Percy Jewett Burrell

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Percy Jewett Burrell
Born	February 10, 1877 (1877-02-10) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	March 22, 1964 (aged 87)
Burial place	Ridgelawn Cemetery (Watertown, Massachusetts)
Residence	Boston, MA (1877-?), Cambridge, MA (1917)
Nationality	American
Education	New England Conservatory of Music, Boston University
Occupation	Teacher of Oratory, Elocution, and Drama; Head of the Community Service, Inc. Bureaus of Educational Dramatics (as of 1922)
Employers	Community Service, Inc. (as of 1922)
Title	Sixth Supreme President of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity (1907-1914)
Known for	Director of Civic and Historical Pageants; Pioneer Leader of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity
Political party	Republican
Religious beliefs	Methodist, Episcopal (as of 1922)
Spouse	None
Children	None
Parents	Joseph M. & Alice B. Burrell
Relatives	No descendants

Percy Jewett Burrell (February 10, 1877 (1877-02-10) – March 22, 1964 (aged 87)) was an author and director of historical and civic pageants, or dramas, and was known for his skills in oratory and elocution, (both of which are now more commonly referred to as public speaking). He also taught public speaking and drama, and was known as a "public reciter" ^[1]. A native and lifelong resident of the greater Boston area, he was described by Time magazine as a "professional director of civic and patriotic shows" ^[2]. As of the mid 1920s, Burrell had developed a nationwide reputation for his work, having had 75,000 participants in his productions, which had collectively been performed in front of over 900,000 people ^[3]. According to a printed program used at a service in his memory, "His mastery of the spoken and written word led him to be a well known public speaker with an enviable reputation as a teacher of oratory, and later as an author and director of national distinction" ^[4] Burrell served as the sixth supreme (national) president of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity from 1907 to 1914, and along with Fraternity founder Ossian E. Mills has been credited by Fraternity historians with encouraging the early expansion of and formulating the basic philosophies and spiritual values espoused by the Fraternity. Much of this fundamental philosophy is encapsulated in his presidential messages that appeared in the Sinfonia Yearbooks between 1908 and 1910 ^[5]. Today, these writings are regularly used to instruct the fraternity's probationary members about the obligations and expectations of fraternity membership.

1 Early Life, Education, and Early Role in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
2 Professional accomplishments
3 Later Years
4 Death & Posthumous Honors
5 Quotes
6 Productions and/or Works Published
7 External links
8 References
9 See also

[edit] Early Life, Education, and Early Role in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia

Burrell was born to Joseph and Alice Burrell of the Beacon Hill area of Boston on February 10, 1877. He attended the Phillips Grammar School in Boston from which he graduated in 1891 and the English High School of Boston, from which he graduated in 1894.

He studied oratory at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, from which he graduated with a Diploma in Elocution in 1896. He later received the post-graduate degree of Bachelor of Oratory (B.O.) degree from Boston University, where he later took coursework in Methodist theology ^[6], and was initiated into Boston University's chapter of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. According to former Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia national historian John Mongiovi, "[a]lthough Burrell achieved high marks in his course work in theology at Boston University, he left in 1902 without graduating. It is possible that this departure can be attributed to his increasing spiritual and philosophical involvement in the Sinfonia and the influence of Masonic principles which strongly characterized the organization during this time" ^[7].

Burrell was initiated into Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia's Alpha Chapter at New England Conservatory in 1899, where he soon thereafter was elected as the chapter's second president in January 1900. His leadership was significant as the now nationwide Fraternity had just recently been founded at the Conservatory during the previous school year in October 1898, and it would not be until two years later that a national or "supreme" president would be elected. Thus, he was in a position to influence the direction of the Fraternity as it grew from the campus of the conservatory to other campuses, initially to Pennsylvania and New York in the fall of 1900. During the years of his supreme presidency from 1907 to 1914, the Fraternity expanded to include chapters in Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, Indiana, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Kansas. For more specific information on the specific chapters and campuses involved, see {Chapters of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia}.

Burrell also wrote the lyrics to two fraternity songs included in early editions of the fraternity's songbook, one of which the music was composed by American composer George Whitefield Chadwick, who served as director of the New England Conservatory from 1897 to 1930^[8] and was the second honorary member of the fraternity. Burrell was called upon to serve as commencement speaker at the Conservatory in 1908, and was published several times in the New England Conservatory Quarterly. His writings at that time reflected an advocacy for the promotion of oratory in the public schools ^[9]. As of 1910, Burrell was serving as a trustee of the conservatory [(The Directory of Directors in the City of Boston and Vicinity, p. 67)].In 1897, he had published a sixteen page work titled Oratory in the Public Schools.

[edit] Professional accomplishments

In his book American Historical Pageantry: The Uses of Tradition in the Early Twentieth Century, David Glassberg notes that Burrell was one of thirteen dramatists that were employed as field workers by the Department of Community Drama of a program called Community Service, Inc. Such field workers helped local Community Service "chapters establish amateur dramatic programs" ^[10]. Burrell was affiliated with this program as of 1921. According to Martha Candler's book Drama in Religious Service (1922), Burrell helped conduct six week drama institutes in Boston and New York for those involved in church related drama ^[11] From approximately 1917 to 1945, Burrell was in high demand throughout the United States and, and according to Mongiovi, "stood preeminent in his profession as a consultant, author, organizer and director of historical and patriotic pageants and community and religious drama" by the 1930s ([Jewett family newsletter article by John Mongiovi]). Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor-Emeritus of History at Harvard University called Burrell “the master pageant-master,” and fellow American dramatist Percy MacKaye said of Burrell, “I know of no other person who combines his mastery of minutiae with the kind of human idealism necessary for projecting such phases of community art.”

Burrell's historically themed pageants were often performed outdoors in stadiums, football fields, and even on battlefields. The topic was usually related to a significant historical milestone of the city or region in which the pageant was produced. His works might be considered predecessors to the outdoor dramas that Kermit Hunter, author of Unto These Hills and Horn in the West, and Paul Green, author of The Lost Colony, were later known for. Although his work took him throughout the country, much of his work was centered in New England and surrounding states. According to David Walbert, Burrell's works utilized "classical allusion and poetry to edify as well as entertain audiences" ([Walbert, p, 42 - Garden Spot]). Walbert further described Burrell's pageants as productions that should "transform a 'city of strangers' into a 'community of neighbors' - a genteel alternative to the '100% Americanism' of the early 1920s that sparked divisiveness and xenophobia in the wake of the First World War. Instead of warding off dangerous outsiders, historical pageants stressed unity and identification with community by building pride in common achievement" ^[12].

One of Burrell's first works was Hope Valley, which was described as a "rural musical play" and a "charming musical comedy" set in a New England country village ^[13], was premiered at the New England Conservatory in April 1910 ([ibid.]).

According to Glassberg, Burrell began to gain a reputation in the 1910s directing pageants of a religious nature (Glassberg, p. 235). Burrell collaborated with Oliver Huckel in 1913 on Four Epochs of World Conquest, a work designed to support participants in the pageant "The Pageant of Darkness and Light." ^[14].

Among his early works are The Pioneer Pageant: How the West Was Won (1924), which was a collaboration with Stephen B. L. Penrose (who was then serviing as the president of Whitman College), and was produced in Walla Walla, Washington ^[15] The Pageant of Saratoga, produced on October 8, 1927 on the Saratoga, New York battlefield, had 6,500 participants and 125,000 spectators making it ""the largest historical spectacle of its type ever given in the country at the time"" ([Jewett Family newsletter]). The Pageant of Wyoming Valley was produced in 1928 to commemorate the one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Wyoming Valley ^[16]. The Pageant of New Brunswick: the Drama on the Highway was produced at Rutgers University in October 1930 ^[17]

Burrell produced Pageant of Colorado, a work with music composed by Charles Wakefield Cadman, in Denver, Colorado in May 1927 ([1]). Also that year, he produced The York Pageant: How the American Federation Was Founded, in collaboration with Lillian White Spencer and Alice Kraft ^[18] Burrell produced two pageants during the 1920s at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Pageant of Liberty: Commemorating Lancaster Pennsylvania in the American Revolution was produced in July 1926 on the one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Described as a “stupendous historical spectacle”, the work depicted Lancaster’s role in the fight for independence. The York Pageant was produced in York, Pennsylvania in 1927. The Pageant of Gratitude: For two hundred years of blessing upon Lancaster County was a ten act work produced in June 1929. The production, written and directed by Burrell in collaboration with Alice Kraft and Harry A. Sykes, included over 3,000 participants and included drama, dance, and music ^[19] The pageant is described in detail in David Walbert's book Garden Spot: Lancaster County, the Old Order Amish, and the Settling of Rural America. In 1929, Burrell served as the general director of New York State's one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary Sullivan Expedition pageants.

By the 1930s, over 100,000 persons had come under his guidance as pageant participants and committee members, and over 1,200,000 spectators had seen his productions ([Jewett Family newsletter article by J. Mongiovi]). During the 1930s, he authored Pageant of Time: An Adventure of Education in the Realm of Leisure; an allegory (1930). In 1930, he served as pageantry advisor for the Massachusetts Bay Tercentenary. In 1932, he served as a pageant consultant to the United States Commission on the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of George Washington. In 1934, he adapted Matthew Page Andrews' Soul of Maryland:Pageant of the Founding for performance in Baltimore Stadium (Library of Congress Catalog). The work was a celebration of the "sesqui-centennial of Methodism". In 1935 he authored America’s Making in Connecticut (the more complete title of which is The Connecticut Tercentenary Commission offers America's making in Connecticut: A pageant of the races), and The Pageant of Hingham, a work that celebrated the three-hundredth anniversary of Hingham, Massachusetts (Library of Congress Catalog).

A pageant that perhaps received the most widespread attention in the national media was his Glory of the Light: The Drama of Missions, a production sponsored by the Episcopal Church which utlized the talents of 1,300 actors, was produced in Philadelphia in 1937, and received coverage in Time magazine ^[20]. Following its initial production in Philadelphia, it was produced in Cincinnati as part of the triennial Episcopal General Convention. The Cincinnati cast included Charles Phelps Taft II, son of former U.S. President William Howard Taft^[21]

Towards the close of World War II, he produced Watchers of the World, which was described as "a dramatic ritual in honor of the living who serve and in tribute to the fallen in the cause of the United nations, a ceremonial for dedication of service flag, honor roll and for [M]emorial [D]ay" in 1944([Library of Congress Catalog]). This was followed in 1945 with For Freedom’s Sake! which was described as "a pageant of the people in three actions: In celebration of victory; In gratitude for peace; In consecration to freedom" ([Library of Congress catalog]).

[edit] Later Years

To help commemorate Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia's 50th anniversary in 1948, Burrell authored Sinfonia Birthday which was described as "An Historical Play based upon facts of the founding of Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity" ^[22]. Although the work had a somewhat humorous tone, and although it is possible that the author took dramatic licence with this work, the play has been used to help form an understanding of the Fraternity's earliest years by Fraternity historians, and was a source for the Fraternity's Centennial History authored by Dr. T. Jervis Underwood.

A photograph in a Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia magazine showed Burrell at the 1948 national fraternity convention assisting in the presentation of a commemorative gavel made from wood taken from the U.S.S. Constitution. The gavel continues to be used today during the Fraternity's triennial national conventions and is stored at the Fraternity's headquarters, Lyrecrest, in Evansville, Indiana when not in use. He also spoke at the 1952 national convention, which is believed to be his last visit to a national fraternity event.

As of 1951, Burrell was serving as an associate editor of Alumni Opus, a publication of the New England Conservatory Alumni Association ^[23].

[edit] Death & Posthumous Honors

Burrell died in poverty and without descendants or other immediate family at age 87 in 1964, and was buried in what would for many years be an unmarked grave in Watertown, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston.

Throughout most of the twentieth century, his role in the early development of the philosophies of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity was largely sidelined in Fraternity publications and in the fraternity's ongoing philosophical dialogue. However, as the centennial of the Fraternity approached in 1998, there was a revival of interest in the original philosophies and values of the Fraternity, much of which originated with Burrell as evidenced by his writings. After a long and complicated search by Fraternity officials in the late 1990s, his gravesite was located and a fundraising effort was undertaken by the fraternity's national historian to provide a monument for the Burrell burial site. The monument was dedicated by national fraternity leaders in a graveside ceremony on the morning of Saturday, October 2, 2004 as part of the Fraternity's annual Founders Day observance. On the stone is inscribed the phrase Hart used to describe Burrell "Master Pageant Master."

Burrell has also been memorialized by the Fraternity through the Burrell Award for Province Interaction, which is presented to Fraternity chapters in the state of Virginia ^[24]

In addition, The Percy is a traveling wooden trophy which one Fraternity chapter retrieves from another chapter from time to time ^[25]. The trophy is named in honor of Burrell because of his influence in the early expansion of the Fraternity. It was established in February 1996 by the Fraternity's Province 28 (made up of chapters in northern and central Indiana). Since then, it has traveled to over forty campuses throughout the nation.

[edit] Quotes

"He has not truly lived who has not lived for others, in sympathy and in harmony with his fellows."

"It is a truism that as long as man loves but himself and his art he can never attain to the full measure of manhood or reach the sublimest heights of his art. He must seek to love men as brothers and art, not for the sake of art itself, but art as a means toward bringing all men up to that verdant plateau where their souls may be fed in very rejoicing in all that is true, beautiful, and abiding." (April 1, 1908)

"Let us tune ourselves up to the highest key of brotherhood and so make a veritable Symphony Orchestra of the minds and hearts of America’s musicians and her lovers of music, and then shall we drown the old world’s sharps and flats.” (1909)

[edit] Productions and/or Works Published

Hope Valley" -(1910) Boston, MA
The Pioneer Pageant: How the West Was Won (1924)
The Pageant of Liberty(1926) Lancaster, PA
The Pageant of Colorado (1927)
The Pageant of Saratoga (1927)
The York Pageant: How the American Federation Was Founded (1927) York, PA
The Pageant of Wyoming Valley(1928) Wilkes-Barre, PA
The Pageant of Gratitude(1929) Lancaster, PA
The Pageant of New Brunswick (1930)
The Pageant of Time (1930)
The Soul of Maryland: Pageant of the Founding (1934)
America's Making in Connecticut (1935)
The Pageant of Hingham (1935)
The Drama of Missions (1937)
Watchers of the World (1944)
For Freedom's Sake (1945)
Sinfonia Birthday (December 1948) (Chicago, IL - Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity National Convention)