Katharine Oliver, B. Sc.

              Figure

Katharine Oliver, B.Sc.
Interpretive Recitals
REPERTOIRE


1
The Little Minister
Barrie


2
Drumtochty Folk
Maclaren


3
The Play Actress
Crockett


4
An Evening with Robert Burns—Lecture Recital



5
Old Scotch Ballads



6
That Lass o' Lowries
Burnett


7
The Sky Pilot
Connor


8
An Evening of Character Sketches—(Popular)



9
Enoch Arden
Tennyson


10
King Henry VIII
Shakespeare


11
A Winter's Tale
Shakespeare



Under Exclusive Management of The Mutual Lyceum Bureau
Suite 55, Auditorium Building,   CHICAGO, ILL.

PRESS OF THE HENRY O. SHEPARD COMPANY



KATHARINE OLIVER—READER
Lecture-Recital Courses
As an artist Katharine Oliver excels in heart power.  She has the rare gift of obliterating herself from the consciousness of the listener, while by suggestion she reveals the soul-workings of her characters.  It is this power that makes it possible for her to give the entire entertainment course of from four to six evenings with more satisfaction to the management and greater financial returns than is customary with a mixed course.

This season my church was fortunate in securing Katharine Oliver, a reader of international reputation, for a series of four interpretive recitals.  The venture was new and some doubt was expressed as to whether the people would be willing to purchase tickets to four entertainments given by the same person.  Many held back, saying they would come the first night on a single admission and see whether they wanted to come the other three evenings.  The first audience was fine.  The sample tasters were delighted.  They talked the loudest.  The house was filled to its utmost capacity each evening.  The pessimist said we would make no money.  The pastor said money was not the main object: the educative and refining influence of the recitals was the thing to work for.  But the money came.  The course netted between three and four hundred dollars (from thirty to fifty dollars being received for single admissions at each recital).  It is unanimously conceded to be the best course ever held in this city.

REV. W. M. HINDMAN, D.D., (Bryan's pastor), Lincoln, Nebraska.  Symposium on Lecture Comse Problems in March Talent 1904.

PRESIDENT'S OFFICE, BAKER UNIVERSITY, BALDWIN, KAN., September 28, 1895.

The students and faculty of Baker University have just had a rich, rare treat in a series of monologue and lecture recitals by Miss Katharine Oliver, late of Boston.  She came to us so recommended that expectation ran high among us.  She surpassed anything we had dreamed of.  She will always please, and, what is better, she will leave behind her a most helpful and ennobling influence.

L. H. MURLIN, President.



Scotch
Katharine Oliver is recognized both in America and Great Britain as the foremost interpreter of Scottish life and character of the present time.

CITY TEMPLE, LONDON, June 18, 1896.

Miss Katharine E. Oliver is beyond all question the most remarkable and successful interpreter of Scottish character I ever heard.  Her whole manner is most charming in its naturalness.

Joseph Parker


NEW YORK TRIBUNE.
Miss Katharine Oliver gave a delightful Scotch afternoon yesterday, at the home of Mrs. Reginald De Koven.  Miss Oliver's Scotch is perfect, and her interpretations of her authors are refreshingly unaffected.



The Little Minister
Miss Oliver was the first to arrange The Little Minister as a monologue recital for the platform.  The year before Mr. Barrie dramatized it for the stage, Miss Oliver gave it as a drawing-room recital at the author's home in London, and later appeared at the town hall in Thrums.


THE BRITISH WEEKLY.
That was a unique and delightful entertainment which was afforded the good folks of Thrums one evening last week by Miss Katharine Oliver, the well-known interpreter of Scottish character from America.  The audience, which was thoroughly representative, included Mr. David Barrie (father of Mr. J. M. Barrie), Miss Barrie and Rev. David Ogilvy (uncle to the novelist).  Miss Oliver fairly excelled in her delightful portrayal of the many and diverse characters in Mr. Barrie's famous novel, and it is easy to understand how night after night she has held American and Canadian audiences spellbound.


MINNEAPOLIS (MINN.) TRIBUNE.
Though some may regret that the Maud Adams of the Platform did not choose to follow the stage, where her field of endeavor would have been broader, they can but rejoice that so consummate an artist in the interpretation of character has resulted from Miss Oliver's choice of the narrower field.



Drumtochty Folk
When Ian Maclaren took this country by storm in 1895, Miss Oliver broke all records for reading engagements, giving in a single city (Pittsburg, Pa.) her interpretation of the inimitable Drumtochty characters fifty consecutive evenings.


PITTSBURG CHRONICLE-TELEGRAPH.
Miss Oliver carries her audience as no other person has yet been able to do in this particular line of entertainment.

FREE CHURCH MANSE, LOGIEALMOND, SCOTLAND, July 22, 1896.

It gives me much pleasure to say that I was present this evening when Miss Oliver expounded Ian Maclaren to a Drumtochty audience with such skill as to draw from one of the worthies the remark that he Never thocht there could be sic a wumman in the warl.  Her pronunciation was so true that no one failed to understand her, and her interpretation so sympathetic as to break down the critical reserve of a Drumtochty audience and win their thorough appreciation.

D. MACRAE TOD, B. D.



The Play-Actress
BANK HOUSE, PENICUICK, MIDLOTHIAN, SCOTLAND, July 4, 1896.

MY DEAR MISS OLIVER,—I much enjoyed your interpretation of the Gossip scene in my little book.  Indeed, so good was it that I read The Play Actress through for the first time in four years.  I wish you all success in your admirable renderings of Scottish originals

S. R. Crockett


BOSTON HERALD.
At Association Hall, last evening, Miss Katharine Oliver entertained a large audience with a dramatic recital of S. R. Crockett's The Play Actress.  The recital was given under the patronage of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Foote, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Dr. and Mrs. William J. Rolfe, and other persons of distinction; and in the audience were many well-known Bostonians.  The sympathy of the audience was won early in the evening, and its appreciation of the ability of the young woman was attested by its applause.



Robert Burns
No other poet has been so lectured about as Robert Burns, but a true interpretation of his own thought reveals the man more than any amount of talk about him.  Miss Oliver's lecture is a chain upon which she strings the poet's pearls.


OXFORD (ENG.) TIMES.
The Burns anniversary was made the occasion by the Caledonian Society of Oxford for a Scottish recital by Miss Oliver, who is not from across the border, but from America.  President Fairbairn, of Mansfield College, was in the chair.  Miss Oliver gave a vivid sketch of the Scottish bard's life and character, interspersed with many of his finest poems.  Miss Oliver recites with great simplicity, at the same time entering so thoroughly into the subject that the listener sees the picture spread out before him.  Her intonation is sympathetic and each poem was given with intensity, yet with reserve of feeling.



SIDNEY (OHIO) NEWS, DECEMBER 19, 1903.
Last night the Oliver recitals were concluded.  All who have been present have felt and expressed the keenest delight with these really unique interpretations.  Miss Oliver's work is pervaded by the fire and passion of one truly and deeply moved by the thought which is being uttered.  The Robert Burns lecture and recital last night was a sparkling flow of wit, humor and pathos.  In Tam O'Shanter and Bannockburn the delivery was tremendous.

Old Scotch Ballads In course of preparation.



That Lass o' Lowrie's
This story by Mrs. Burnett forms one of the strongest programs in Miss Oliver's repertoire.


THE PORTLAND OREGONIAN, OCTOBER 20, 1899.
Seldom has an audience been granted the opportunity to enjoy dramatic power of so high an order as that displayed by Miss Oliver in That Lass o' Lowrie's.  It is easy to believe, as one listens thrilled and subdued, that Miss Oliver is the strongest impersonator of Scottish character on the stage to-day.  Nature has endowed her with a subtle gift of reaching the heartstrings and playing upon them at will.  Interspersed with the tragic and pathetic elements Miss Oliver portrays with such intensity and power, were many humorous situations, for which she has a keen relish, presenting them with rare art, so that not a delicate shade of drollery is lost.


THE OHIO STATE JOURNAL (COLUMBUS), NOVEMBER 23, 1903.
The material for Miss Oliver's third recital last evening was from Mrs. Burnett's story, That Lass o' Lowrie's.  As usual, Miss Oliver held her audience captive from start to finish.  It was like a play, with every actor a star.



The Sky Pilot
Miss Oliver's success in the interpretation of Western cowboy life was such that the publishers of The Sky Pilot engaged her for two recitals complimentary to the ministers of New York and of Chicago, respectively.  The author of the book has this to say:

WINNIPEG, February 18, 1901.

MY DEAR MISS OLIVER,—Your visit to Winnipeg was a great triumph.  By the sheer excellence of your work you made a large number of enthusiastic friends, who will welcome your return with real delight.  You marshaled before us the living, breathing, speaking children of the author's fancy.  They came forth naturally, easily — just as I have seen them in their own dear, free West — and it rejoiced my heart to see them again.

You have a rare gift.  The fine reserve, the subtle interpretation, the clear enunciation and the sympathetic intonation — all these qualities, so necessary to good reading, you possess.  I am glad my children are in your hands.  Yours very truly,

CharlesWGordon

(RALPH CONNOR.)


NEW YORK OBSERVER.
Her portrayal of the characters in The Sky Pilot was wonderfully true to life in tone and manner.  Charming as is this story of Western experiences, its humor and pathos and its value as a force in religious work have not been fully appreciated by the reader who has not heard Miss Oliver.



Character Sketches (popular)
People clamor to be amused. Miss Oliver yields to this demand in these character sketches selected from the brightest comedy of current literature.


CHICAGO SOUTH SIDE SAYINGS.
It would be difficult to say in which Miss Oliver excelled — the grave or gay.  Her interpretation is a revelation.  Miss Oliver is not an elocutionist, but an impersonator, whose interpretation peoples her stage and sends away her audience with the feeling that they have seen the faces, listened to the voices and pressed the hands of the characters she portrays.


PALL MALL GAZETTE (ENG.)
One came away with a distinct impression of her extreme cleverness and her keen sense of humor.



Enoch Arden
Tennyson's Enoch Arden, with the Strauss musical accompaniment, has had many interpreters.  After hearing it given by Katharine Oliver, with Emily Roberts Hubble at the piano, a Chicago critic said: It is the only interpretation I ever heard where it seemed one thing — not two.


THE DAILY REVIEW, MONMOUTH, ILL., OCTOBER 23, 1903.
Enoch Arden in the Strauss musical setting delighted the audience at the College Auditorium Thursday evening.  Much had been expected of the entertainment, for these artists are favorite entertainers, especially popular in this city.  Miss Oliver was at her best.  Gowned in an imported lace dress, and standing before a background of autumn leaves, she made a very pretty picture.  Her interpretation of the poem was ideal.  Her expression, gestures and well-modulated voice perfectly expressed the pathos and passion of the great poet, and held the audience under perfect control until the reading was over.  To rightly interpret Strauss' music requires an artist, and Mrs. Hubble did it justice.  Her rendition of the master's music assisted in the character portrayed and filled out each scene with soft, plaintive or passionate harmony.


THE TIMES-RECORD, OCTOBER 29, 1903.
Strauss' musical arrangement of Enoch Arden, given last Friday evening by Miss Katharine Oliver, reader, and Mrs. Emily Roberts Hubble, pianist, was one of the best entertainments ever given in the city.  The verdict of each one present could be none other than — Should I live a thousand years I never should forget it.  Miss Oliver's reading of the poet's masterpiece will be immortal in the memory of those who heard it.  Mrs. Hubble's interpretation of Strauss' composition is exquisite.  The music is full of pathos and beauty, and is to the poem what a beautiful setting is to a precious jewel.



Shakespeare
Several years ago Miss Oliver made herself dean of Scotch readers in America and England.  In essaying Shakespearian roles she is stepping on the last rung of the ladder of her success.  It can be truly said that Miss Oliver's interpretation of Shakespeare is new.  It is richly suggestive, and when the characters have grown as intimately real to her as Barrie's and Ian Maclaren's now are, her Shakespearian readings will be peerless.

PROF. T. H. DICKINSON, Department of English, Ohio State University



Henry the Eighth
It was with especial interest that I witnessed what was, perhaps, Miss Oliver's initial excursion into the realm of Shakespeare.  The reading was a condensation of King Henry VIII.  I was impressed with the evidences of scholarly analysis of character and literary discrimination, with the subtlety of touch which illuminated many a line or word which the average reader would pass, and with all those elements of effectiveness which those who have ever listened to Miss Oliver know so well.

HENRY L. SOUTHWICK, Dean of Emerson College of Oratory, Boston.


THE NEWS-REPUBLICAN, KENTON, OHIO, FEBRUARY 20, 1904.
Miss Oliver had charmed her audience in her interpretation of lighter characters, and many of her hearers were curious to hear what she would do with so heavy a play as Henry the Eighth.  She did not disappoint.  She satisfied.  She led them into deeper wonderment at her versatility in delineating any character she chooses to present.  Little children sat with fixed gaze upon her, as did the older people.  The lovers of Shakespeare were more than delighted with her interpretation.  She was particularly fine in her portrayal of the character of the Queen.



A Winter's Tale
In course of preparation.





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9 Aug '96

Dear Miss Oliver

I thought your arrangment of the little minister excellent, and you delivered many of the scenes in a way that pleased me much.—particularly the pathetic scenes.  I wish you very  all success.

sincerely yours,
J.M Barrie

July 23 '96

I have much pleasure in stating that Miss Oliver recited a passage from the B  B  Book in a way that you give me much satisfaction and showed a thorough understanding of the spirit of the book.  Miss Oliver also render the Scottish accent excellently.

Ian MacLaren