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RECITALS AND LECTURES

During the Year 1908-1909

Oct. 7-Recital, Miscellaneous program.

Oct. 10 Recital from "Tales of a Wayside Inn."

Oct. 14

son.

Recital, Miscellaneous program, Mr. Edward Abner Thomp

Oct. 17-Lecture, "The Nature and Everyday Aspects of Poetry," President Curry.

Oct. 21, 24, 28-Recitals, Miscellaneous programs.

Oct. 31

Recital, Short Stories, Miss Helen Louise Dyer. Nov. 4, 7, 11, 14-Recitals, Miscellaneous programs.

Nov. 18-Recital, Readings from his own poems, Mr. Nixon Water

man.

Nov. 21-Recital, Miscellaneous program.

Nov. 25 - Anniversary Program from the writings of Samuel Silas Curry, presented by the students of the School.

Nov. 28- Recital, Miscellaneous program.

Dec. 3
Dec.

- Recital, Dramatic.

5, 9-Recitals, Miscellaneous programs.

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- Fairy Story Program, Mrs. Marianna F. McCann. Dec. 16, 19 Recitals, Miscellaneous programs.

Jan. 6, 9, 13, 16-Recitals, Miscellaneous programs.

Jan. 20-Recital, "The Wooing of the Widow," Mr. Charles Williams.

Jan. 27 Recital, Miscellaneous program.

Jan. 30- Recital, Anniversary Program, from James Whitcomb Riley.

Feb.

3- Recital, Anniversary Program, from Edgar Allen Poe.

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Feb. 6-Readings by Pres. Richard T. Wyche, National Story-
Teller's League.

Feb. 10-Recital, Anniversary Program, "Abraham Lincoln."
Feb. 13, 20, 27-Recitals, Miscellaneous programs.

Feb. 17-Recital, Program of Piano Music, with analytical remarks, by Mr. John Orth.

Feb. 24-Recital, Dramatic.

Mar. 3, 6, 10, 17-Recitals, Miscellaneous programs.

Mar. 13.
Mar. 20
Mar. 10.

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Recital by the Junior Class.

Recital, Monologue Program.

Lecture, "The Place of the Drama among the Fine Arts,”
Alfred Hennequin.

Recital, Dramatic, by the Junior Class.
Recital, Miscellaneous program.

Apr. 3, 7, 10-Recitals, Miscellaneous programs.
Apr. 14
Apr. 15
Apr. 16.

Recital, Studies from Modern and Classic Drama.
Recital, "The Book of Job," Prof. John Duxbury.
- Lecture, "Nature of Expression," No. 1, President Curry.

Apr. 21-Recital, Dramatic, "The Man in the Case."

Apr. 23-Lecture, "Nature of Expression," No. 2, President Curry. Apr. 24-Recital, Folk Lore Stories.

Apr. 28-Recital, Studies from “Macbeth," Shakespeare.

Apr. 30-Lecture, "Nature of Expression," No. 3, President Curry May 1-Recital, “The Seen and the Unseen" (Mrs. Oliphant), Miss Amelia Frances Lucas.

May 4-Recital, Dramatic.

May 5-Recital, Original Arrangement of "The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary" (Anne Warner), Miss Nelle Schlosser.

May 7-Annual Banquet of the Alumni Association, Hotel Vendome.

May 8-Recital, Stories from the Bible.

May 9

Baccalaureate Exercises," The Despised Book of the Bible," a sermon by President Curry.

May 10-Recital, Dramatic, “The Man in the Case,” at Jacob Sleeper

Hall.

May 12-Recital, Original Arrangement of "Polly of the Circus" (Margaret Mayo), Miss Margie E. Walle, at Jacob Sleeper Hall. May 13-Recital, Senior Program and Graduating Exercises, Jacob Sleeper Hall.

May 13 Reception of the Trustees and Teachers, to the graduates, students, and friends of the Institution.

May 14-Lecture, "Nature of Expression," No. 4, President Curry. May 14-Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association.

M

HISTORY AND METHODS

ANY attempts have been made to establish on a scientific basis a permanent professional School of Speaking. At its foundation in 1873 Boston University organized as one of its departments a School of Oratory. In 1879 that school was discontinued as a separate department of the University, and Dr. S. S. Curry was chosen to carry on its work in connection with the post-graduate work of the School of All Sciences."

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Special classes steadily increased in numbers and interest, until the trustees permitted Dr. Curry, then Snow Professor of Oratory, to organize them into what has grown into the School of Expression. With the co-operation of literary men and educators, the School was established in 1884 as an independent corporation.

Sir Henry Irving gave a reading in 1888 for the benefit of the School, the receipts of which constituted the nucleus of an endowment. Later Prof. Alexander Melville Bell added to these funds.

The founders had for their object the adoption of adequate methods for the development of expression, the establishment of high standards in such work, the elimination of commercial elements, and the accumulation of funds for endowment and for suitable buildings.

The School has maintained high ideals and has introduced new methods of improving speech and every kind of training for the perfection of the individual. The investigations fostered by the School have brought about important discoveries, and the methods adopted have advanced vocal and other forms of training until it is recognized as "the fountain-head of right work in its department of education." The courses are arranged to meet individual needs. Methods of imitation, of merely mechanical analysis, are contrary to the ideals of the best modern education, and are therefore discountenanced. The methods it has adopted counteract the effects of repression, develop creative power, stimulate endeavor, and offer a well-balanced scientific training either for professional students or for those who desire an all-round education. The discipline

means employed do not lead to the barren acquisition of facts but develop every side of the artistic nature.

The School of Expression is founded upon the principle that the growth and development of the mind depend not only upon receiving right impressions, but equally upon giving true expression. The fundamental law of the School is, that Impression must precede and determine Expression. The School aims to supply a common lack in modern methods of education; takes its pupils as it finds them, and does for each and for all whatever is necessary to call forth their innate powers.

Students are made familiar with what master minds have expressed or recorded in literature, painting, and sculpture, and brought into contact with the deepest artistic interpretations of life in such a way as to awaken their own best powers. The founders of the School of Expression have arranged practical methods whereby literature is studied as art and by means of art. Literature and art are studied as aspects of expression, and all expression is regarded as primarily centering in the natural languages. Students are required to express themselves in many ways, to converse, to tell stories, to read aloud, to write, to speak, and to act, to recite, to dramatize good authors, to give monologues, to abridge the ablest masterpieces of fiction, and to give dramatic impersonations.

The School is founded to emphasize the spoken word in opposition to its present neglect and the over-emphasis of the written word; and its peculiarities may be better understood from several propositions summarizing its character:

1. The thorough and harmonious development of the entire individual.

2. The bringing of students into such contact with nature, literature, and art as will stimulate spontaneous activity.

3. The awakening of imagination and feeling and the securing of creative power, not by imitation, but by the stimulation of the student's own ideals.

4. The development in the student of confidence in his own best instincts.

5. The bringing of thought, emotion, and will into harmony, the co-ordination of all human activities, the evolution of the most efficient personality which by a perfect knowledge of self brings about forgetfulness of self.

6. The tracing of faults of speaking to their causes and the elimination of these causes by right methods of development and training.

7. The treatment of mannerisms as automatic movements and

8. The development of naturalness and efficiency through selfstudy, sympathetic identification, and assimilation.

9. The ideal of every individual tested in the sphere of expression and directed to practical ends.

10. The needs of students receive sympathetic and individual attention both in class and in personal lessons.

11. Consciousness of form awakened in one's own expression and made a means of interpreting and appreciating literature, art, and life.

12. Literature studied as a "real interpretation of life," for the fuller appreciation of the possibilities of human nature and experience. 13. The student led to become conscious of his possibilities. 14. Such problems, exercises, and modes of expression propounded as will develop each person's individuality and power.

15. years. 16.

Thorough and systematic methods tested by twenty-five

Advanced methods of education studied and their appropriate principles applied to the training of expression.

17. The principles underlying manual training and later and more important phases of motor training applied to the individual's command of his own voice and body as the primary tools or agents of his being.

18. Expressive action of the body and modulations of the voice employed as a scientific means of motor training.

19. The modulations of the voice and actions of the body developed by accentuating mental actions through expression.

20. The application of scientific methods to the development of the voice for increasing its strength and expressive power, involving the correction of sore throats and other effects of misuse of the voice by teachers, preachers, and speakers.

21. The correction of stammering, stuttering, and impediments of speech by scientific methods which remove the cause.

22. Inculcation of the art of entertaining as a mode of expression.

23. Culture gained from contact with the ideals of all times as embodied in art and literature.

24. The most thorough training in vocal technique to be found in the country. The student is grounded in fundamental principles and given fundamental technique and the greatest opportunity for direct practice.

25. Special opportunities given to persons who wish to study for general culture, the enjoyment of the literary and artistic advantages of Boston, courses from one to twenty-five hours a week, from one to four years. Over seventy different class hours, besides private lessons, from which courses can be selected.

26. Homes for students selected among reliable families and every effort made to surround students with congenial influences and those which will give them the best means of advancement. The oversight of students in their home and boarding accommodations systematically and carefully arranged.

27. Public recitals, receptions, and social advantages of the School as a special feature of its life.

28. The methods of the School of Expression were well summar

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