Myra Casterline Smith

              1919
H6O: per week for five or more weeks

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Myra Gasterline Smith
662 Comelia Ave  Graceland 2099



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Myra Gasterline Smith
Interpreter of Plays


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ANNOUNCEMENT
WE take pleasure in presenting MYRA CASTERLINE SMITH to Lyceum patrons in our territory, because she has something good, uplifting and entertaining in store for every one.  She is a reader of exceptional ability, and is equally capable in humorous, pathetic and dramatic readings, and can with ease hold an audience throughout an entire evening.

She has a thorough knowledge of her art, a keen insight into human character and a strong appreciation of what is best in literature; hence her selections are always of a high standard.  She has a varied repertoire, her programs being chosen from both classic and modern literature, and consisting of books, stories and plays.  We can therefore assure any lecture course committee that she will meet just that certain demand your audience is making for something new, artistic, scholarly and instructive, yet withal, very entertaining.


Buffalo, N. Y.—
One of the enjoyable events of the week was the recital, given by Myra Casterline Smith, before the Richmond Club.  She recited her own adaptation of The Shepherd of the Hills, by Harold Bell Wright.  It was divided into four parts—The Two Trails, The Awakening, The Promise Fulfilled, and The End of the Trails.  Mrs. Smith appeared to excellent advantage.  She has a pleasing stage presence, enunciates distinctly, and on Tuesday evening told the story in such a natural, simple way that every one understood each character perfectly, and highly complimentary remarks were heard in all directions.—

News.



WICKERSHAM says—
She's a top-liner
I HAVE had opportunity to hear nearly every great artist on the American platform.  I have been asked to say words of commendation for hundreds of them, but have been compelled to decline to do so because I could not say anything that would help them.

For comparatively a few people it has been a pleasure to speak of them.  For a much smaller number I have felt impelled to say what I felt every one should know who love the best.

Myra Casterline Smith belongs to this latter class.  It has not been my privilege to hear a greater than she.  She is a top-liner of remarkable power.  When you sit in her presence and witness her work you do not think of elocution, but education; not esthetical touches, but masterly portrayals; not a glimpse of people, but striking and thrilling life-sized portraits of the good and great, and the mean and small people of the earth.  Such remarkable power is given to but very few, but Mrs. Smith has it in full measure.

No committee looking for and selecting a lecture course should fail to have her if her limited time will permit it.  She is worth the season ticket to any committee.  Her Message from Mars is wonderful.

Cordially,
L. B. WICKERSHAM




MYRA CASTERLINE SMITH

PROGRAMS

THE LOST PARADISE
Translated from the German by William Cecile DeMille, and Made Famous by Maude Adams
A strong dramatic play emphasizing the great struggle that is going on between capital and labor.  Margaret Knowlton, a beautiful society girl, who lives only for the pleasures of the moment, is taught to realize what life really means when she learns to love the foreman of her father's factory.


All day the iron wheels go onward
Grinding life down from its mark
And the children's souls whom God is calling Sunward
Spin on blindly through the dark!



IN THE VANGUARD
The Great Peace Drama
By Katrina Trask

A story of great dramatic strength showing the utter futility and uselessness of War.  The author portrays with masterly power the soldier dying on the battlefield and the wonderful vision that is given him as he is about to pass into the Unknown.

Said by many to be the finest argument ever written against war.



THE MIRACLE MAN
By Frank L. Packard

It's the invigorating doctrine of the power of the human will over all the powers of darkness that Mr. Packard sets forth in his novel.  The Patriarch who cures crippled bodies and souls is no cultist—neither is Frank L. Packard—but he does believe that the strongest thing in the world is the mind of man.  The story of the four crooks who go to Needley, Maine, to be cured by the Patriarch in the hope of securing financial gain, and who are all finally regenerated is full of humorous situations, dramatic climaxes, and demonstrates that it is impossible for a bad man or woman to associate with the good without being influenced for the better.



THE MESSAGE FROM MARS
Made Famous by Charles Hawtrey
A comedy, a play, a story of great dramatic strength, taking for its theme the revolution of a selfish man.  No play of the Twentieth Century emphasizes more keenly the need of the human heart touch in the world which makes all men brothers.



POLLY OF THE CIRCUS
Written by Margaret Mayo

Irresistible, appealing, it never fails to uplift and broaden all who hear it.  The characters are fourteen in all, and their evolution proves that no being on earth is beyond the power of good influence.



THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS
Written by Harold Bell Wright

It is a page from life itself revealing the brotherhood of man as a potent force in the world.  The scenes are laid in the Ozark Mountains, and the story is one of sublime faith and sacrifice told in a dramatic and convincing manner.



EVERYWOMAN
Written by Walter Browne

The great modern morality play of the age.  Everywoman on her pilgrimage in quest of love tells a story of life, a story in which much of the world's harshness, uncharitableness and greed are depicted in vivid coloring, but the moral pointed is virile, as well as sweetly satisfactory.  Truth is triumphant at the end and points the way for Everywoman.



THE MANSION
Written by Henry Van Dyke

RESERVED FOR SUNDAY READINGS

It deals with the struggle of real religion and its artificial substitute.



Dramatic Readings with Musical Settings

ENOCH ARDEN Tennyson
KING ROBERT OF SICILY Longfellow
DAS HEXENLIED Von Wildenbruch




A FEW COMMENTS REGARDING MRS. SMITH'S WORK FROM AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES:
Boston, Mass.—Myra Casterline Smith is possessed with enthusiasm for her work and earnestness of purpose and she has the power to hold and move her audiences.  She gives to books and plays of fine literature a true, forceful and charming interpretation.—Emma Augusta Greely, School of Elocution and Dramatic Art.

Martinsburg, West Virginia—The closing number of the Lyceum Course was given last evening at the Y. M. C. A. Myra Casterline Snith, the reader, was responsible for the entire program and she met this responsibility in a most charming and satisfying way.  To start with Mrs. Smith is a woman of high ability and able to make her audiences think.  In the program, so entirely good throughout, perhaps the Message from Mars will linger longer in the memory and prod our best nature into real usefulness.  If our people would encourage such entertainments as that given last evening our City would not have to hurry up each winter and pass around the hat to help those in distress.  The audience was a very good one and exceedingly quiet during the several readings.  The walls of the room soon fade away and you are not conscious of your immediate surroundings after Mrs. Smith begins.

Millersburg, Kentucky—Myra Casterline Smith appeared last Friday evening in the second number of the Lyceum Course at the College.  Her reading of the Message from Mars, a story of great dramatic strength, taking for its theme the revolution of a selfish man, was wonderful.  Mrs. Smith's reading was pronounced by competent critics to be one of the best entertainments given here.

Uhrichsville, Ohio—The Opera House was crowded to the doors last evening when Myra Casterline Smith gave the third number of the Denison and Uhrichsville Lecture Course.  Mrs. Smith is probably the most pleasing reader that ever entertained in the Twin Cities.  The audience was held in deep silence throughout and the highest praise was given her after her entertainment had concluded.

Sheridan, Ind.—For two hours she held a large and appreciative audience with her splendid character interpretations, bringing them so vividly to the minds of her hearers that they lived again in the days of their youth.  Too much cannot be said of her splendid presentation of Polly of the Circus.  The appearance of the real characters, how true to life, the scenes of the circus, and with it and in it all a message which every community needs to lift up and broaden the plane of life.  It was a fitting climax for the season.—Lowell W. Cox, Pres.

Dunkirk, N. Y.—She is a woman with a message, and always more than satisfies her audiences.  Her interpretation of The Message from Mars will benefit as well as entertain any audience.—A. C. Locke.



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Larwell, Ind.—The entertainment given here on March 15, by Myra Casterline Smith under the auspices of the Lyceum Association was a success in every respect.  She displayed marvelous skill in interpretation and expression.  In her line of work she is an artist of the first magnitude.

—A. L. Watters, Prin. of Schools.

Buffalo, N. Y.—I am not in the habit of writing commendations for publication, but in the case of Myra Casterline Smith I gladly do so.  I cannot speak too highly of her work.  It has been my privilege to hear a great many public readers, but none of them quite satisfies me as does Mrs. Smith.  Her perfect naturalness and self-poise at all times I would specially emphasize.

—J. L. Sooy, Supt, Buffalo District.

Tonawanda, N. Y.—The Shepherd of the Hills, as rendered by Myra Casterline Smith is as interesting and delightful an entertainment as it has been my pleasure to enjoy.  There is pathos and humor, tragedy and comedy, and life in all its moods and tenses.  It is a charming story of simple, genuine, thoroughly human people, and Mrs. Smith makes every one of them real to you.  There is not a dull moment from start to finish, not a superfluous sentence; not a thing lacking in the consummation which is reached with great skill.  It leaves a good taste in one's mouth and our people say Come again Mrs. Smith, and we will pack the house.  —Horace Alonzo Crane.


Beaver Falls, Pa.—An audience that filled the Carnegie Auditorium upstairs and down witnessed a most superb program.  It was one of the best—if not the best—that has yet been given in the Course.  Myra Casterline Smith proved herself most versatile, for her readings were beautifully done.—
Beaver Falls Republican.