YO ‘MARE!’
HOW TIMES REPORTER HELPED HOLLYWOOD LEARN HOW TO SPEAK DELCO:
If actress Kate Winslet and fellow cast members in the upcoming HBO series “Mare of Easttown” sound a little familiar, that’s because they are patterning their voices after Delco natives. I should know because I am one of those Delaware County residents who recorded my voice with “Mare of Easttown’s” dialect coach to train the cast “how to speak Delco!”
Honestly, on the day that I got the call from a friend in 2019, asking if I would meet with the “Mare Of Easttown” dialect coach to record my “authentic Delco-ac- cented voice” for teaching pur- poses, I wasn’t sure if I should be insulted or proud. “We thought of you to do this, because you have a true Delco accent,” my friend said.
As I pondered the request, a few things that I knew for sure were that I was intrigued, it sounded kind of fun, and I wanted to find out more.
I started running through typical words in my head, doing a selfexamination. Yes, I say “cuppa cawfe” for cup of coffee, “q-pons” for coupons, “far-ist” for forest, “lopster” for lobster, “serrup” for syrup, “ginger rail” for ginger ale, “neck-store neighbor” for next door neighbor, “tals” for towels, “kar-muls” for caramels, “pock-abook” for pocketbook, “spick-et” for spigot, “Reese-ies” for Reese’s Peanut Butter, “icening” for icing, “Libberdy Bell” for Liberty Bell, “lie-berry” for library, “marshmellows” for marshmallows, “drivin” for driving, “wooder boddle” for water bottle, “vet-trins” for veterans, and the list goes on and on. Yup, I qualify — even I had to admit, I do speak fluent, authentic Delco!
The murder mystery drama “Mare of Easttown” is set to air on HBO, beginning April 18 and the drama will continue on seven consecutive Sundays. The series will also be available to stream on HBO Max. Created and written by Berwyn’s Brad Ingelsby, the seven-episode limited series features Winslet as a small-town Pennsylvania detective who investigates a murder as she faces a life that is falling apart. The series explores the dark side of a close community and portrays how family and past tragedies can define a person’s present. In addition to Winslet, the cast includes Guy Pearce, Kate Arrington, Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Angourie Rice, Evan Peters, Cailee Spaeny, David Denman, John Douglas Thompson, Patrick Murney, James McArdle, Sosie Bacon, Enid Graham, Ruby Cruz, Eisa Davis, Joe Tippett, Mackenzie Lansing, Justin Hurtt-Dunkley, Izzy King, Jack Mulhern, Anthony Norman, Drew Scheid, Madeleine Weinstein and Neal Huff.
“Mare of Easttown” has created a lot of buzz in this area over the past two years, because most residents couldn’t help but notice the filming taking place in Delaware County at places like Sun
Center Studios in Chester Township, Don’s Deli in Boothwyn and LaPorta Ristorante in Edgmont and in Chester County at locations in Coatesville and Downingtown. Plus, pre-pandemic, quite a few local people were often used as extras. Social media buzzed with excitement when the stars were in town.
The film crew apparently took a break during the height of the pandemic in 2020, and then resumed production this past fall at a local studio built by filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan of Willistown Township in an office complex. The studio has a replica of the 2100 block of Spruce Street in Philadelphia, where the main characters in “Mare of Easttown” live.
In the past month, several news stories surfaced following an interview with Indie Wire, where Oscar winner Winslet admitted she struggled with the Delaware County accent. “It was up there with the hardest accents I’ve ever done, in the top three for sure,” she shared. “It’s one of only two dialects in my life that made me throw things - that and the dialogue that they made me do in the movie about Steve Jobs.”
I had to chuckle while reading some of the descriptive words used in those news stories about the way that we Delconians speak. Writers described the Delco accent with adjectives like “sexy,” “annoying,” and “always overdone.” It’s a fact that the Philadelphia area dialect is not only difficult to imitate but it is also one of the most studied dialects in the country. Apparently, the Delco accent is the Philly accent and then-some. I guess that I’m so used to it, I never really noticed or thought about it.
In that same interview, Britishborn Winslet also said, “The thing that was hardest for me was to do (the Delco accent) well enough that you don’t really hear it. That’s what’s important to me: to make it disappear and blend in.”
I watched the trailer of the new drama series, and even though it’s short and sweet, it looks like Kate nails the accent. I can’t wait to watch and hear how the rest of the cast does.
To find out exactly how the cast of “Mare of Easttown” learned “how to speak Delco,” I interviewed the series’ dialect coach who recorded my voice for teaching purposes. Susanne Sulby is not only a really nice lady, but she is also an accomplished dialect coach, actress and teacher, with a background that sparkles with impressive experience.
Sulby has been teaching and acting for over 30 years. Her teaching career began at the University of the Arts where her classes included, “Voice and Speech for the Actor,” “Acting” and “The Business of Acting.” She has taught for The Walnut Street Theater, Wilma Theater, Mike Lemon Casting, Wickline Casting and numerous other performing arts companies and institutions of higher learning. In addition, Sulby has maintained a private practice of acting, dialect coaching, accent reduction and corporate training for the past 30 years. Utilizing skills from the theatrical world along with training from internationally known corporate coaches like Anthony Robbins and Landmark Worldwide, Sulby helps her clients gain skills in public speaking, leadership and creativity as they would apply to the work environment.
During her recent dialect coaching for the full cast of “Mare of Easttown,” she had the privilege of working with Chadwick Boseman and the cast of “21 Bridges.” She served as dialect coach for Jacki Weaver (Academy Nominee, “Animal Kingdom”) in “Silver Linings Playbook,” directed by David O. Russell. Other recent dialect coaching credits include “1776” at the Ford’s Theatre directed by Peter Flynn, dialect coach for Razaaq Adoti (“Amastad,” “Blackhawk Down”) on “Cover” directed by Bill Duke (“Predator,” “X Men”), among others.
Her performance career has included numerous plays from Shakespeare to original works.
She is also a writer and had the pleasure of performing her multi-media solo show “Sanctuary,” directed by Stephen Stahl, at The Lion Theatre, Theatre Row to glowing reviews. She appeared in InterAct Theatre Company’s world premiere production of Thomas Gibbons’ “Black Russian,” directed by Seth Rozin, and as Molly Bloom in the staged reading of “A Dublin Bloom” based on James Joyce’s “Ulysses” at the Annenberg Center’s Zellerbach Theatre, directed by Gregory Doran of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her most recent film credit is in “Silver Linings Playbook” opposite Bradley Cooper.
The actress/dialect coach can also be seen with Billy Crudup in the award-winning 2000 Evenstar feature film, “Jesus’ Son.” Sulby is a designated Linklater Voice Teacher and proud member of SAG/AFTRA/AEA.
Years before becoming a teacher at University of the Arts, Sulby herself studied acting there and discovered rather quickly that she was very good at voice and speech. Her talent made her quickly rise from student to teaching assistant to teacher, not only at University of the Arts, but all over the Philadelphia area. She eventually built a reputation as the go-to person for vocal and dialect coaching.
Although she lives in the Philadelphia area, in order to train outsiders how to speak our local accent, Sulby still had to do a great deal of research, She analyzes the accent and then begins teaching the variations to the actors. She gives them lots of sample recordings and spends as much time with them as she can in order to support them. They also take her tools and create their own work.
Sulby shared that Winslet had her own personal dialect coach so her work was with the rest of the cast. On the set, Sulby said that she spoke with everyone on the “Mare of Easttown” cast at least once and was there, in person, to offer support and guidance during the filming.
I asked Susanne what words are different and what vowels and consonants are pronounced differently in Delco. Because I speak with this dialect, and it’s all that I hear daily from those around me, I honestly was unsure.
The unique sounds, in general, are OH (vilinova, home), OO (room), I (pike), sometimes oi, sometimes A as in bad or man or after.
My bubble was burst and I felt less important after talking further with Susanne, since she said that she recorded the voices of 30 people to teach the Delco accent. I no longer felt as special, although it’s still cool to know that the cast had to listen to my recording, which gave me a teenytiny, miniscule role in making the series’ story line seem authentic. I was grateful to get this unique and fascinating opportunity to find out the importance and vital role of a film’s dialect coach.
During our recording session, Susanne asked me generic questions about myself, my family, my job, my hobbies, and Delaware County - subjects to just get me talking and feeling comfortable so that I’d forget that I was being recorded. She’s a good conversationalist and I instantly felt at ease, like I was chit-chatting with a friend,
As a Delco resident, I can’t help it if I call the days of the week Mundee, Toosdee, Wensdee, Thersdee, Frydee, Sairdee, or Sundee, or get an addytood if people try to overdo our accent. I was born and raised here, reside and work here, and I already have my plot bought in a cemetery here — I am proudly Delco through and through. I can’t wait to watch “Mare of Easttown,” not only because the plot sounds good, and Susanne shared that the acting is totally incredible, but to carefully check out how the cast talks. Everyone in Delco will be qualified to give the performances a thumbs up or down!
In fact, I just looked around for a pack of crowns (crayons) to mark the April 18 date on my calendar. I want to make sure that I’m not eating dinner at Urr-in (Erin) Pub or Chick-Flay (Chickfil-A), stuck in traffic on Bald-imore (Baltimore) Pike, shopping at Ack-a-me (Acme) or Boose Corner (Booth’s Corner), on my way Dahnashure (Down the Shore) or in ‘Lantic Ciddy (Atlantic City) or Flarda (Florida) when the first episode airs. Youse know, it’s a busy world in and around Delco and I want to be sure that I’m around to watch the premiere of HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” because, when I hear the actors and actresses speak, I am hoping it will feel like I’m hanging out with friends!