How to do a puerto rican accent (when speaking english)?

Question:i'm auditioning for west side story and the casting directors want us to try an accent. I know that short i's should be drawn out. anymore tips?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: i'm auditioning for west side story and the casting directors want us to try an accent. I know that short i's should be drawn out. anymore tips?

You might want to watch the movie of West Side Story, or get a dialect tape or instruction book, to figure out the typical tonal placement and different speech sounds that a good Puerto Rican dialect would involve.

Then you should practice talking that way. Try to converse with your friends in that accent. I still chuckle over a fellow theatre student working on her Brooklyn out in the quad when she was preparing for "Guys and Dolls".

Now, once you have the accent down, remember to memorize your lines IN THE ACCENT--do not memorize them in your regular voice and then try to gloss the accent over them. Learning them with the dialect makes it less likely that you'll slip out of it in rehearsals or performance.

If you really want to know what the director has in mind, the RENT THE MOVIE and LISTEN to their accents.

Watch Rosie Perez...LOL