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Elisa Gonzales, assistant professor of voice and acting in the Department of Theater in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, is making her Broadway debut as a voice and dialect coach with the new musical production of “Real Women Have Curves,” which previewed at the James Earl Jones Theatre on April 1 and will run through the month of April.

Based on the play by Josefina López that inspired the HBO’s film, “Real Women Have Curves: The Musical” follows Ana Garcia, as she dreams of flying away from East Los Angeles and her family’s sewing factory. When her family receives a dress order that could make or break their businesses, she finds herself juggling her ambitions, her mother’s expectations and a community of women trying to make it work despite the odds.

“As a Chicana from Southern California, Ana’s story as a Mexican-American teen caught between her own ambitions and her family’s expectations has always resonated with me,” Gonzales said. “It has been the honor of my career to be so intimately involved with this production, especially with the task of representing my cultural home sounds on stage.”

Gonzales joined the production during its initial pre-Broadway run at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., as voice and dialect coach and was invited to stay through its transfer to Broadway.

The scope of Gonzales’s dialect design on this production includes Boyle Heights, Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Mexican accents, and Spanish and Ki’che’ language pronunciation. She also works with the actors on the vocal elements of the spoken text.

“The whole team is working incredibly hard to telling the best story possible, so the actors are working every day to incorporate script, music, and choreography changes,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales is also part of a history-making event on Broadway – this is the first time that two Latino shows are playing on Broadway at the same time, the other being, “The Buena Vista Social Club.” It’s also only the second time a Mexican American story has been told on Broadway, the last time being in 1979 with Luis Valdez’s “Zoot Suit.”

“This kind of Latino representation on Broadway is long overdue, and I’m just so proud to be playing a small part to make sure our stories are told with authenticity and specificity in terms of the dialect and voice work,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales was also thrilled to bring UMass Amherst linguistics and theater student, Lindsay Forauer, whom Gonzales mentors, to watch the production’s final dress rehearsal. This opportunity enabled Gonzales to connect the work in the classroom to professional theatre experiences.