voice and Text, and directs once a season. His home page in the VASTA Professional Index is:
http://www.vasta.org/dir/meierp.html