Pryor Center Presents: 'Arkansas Accent Project' Film, Discussion With Ben Corbett Thursday

Photo Submitted

Image from 'The Arkansas Accent Project'

The Pryor Center Presents lecture series continues at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2, with a screening of The Arkansas Accent Project film and a discussion with filmmaker Ben Corbett. The event is hosted by the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

What sounds and sayings define the various people of the state of Arkansas and what these people may have in common? The Arkansas Accent Project film draws upon interviews collected from the five major Arkansan regions: the Ozarks, the Arkansas River Valley, the Ouachitas, the Coastal Plain, and the Delta. Through interviews of various native Arkansans, The Arkansas Accent Project illuminates the various accents of this state and the people who claim Arkansas as their home. Corbett will discuss the making of the film after the showing. 

Corbett is a playwright, voice teacher, filmmaker and Equity actor. His documentary, The Arkansas Accent Project, won a Mid-America Emmy in 2024, as well as several awards in the regional film festival circuit. His one-man show, Fat Men in Yoga Pants, which was developed both in the Valdez Theatre Fringe (2023) and the Play Lab (2024) at the Valdez Theatre Conference, had its debut at Ronin Theatre Company in Phoenix, Arizona, in July 2025. He is also a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher and a Certified Colaianni Speech Instructor. His professional vocal coaching credits include Ronin Theatre Company, TheatreSquared, City Rep, the William Inge Theatre Festival, the Hollywood Fringe Festival, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Barter Theatre, Burning Coal Theatre Company, Bare Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas and Shakespeare Santa Cruz. He is a senior editor for the International Dialects of English Archive.

The Pryor Center is located at 1 E. Center St., Suite 120. The event is free and open to the public, and parking is available in the Town Center parking deck on East Avenue.

About the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History: The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History is an oral history program with the mission to document the history of Arkansas through the collection of spoken memories and visual records, preserve the collection in perpetuity, and connect Arkansans and the world to the collection through the Internet, TV broadcasts, educational programs, and other means. The Pryor Center records audio and video interviews about Arkansas history and culture, collects other organizations' recordings, organizes these recordings into an archive, and provides public access to the archive, primarily through the website at pryorcenter.uark.edu. The Pryor Center is the state's only oral and visual history program with a statewide, seventy-five county mission to collect, preserve, and share audio and moving image recordings of Arkansas history.

About the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences: The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most academically diverse unit on campus with three schools, 16 departments and 43 academic programs and research centers. The college provides the majority of the core curriculum for all University of Arkansas students.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.