Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan

              1908

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Season 1908-9
Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan
Author of Keys in Shakespeare's Treasure House

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IN Special Dramatic Recitals
OF
Shakespeare's Tragic Plays


Some Personal and Press Endorsements.

MR. FREDERICK WARDE—The Eminent Tragedian.
My Dear Mrs. Phelan: I am sure you know you have my best wishes for the success of your reading on the 8th and that I am delighted to hear that your Keys have been adopted by the University of Michigan.  You get at the very core of the subject, reducing it to a concrete scientific literary study.  There are many, many readers of Shakespeare, but few that have given so much study, or deserve so much recognition as you do.  I want to see your books acknowledged and your labor substantially rewarded as it deserves to be.



LECTURE RECITAL GIVEN LAST NIGHT.
Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan in Richard III.
A very appreciative audience greeted Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan last night at Bush Temple when she appeared in a dramatic lecture recital of Richard III.  Her impersonations of different characters in this great work of the Bard of Avon brought forth frequent and prolonged applause.  In her work she ran the gamut from Richard's halting, limp and fierce determination to Queen Anne's passionate love.  She was presented with several clusters of flowers.  One came from the Shakespeare Followers, of which she is the leader.



MRS. PHELAN'S DRAMATIC RECITAL.

While much was expected of Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan, owing to the authoritative praise she won while studying under Frederick Warde in New York and her well known ability and ambition, nothing quite so convincing and holding as her dramatic recital of Richard III. was expected, even by the most sanguine of her admirers.  Bush Temple, on Tuesday evening, showed a good-sized and very representative audience by the time Mrs. Phelan, wearing a handsome gun metal jetted robe, with a diamond star flashing in her dark hair, appeared upon the stage.  This reader looks the tragic queen, being commanding in form and mien, with a very expressive face and thoughtful, dark eyes.  Richard III., one of Shakespeare's most fascinating, as well as subtle characters, is yet one difficult with which to hold a cosmepolitan audience, even when given with all the glow and glamor of scenery, costume and court pharaphernalia, that doth hedge about a king. and when a reader can hold an audience on the qui vive of intense interest on a warm night for two hours, by the mere force of intellectual delineation, they have accomplished something worth the aiming.  This Mrs. Phelan did, and instead of wearying the audience, that even some grand productions have been known to do, she held it enthralled to the last scene, and many were the expressions of praise heard from every side, Mrs. Phelan used the old, illustrious Colly Cibber adaptation of the tragedy, which embraces all the principal scenes and sets forth all the prominent characters.  She drew a clear cut and distinct picture of the usurper, which she silhouetted through the portrayal with a faithfulness of speech, of limp, of halt, of hump, of snarl, of sneer, that was as amazing as it was absorbing and in all the humors of this complex central figure did she hesitate or fail to be convincing.  She was also hand in glove with the various other character—suiting the words and action to the role in hand—her rich, well modulated voice keeping true to the text and her expressive face lending realism to the portrayal.  On account of limited space a more detailed criticism is not attempted.  Suffice to say, Mrs. Phelan has just cause to be proud of her dramatic recital and the reception she received.—
Beau Monde.



MISS FRANCES COX, TEACHER FROM THE BOSTON SCHOOL OF ORATORY.
Expression is life and life should be expression.  To bring forth into visibility the divine image within, is the summum bonum of life.  When found such an one makes the ideal teacher.  In Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan I have found the student who makes just such a teacher.  With the keenest psychological discernment she unites a logical and scientific mind where analytical perception and synthetic construction are balanced.  The New Age demands scientific art and artistic science, and among those teachers ready to supply this demand Mrs. Phelan's name will take high rank.  Her vital enthusiasm is a constant inspiration, lifting all to higher vistas in the realm of Art.



PROGRAM BY MRS. C. T. PHELAN.
Holds Attention of Audience for Two Hours with Dramatic Reading of Richard III.

Before a representative and appreciative audience at Bush Temple last evening Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan appeared in a dramatic lecture recital of Richard III. Mrs. Phelan read with no evident strain in her rich, well modulated voice for two hours, all the while waxing more eloquent with the growing interest of her audience.
The aim of the recital was to show the character development of the usurper, misshapen in body and heart, and the aim was attained.  In scenes from Act I she drew the determined Richard born with teeth.  In two scenes from Act II she proved the fascination of the man over resentful Queen Anne, who requites his fawning, feigned love with a real passion.  In the remaining acts the momentary fright of the conscience-tormented man as the shadows of his victims arise, and the final heroic death of the warrior leader on the field of Bosworth.  It was no mean success that the reader of last evening achieved, when she so sustained that complex character throughout the recital, with never a lapse in original tone placement nor in trick of personal appearance, for instance the halting limp of the man.
Her best work was no doubt obtained in the soliloquys, when there was a chance for the sustained presentation of a phase of character, but in the rapid dialogue there was scarcely any confusion to the understanding of the audience.  Besides the King. Mrs. Phelan assumed during the evening thirteen other characters, not including extra lords, servants, etc., and to each she gave some representative and descriptive trick of expression.  The difficult dream scene, when the overwrought Clarence in the London Tower foresees his doom, was handled to the distinct appreciation of the audience.  The tearful and then coy Anne, and later the religious Richmond were worthy of approval.  The linking explanations of the scenes were lucid and furthered the interest.—

The Dallas News.



THE BEAU MONDE.
The Dramatic and Musical Soiree at Bush Temple Tuesday night brought out a large and appreciative audience, and its rendition added marked eclat to this very brilliant and busy Easter week.  Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan, who has the presence of a tragedy queen, chose for her scene the Sleep-Walking episode from Macbeth and made plain through her action and voice the mental sufferings of the guilty queen.



THE BEAU MONDE.
The recital given by Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan the past week for the benefit of the window fund of the McKinney Avenue Baptist Church, met with the appreciation and enthusiasm it merited, and furnished a most entertaining evening for a large audience.  Mrs. Phelan was at her best, and through her varied program held her hearers on the qui vive of interest, meeting the gamut of emotions required with a temperament and intelligence that denotes the true talent, the true school.



WEATHERFORD DAILY HERALD.
Mrs. Phelan is a dramatic reader, and interpreter of the classics in literature.  Her methods are individual, the result of many years' study and practical experience, and bear the endorsement, as well as the commendation of many eminent scholars, divines, lawyers and students of the classics.



THE DAILY TIMES-HERALD.
The recital given by Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan on last Wednesday afternoon for the benefit of the McKinney Avenue Baptist Church was a success from every point of view.  While every number on the program was well received, and Mrs. Phelan demonstrated her dramatic ability, the reading of Hagar was especially pleasing and the reader was forced to respond to an encore.



LEMUEL B. C. JOSEPHS.
Vocal Interpreter of the English Classics, New York City: Mrs. Phelan aims at breadth and thoroughness in her literary study, sparing no pains in working out details.





Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan
Presents this Season Two
Special Dramatic Recitals

Richard III
As arranged for dramatic representation by Colley Cibber, in which all of the great scenes are presented and the characters impersonated.



Shakespeare's Impressive Tragedy
Othello, The Moor of Venice
From studies of the great actors who have presented the play in recent years, both in Europe and America.



In Preparation
Macbeth, Julius Caesar, The Winter's Tale



Mrs. Phelan
Is the only lady on the platform today who presents the heavy tragedies of Shakespeare in complete dramatic form.





Mrs. Charles Tidwell Phelan
Is the Author of
Keys to Shakespeare's Treasure House
ASERIES OF QUESTIONS, arranged in separate book form, intended to facilitate, and simplify the study and analysis of all of Shakespeare's plays.  These books have been adopted by many Shakespearean Clubs, and Literary Societies; accepted by several Universities, and are in use in the literary departments of a number of our Public Schools.  They embody the study and research of years, and are the result of diligent and exhaustive labor intelligently applied.

THE BOOKS ALREADY PUBLISHED AND IN USE, INCLUDE:

Hamlet
King John
Cymbeline
Henry VI.
Richard III
King Lear
Twelfth Night
Antony and Cleopatra
The Merchant of Venice
Much Ado About Nothing


Mrs. Phelan is the Organizer and Leader of The Dallas Shakespeare Followers, and was formerly, Chairman Department of Literature of the Dallas Womans Forum; First Vice Pres. Dallas Federation of Women's Clubs; and Director of The Dallas History Club.

In addition to her Dramatic Recitals, Mrs. Phelan is prepared to preside at the Chautauqua Round Table.