Students in the Department of Theatre are getting lessons from an expert this week, and the rest of the university is invited to join in.

Stan Brown, a voice and acting professor visiting from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, will speak to and with students at 5 p.m. in the Arena theater in the basement of the Auditorium. The topic is cultural voice and “perceptions of sharing the English language,” Brown said, as it affects theater and language in general.

“Language doesn’t necessarily belong to one nation or people anymore,” he said.

Brown visited classes last week and will continue this week, speaking in classes and talking with students, though he admits that in the performance classes he visited, quiet students left him to do most of the talking. He will also assist Shakespearean voice coaching for the cast of Hamlet.

“It’s making the language accessible to the 20th century actor with 20th century sensibilities so that that actor with that access to the language can honor the poetry,” Brown said.

He hopes to have students speaking Elizabethan English with the ease of everyday conversation, at least on the stage.

He also visited a rehearsal of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf.”

“Getting a fresh and new perspective is a refreshing experience,” theater professor Marcus Olson said.

Olson studied with Brown during Olson’s college days at Miami University (Ohio) and took advantage of MSU’s program to bring minority professors to the university.

Brown, who is black, also teaches about cultural diversity in acting.

“He’s a very good friend and he’s one of the top voice people in the country,” Olson said. “He’s an amazingly good teacher and actor and director.”

“I think it’s a real treat to have him here,” theater graduate student Christiane Morel said. Brown, helped Morel add creativity to her acting by having her class read abstract texts.

He also gave her a new angle to approach an Anton Chekhov script.

“One thing that I thought was wonderful that he had us do was he asked us to read it backward,” she said. “You might pay more attention to words that you may have looked over.”

Brown, who has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, said students were interested in his experience in acting and his thoughts about the cancellation of MSU’s production of “SubUrbia.” He gave them advice on “what to look forward to, what to look out for, and braving the unknown.”

Morel said Brown taught them that different vowel sounds can express different emotions, something that affects the audience, though they might not be aware of it.

“It will help you tap into feelings that aren’t more apparent at first,” she said.

Students were also introduced to Brown’s breathing exercises like the warrior and the breath of fire.

“They get all your vitals cooking,” Olson said.