Cornelia Stabler: original character sketches

              1946
Cornelia Stabler

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ORIGINAL CHARACTER SKETCHES
BRILLIANT ONE-WOMAN THEATRE



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Cornelia Stabler

IT'S CURTAIN TIME
A Monologue Sequence in Seven Scenes

Scene I — 1942


VERNA CARLTON

SECRETARY



The office of a New York Theatre School.






Scene II — 1942


GAIL BANNING

DIRECTRESS



The studio, five minutes later.






Scene III — 1922


FLORA SINCLAIR

CHORUS GIRL



A dressing room at the theatre.






Scene IV — 1923


HENRIETTE LAFITTE

ACTRESS



A hotel in Paris.






Scene V — 1923


MRS. EBEN BREWSTER

GRANDMOTHER



Her living room in Springhill, Mass.






Scene VI — 1932


MRS. HARRY ELLERY

MOTHER



The studio.






Scene VII — 1942


GAIL BANNING

DIRECTRESS



The office, three hours later than Scene 1.






IT'S CURTAIN TIME is a series of monologues which developes a continuous dramatic plot.  It is as satisfying as a three-act play with a large cast.  The stage is convincingly peopled with clearly defined characters who unfold a story that is full of human interest and keen suspense.  One falls so completely under the hypnotic spell of the artist's brilliant imagination that each member of the cast seems to be played by a different actress.  One even sees the characters who never appear at all.  Here is interpretive and creative talent, both serious and comic, in perfectly balanced THEATRE.




PERSONALITY PORTRAITS
Short Sketches of the American Scene

DINNER AT EIGHT
GLOVES
THE GOURD ENTHUSIAST
RADIOITIS
AFTER THE BALL, IN THE NINETIES AND NOW
THE VACATON MOTHER
A QUIET HOUR IN A BEAUTY SHOP
COMPRENEZ-VOUS
GRANDMA AND SEARS ROEBUCK
THE BIRD BATH
ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE
HOSPITAL
SUBURBAN BREAKFAST
DRESS REHEARSAL
THE HOUSEWIFE AND THE RADIO
WOT I MEAN
GLAMOUR BY RADIO
SHOWING THE HOME MOVIES
MODERN REFUGEE
THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE

PERSONALITY PORTRAITS. This is the sort of program that is just right for benefit performances, fund raising entertainments, conventions, and gala annual events, as well as for the usual club, college and community affairs.  Gay, satiric, wise, these inimitable dramatic pictures are universal in their appeal and easy to present.  Programs may be selected from the repertoire that will suit any occasion and any auditorium.  They require no elaborate staging; the time and the place of each scene is clearly set by significant costume accessories and the eloquent use of pantomime.  These PERSONALITY PORTRAITS of Mr. and Mrs. America combine to make an exhilarating and delightful evening in the theatre.



Cornelia Stabler also presents a beautiful Christmas Program Gifts To The Altar




Comments

Miss Stabler made effective use of all her resources as mime and monologist in a series of telling charasterizations.  Her sets and costumes were simple and her chatter bubbled out easily.  What's more she made you feel the presence of unseen persons.
NEW YORK WORLD TELEGRAM


Scintillating … witty … hilarious situations … most entertaining.
VARIETY


After dinner Cornelia Stabler gave us some delightful monologues.  Her long one on the refugee was particularly touching.  I think all were glad to have it followed by a very lighthearted comparison of a girl saying good-night after a party in the 90's and a present-day girl doing the same thing in quite a different way.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT in “My Day”

I have received hundreds of congratulatory messages on our Follies, and I must tell you that not even the Metropolitan Opera stars who were in the show, received the unstinted praise that was given your work.  You deserve every bit of the instantaneous applause that you received.

EARLE R. LEWIS, Assistant General Manager Metropolitan Opera Association

Superb … astounding … the acme of perfection.

Wesleyan University ARGUS Middletown, Conn.

Cornelia Stabler interests me particularly because she so clearly defines characters who are not seen on the stage.  Working entirely in the medium of sound, as we do in radio, I was impressed with the quality of her voice and the various dialects she so cleverly portrays.

LEITH STEVENS, Conductor Columbia Broadcasting System


This graceful monologist had everyone in the Annie Russell Theatre (Rollins College) completely en rapport.  Her monologues are clever, witty and wise.
ORLANDO REPORTER-STAR Orlando—Winter Park, Fla.


Miss Stabler had her entire audience turning frequently toward the unseen characters she addressed, so true was the course of her monologues.  Her grandmother shopping via mail order catalogue was perfect.  Also of particular delight to her audience was After The Ball which shows first a girl of the eighties saying good night to her escort, and then a modern girl.  Timely was her Viennese character, and her closing number gave her mastery of dialects full play.
DAILY NEWS Burlington, Vermont




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Program Chairmen Say

Women's Club Westfield, N. J.
Cornelia Stabler is delightful, she is the answer to a program chairman's prayer.  She is attractive both in appearance and personality.  Her sketches, while humorous, show deep understanding of the human race, especially the feminine.  My club is discriminating, not to say downright critical, and they loved her, all six hundred of them.

Mrs. W. M. Smith, Program Chairman



Kiwanis International Convention Cleveland, Ohio.
I have heard many fine compliments about your show; all were most enthusiastic.  It was one of the high spots of the whole Kiwanis Convention.

Thomas Husselton, Program Chairman



American Women's Club New York City.
The versatility of your characterizations was most outstanding.  I have never known our members, guests, and friends to be so unanimous in their praise of a monologist.

Marguerite Talbot, Resident Manager



Drama League Peru, Indiana.
Our members are still commenting on your program.  How very much they enjoyed seeing and hearing you!  And how marvelous you were as the Grandmother!  I am thrilled that I heard you in Cleveland and by so doing was able to have you here for our members to enjoy.

Mrs. H. R. Parsons, Program Chairman



Women's Club Bethlehem, Pa.
Everyone was delighted with Miss Stabler's charming and versatile characterizations.  She is such a delightful person that I feel it indeed a privilege to recommend her most highly.  I have heard Ruth Draper, Cornelia Otis Skinner and others, and I think Cornelia Stabler is as good as any of them.

Mary Louise Jenkins, Program Chairman



National Convention Mortar Board College Women's Honorary Society
The National Council has asked me to express its great appreciation of your delightful impersonations.  One reason this was the best convention we ever had was because of the grand start you gave us.

Ellen Fernon Reisner, Secretary Philadelphia, Pa.



College Club Hartford, Conn.
Everyone was most enthusiastic; several said she was as good as Cornelia Otis Skinner, which I thought was high praise.  She was certainly as good as they come!

Jeannette Purdy, Program Chairman



Women's Educational Club Toledo, Ohio.
Cornelia Stabler is charming both as to personality and appearance.  Her monologues are clever, timely and most artistically presented.  She is the mistress of pathos or sparkling wit.  Our club members have so far voted her program the outstanding one of the year.

Mildred Burman, President




Cornelia Stabler
CORNELIA STABLER has a special genius for creating illusions.  When she steps upon the stage to present her original character sketches, she ceases to be an actress standing against a velvet cyclorama, magically she becomes an operator in a beauty shop, a debutante at a party or a farmer's wife in a hot kitchen.  She knows her characters so completely, their voices, gestures and thought processes, that her monologues are veritable dramatic portraits.

This perfection is the result of careful and sympathetic observation.  Miss Stabler makes it her business to know people, she is a good listener.  She carries a notebook in her purse in which she jots down conversations she hears in busses and trains, at teas and wedding receptions.  In her file case are brief outlines of real life stories, clippings from newspapers, records of charity cases.  She watches people walk, studies their hands and feet, the angles of their heads.  And then with understanding and a delightful sense of humor she writes them down and re-creates them.

In costuming and make-up, as well as in story content, Miss Stabler knows how to select the most significant details.  With her simple basic gown she achieves complete costume effects by adding a shawl or a hat or an evening wrap.  She can change from a newly-wed housewife to an old grandmother in less than two minutes, and change so completely that the audience finds it hard to believe she is the same person.  There are no long waits in Miss Stabler's program, yet it is as satisfying visually as it is dramatically.  The skillful selection of costume accessories, the simple but careful staging and the beauty of the color scheme add much to the charm of the presentation.

Miss Stabler cannot remember a time when she did not dress up and pretend. She was born in a boys' dormitory, the daughter of a Professor of languages in a Pennsylvania boarding school.  From here she went to Swarthmore College where she majored in Dramatic Art, and later returned to direct the plays of the Little Theatre Club.  She took graduate work at Columbia University, and also attended Theodora Irvine's Studio for the Theatre in New York City.  At present she is Director of the summer theatre group at Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania, and devotes the balance of the year to writing and presenting her character sketches.  She has also appeared in many radio programs on the major radio chains, and is a radio script writer and playwright.  She was enthusiastically received by the President and Mrs. Roosevelt and their guests when she entertained for them at the White House; her brilliant artistry has captivated the most discriminating audiences.

Her repertoire includes about twenty-five short sketches or PERSONALITY PORTRAITS, one Chirstmas Program GIFTS TO THE ALTAR, and one Monologue Sequence, IT'S CURTAIN TIME. The short sketches are predominantly humorous, the occasional serious number serving as contrast for the satires and comedies.  GIFTS TO THE ALTAR is inspiring and full of human interest, depicting four women from different periods of history who have kept the Christmas spirit.  IT'S CURTAIN TIME employs a series of related sketches to tell a story with as much emotional impact and keen suspense as a three-act play.  Programs can be arranged from this versatile repertoire to suit any occasion and any stage.  They are a joy to audiences everywhere, for Cornelia Stabler's sketches are vividly written and brilliantly portrayed.

Roxanna Wells, Inc., Lecture Bureau
393 Seventh Avenue, New York City