Nellie Peck Saunders

              1911

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Nellie Peck Saunders
565 Casa 
Michigan Conservatory Telephone
maine 526
Home Phone Grand 1556-


NELLIE PECK SAUNDERS

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IN NELLIE PECK SAUNDERS we present to our patrons one of the foremost readers of this country.  She is without a superior as an impersonator and reader.  Her popularity, wherever she has appeared knows no bounds.  She is a universal favorite.  With great brilliancy and attractiveness of personality, whether on the platform or in the social circle, she has cultivated her art until she is able to make her hearers forget that she is representing another and they think of her as the real character she portrays.  Possessed of magnetism, a strong mind, a vivid imagination, she is sure to be appreciated and enjoyed by all lovers of good literature.



A FEW EXTRACTS FROM PERSONAL LETTERS
Eaton T. Sams. Gen'l. Secy. Y. M. C. A.—Pasadena, Cal.

Nellie Peck Saunders appeared for the first time in Pasadena last evening as the fifth number in the Star Course given by the Y. M. C. A.  Unusually attractive in appearance and possessing a charmingly vivacious personality, Mrs. Saunders was evidently born to be what she is, and having fanned the spark of genius that was her birthright into an irresistible flame, she now stands without a peer as a reader and impersonator.  With a perfectly modulated voice and unequalled dramatic art Mrs. Saunders imbues her selections with realism and pathos, swaying her audience at will, and transforming her severest critics into ardent admirers.

Samuel Dickie. President of Albion College;

Mrs. Saunders is certain to please the audiences before which she appears, and I am glad to be able to give my unqualified commendation.

George E. Fellows. Professor of History, University of Chicago.

Mrs. Saunders' work is excellent in every particular and thoroughly satisfactory to the most critical of her audience.

Pliny O. Clark. Morenci Club, Morenci, Ariz.

You have little idea how much you pleased our people.  It has been continually, Give us Mrs. Saunders again next year,I never enjoyed an evening more, and Her rendition of The Lane That Had No Turning was a revelation, and so you must come to us again next year if you possibly can.

Chas. H. Amos. Chairman Baptist Temple, Philadelphia.

Your work was a revelation to our audience, and I join with the 2,500 people present in stating that all of us spent a pure, elevating and delightful evening.

Chas. H. Wevill. Secretary of Central Y. M. C. A., Philadelphia.

I have heard only nice things said about you and your work, and if you should come to us again next year, as I hope you will, you will receive a cordial welcome.


Rayner W. Kelsey. Vice. Pres. Whittier College, Whittier, Cal.

The more I hear people talk today, the more do I realize the wonderful triumph you achieved in Whittier last night.  Your appearance was a great boom for our course and we certainly want you again next year.

Dr. William Hoover. Department of Mathematics, Ohio University.

Your readings were really artistic because they were so natural—nothing stilted, no affectation—but the natural outflow of expression which provokes spontaneous applause.  I can recommend your work to cultivated audiences without a single mental reservation.

Rev. Wm. Knight. Author of The Song of The Syrian Guest—Boston, Mass.

Nellie Peck Saunders is so well known to me as her pastor that it is no surprise to me that she has developed such charming qualities in the art of interpreting authors as a reader.  Her own delicately appreciative nature, her bright mind and winsome voice are quite enough to account for it.  I have heard her many times and she never fails to delight her audience.  Hers is one of those bright natures shining of itself, and capable of making others enthusiastic and happy.  I can heartily recommend her in every way to persons desiring a true-hearted gifted and cultured reader.



A FEW PRESS NOTICES

Milwaukee (Wis.) Free Press
She has a remarkably pleasing personality and grace, possessing rare dramatic ability.  In fact she is an artist of exceptional ability in her line.


Uniontown (Pa.) Evening Genius
As a reader and impersonator Nellie Peck Saunders shone conspicuously in a varied rendition of selections in romance, tragedy, mimicry, and character sketches.


Cleveland (O.) World
The readings of Nellie Peck Saunders were, of course, the feature of the entire evening's pleasure, all of her selections being given with the grace and skill of a master.


Richmond (Va.) Times Dispatch
The readings of Mrs. Saunders were of an exceptional character; the great round of applause which greeted her every appearance was a sure sign that she had captured the audience.


South Bend (Ind.) Tribune
Nellie Peck Saunders in her readings was a revelation to the audience and she received an ovation seldom accorded to an artist in this city.  She has a remarkably pleasing personality and grace, and rare dramatic ability.


Winona Lake (Ind.) Assembly Review
Another remarkable power of Mrs. Saunders is her versatility.  She can change in a moment from the liveliest gaiety to the deepest pathos.  Of her art one can hardly speak too highly.  Perhaps the truest and the best thing that can be said of it is that one cannot tell when the soul of the woman is speaking and when her art.


The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser
On Thursday evening at the Montgomery theater Mrs. Nellie Peck Saunders, of Chicago, delighted a large and thoroughly appreciative audience with a recital, given for the benefit of the Court Street M. E. Church.  As an impersonator Mrs. Saunders is a wonderful artist.  Her command of language, tone, expression, and motion, all of which she uses in her interesting performance, is such as to people the stage, upon which she stands alone, with all the characters necessary to tell the stories that make up her program.  Her audience laughs as heartily, and sighs as deeply in sympathy with the characters whose existence she indicates as with those for whom she speaks.


Winona Lake (Ind.) Chautauqua.
Nellie Peck Saunders gave a reading at the auditorium last evening which appealed strongly to the artistic sense of the most cultured portion of her large audience.  It was a delightful literary conception, set to pleasing, melodious music, and Mrs. Saunders gave it additional worth by a personal charm.  The selection was called Das Hexenlied, or witch song, which for value depended upon the talent of the reader.  Das Hexenlied is really music in a poem, written by Ernest von Wildenbruch, a patriotic poet of Syria.  It is weird and dramatic at times, and Mrs. Saunders gave it a fine interpretation.  Especially did it please the audience as she portrayed the death of the hero of the romance, for, when he died, there was not a doleful note in the music, but one of joy as his soul sped away to join the sweetheart who had gone before.
The reading was a novelty for a Winona audience, not only in the poem itself, but in the cleverness of the reader.  Throughout the effort the author made it evident that he had a story to tell, but it was one of melodious music, with words to interpret it, while the reader made clear the meaning of the music.





A Few Programs from her large Repertoire are suggested here
THE LANE THAT HAD NO TURNING—Gilbert Parker

The Scene is Laid in Quebec, About the Middle of the 18th Century.


Scene I.  The Return of Madelinette.
Scene II.  Madelinette's Loyalty.
Scene III.  The Duel.
Scene IV.  Madelinette Makes a Discovery.
Scene V.  The One Who Saw.
Scene VI.  The Pursuit.
Scene VII.  Face to Face.


Act I. from MISTRESS NELL
Arranged from Geo. C. Hazleton's Merry Tale of a Merry Time



CHARACTERS IMPERSONATED


Nell Gwynn
Actress at the King's Theater


The Duke of Buckingham
In love with Nell


Jack Hart
The Actor-Manager


Strings
An Old Fiddler


Moll
An Orange Girl


Dick
The Call-Boy at the King's



Scene—Greenroom at the King's Theater.  Period—London, during the reign of Charles II.



THE GIRL FROM WYOMING
(A comedy in two scenes)

Written especially for Nellie Peck Saunders by Pauline Phelps and Marian Short.



Mildred Crawford, alias Madame Grandi
The Girl from Wyoming





OTHER CHARACTERS SUPPOSED TO BE PRESENT


Grace Weir
An old schoolmate


Mrs. Ponsonby
A social leader


Marie
Her little niece


Stanley, her nephew,
in search of Girl from Wyoming


Miss Blobs
A spinster


Mr. Reynolds
A friend of Mrs. Ponsonby



And guests at reception


Scene I.  Parlor at Grace Weir's Boarding House.
Scene II.  Music room at Mrs. Ponsonby's during the reception

Time—Present.  Place—New York City.



MRS. BENTON'S BARGAIN
(A monologue in three scenes)



Mrs. Benton






OTHER CHARACTERS ASSUMED TO BE PRESENT.


Louis
Mrs. Benton's husband


Mrs. Tompkins
A friend




Scene I.  Mrs. Benton's drawing room.  Time—Sunday morning
Scene II.  Auction room of the American Express Company.  Time—Monday, 10 a. m.
Scene III.  Same as Scene I.  Time—Monday, 6:30 p. m.



SELECTIONS WITH MUSICAL SETTING


Midsummer Night's Dream (music by Mendelssohn)

Shakespeare



(With orchestral accompaniment)



Das Hexenlied (music by Max Schillings)

Ernst von Wildenbruch


Hiawatha (music by Saidie Knowland Coe)

Longfellow


King Robert of Sicily (music by Rossetter G. Cole)

Longfellow


The Ballad of Despair

Bemberg



AND
PROGRAMS OF MISCELLANEOUS NUMBERS.