If judged by his looks, Thom Jones might be considered a bit of a hipster from downtown New York City, in a leather jacket, blue Chucks, dirty-washed jeans, and a hat to top off his outfit. But when Jones, the master of accents, opens his mouth, he transforms.

The lobby of Brown-RISD Hillel, where he teaches TSDA 0930A: “The Actor’s Instrument: Voice” alongside Professor of Theatre, Speech and Dance Lowry Marshall, turns into a city subway as he takes on the voice of a hypothetical Puerto Rican woman who, he says, wears earrings “the size of doorknockers.”

“Ay! But, of corrs!” he says, rolling his “R’s” emphatically, as he puts his hands on his hips. It is like witnessing a metamorphosis, as the clean-shaven, green-eyed Clinical Associate Professor of Theatre, Speech & Dance becomes an incarnation of the stereotypical Latina woman, loud and extravagant.

Jones smiles when he sees the reaction he gets from Ana Bermudez ’12, who is first meeting the “Master of the Accents” from the referral of a mutual friend. Like Jones, she shares the natural ability to imitate an accent with precision.

“Ay mami!” she replies, loudly and clearly, instantly altering her own Colombian accent to become that of a Latina who might easily be found in a telenovela. Her smile widens, as she adds a hand gesture to heighten her new accent.

“Mijita, that sweateh, it look so naice on you,” she continues, complimenting the striped sweater that Jones wears under his jacket and speaking so fast that it’s hard to keep up. The two of them have hit it off instantly, entering a multicultural dimension as they begin switching rapidly from accent to accent.

Hillel’s receptionist glares at the pair—they’re disrupting the peaceful atmosphere. But in between the laughter and accents, neither of them realizes that they are speaking significantly louder.

“It’s nice to meet another nerd like me,” Jones says, laughing and almost breathless. He extends his hand and officially greets Bermudez. “I think we could definitely be friends.”

Jones, a classically trained actor, started teaching speech training when he was a student at Purchase College. Although he had an acting career that included performances in the Phantom of the Opera, he found he kept coming back to teaching.

“I then realized that this is the way this career is going,” he said. “This is the right path, and I like it.”

According to Jones, there are three fundamental aspects that make up an accent: vocal placement (“Which is where you place your voice at—is it in the back, middle or front?”), the rhythm (or rate at which the person speaks—slow, drowsy, choppy, you name it), and musicality, which has to do with pitch.

“For example the general American [accent] is broadly expressive; it has one or two notes,” Jones explains.

Jones has had a broad experience coaching several Hollywood celebrities, including Mel Gibson in his recent movie Edge of Darkness and Nicole Kidman in the movie Rabbit Hole. “I was also a dialect coach for the show Brotherhood, which takes place in Providence,” he says, explaining that the city has a very specific dialect, so he had to work carefully with the actors to get it just right.

Jones says that the difference between accents is a mostly geographical phenomenon. In the southern United States, the climate is hotter, “So your body is more relaxed, and you’re goanna speek lahk this,” Jones drawls, whereas with the chicano accent from LA, “It’s gonna be more urban, man.”

Bermudez continues her lesson, suddenly pulling out her secret weapon: the Indian accent. She picked it up after spending the last two years of high school in the United World College in India and has continued practicing during her time at Brown.

“T’is the way they say the T’s that ti’s hard,” she says, her voice slipping into the perfect rhythm.

Mesmerized, Jones says he would have believed she was actually from India—not only did she execute the vocals perfectly, but she also played the part well. “It was lovely. It was subtle,” Jones says, explaining that her gestures and the way she moved her body made the accent seem natural. “That shows mastery.”

“Voice is so expressive,” he adds. “That’s why you have to have imagination to teach people how to deal with accents. You have to teach them everything—how to breathe, when to pause.”

Captivated, Bermudez  patiently listens to everything he has to say. It is the first time she has witnessed a professional explaining the technique behind a craft she has always considered little more than an entertaining hobby.

“You have a talent,” Jones tells his newest student. “There’s a specific thing that you feel, and the way you listen, you’re connecting.”

He calls this “empathetic listening.” In trying to grasp an accent, both he and Bermudez are trying to get closer to those who possess it naturally, to share a moment.

“We articulate the emotional experience that we are having,” he tells her. “And you and I feel emotions very strongly.”

Laughing, he adds, “I’m sure it’s also a great source of entertainment for your friends.”

“You’re right,” she says with a giggle. “They seem to really like what I can do.”

I put this quote before this paragraph and rephrased the following sentence a little

For years, she has been the comic/actress within her group of friends, her repertoire of accents helping to break the ice or simply to make a house party more fun.

If she can do so much already with just her raw talent, Jones says, then who knows how far she’ll go with formal training in the discipline

I changed from “if she actually sits down, etc…”

Inspired by her new mentor, Bermudez says she is now considering an acting class in the future.

“It’s as if I’ve found my soulmate,” she jokes.