I am a dialect coach, actor, and historical interpreter. I created Voicing the Past as a way to bring these three areas together, and share my expertise with others seeking to represent the past.
I grew up in Massachusetts and first stepped onto the stage in high school. I fell in love with theatre and went on to earn a BFA in Acting from Brigham Young University. During my training I became enamored with the process of examining and learning new accents. Soon after graduation I found myself being offered jobs to coach accents for various theatrical productions. I then moved back to Massachusetts and pursued both acting and dialect coaching opportunities in the Boston area.
During that time I was hired as an actor at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. Thus began my foray into historical interpretation. My time working there caused me to deeply consider the vocal choices we make as performers when representing the past. I began to explore what the scholarship is regarding the historical spoken word—especially for eras before the advent of audio recording technology. I quickly found that virtually all portrayals of the past are inauthentic, often being more representative of contemporary attitudes toward speech and accent, than rooted in historical evidence.
Thus was born Voicing the Past. I created it as both a coaching service for those seeking to learn a more historically authentic style of speech, as well as a resource for those wishing to start their own research into the topic.
–Christopher S. Davis
Voicing the Past 