The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-02-15
TALENTED TRIO
ENTERTAINS AT
NORMAL SCHOOL
Audience Receives Material
of Great Education Value
From Artists

A remarkably. clever and talented
trio appeared in an educational en-
tertainment in the assembly hall Of
| the City Normal school, on Wheeler
avenue, yesterday, at o'clock, when
Mrs. Alexina Carter-Barrell, a reader
and interpreter of the folk lore and
folk songs of America Miss Lynch,
who interpreted this folk in dances
of the various periods of American
history, and Mr.. Melville Charlton,
who accompanied them.
The audience, which was composed
of the faculty and student tachers in
the City Normal school, the students
of Miss Mary Mills and Miss Fannie
A. Smith, the students of the Junior
High school department of the City
Normal school, and the teachers OF
the surrounding schools, and from
various points in the city, voiced their
unqualified approval of the program
which lasted over two hours, by round
after round of applause after each
number of the program.
Mrs. Darrell has meZzo-soprano
voice of an unusually rich quality, and
speaks with a carefully modulated
Southern voice, while her personality,
which is so intensely attractive,
shows through every one of her num-
bers to the remotest part of the audi
torium. She began her program by
selections from colored folk songs,
and gave in this section: DO Bana
Coba," ''You May Bury Me In de
Eas'," Nobody Knows the Trouble l
See.''
She told how the intensely spiritual
element in the lives Of the colored
people manifested itself in many gro
tesque qualities, and illustrated her
second section Of; the negro spir1tuals
by rendering the Colridge-Taylor
J music and the following selections
'Steal Away" "Ma' Lawd's a-writin'
Down Time" "Why Did You Die?"
! .Since You Went Away" ''Why
Adam Sinned."
She next developed the Creole
songs, after preparing her audience
by a definition of the term. These
songs are distinctly masculinefn their
authorship. She illustrated these by
the following in dialect: "Bamboula,"
| "Pov' pitt Momzel Zizi," "Criole
Candjo."
from the negro, she used the cowboy
period, and described the character
| istics of the songs that had developed
through these experiences. These she
/, illustrated by 1.-THE Lone Prairie.'. In
the Indian section, after a discussion
| as to the peculiar ceremonials of the
Indians, and the statement that their
| lives were almost all ceremonial, she
| illustrated the various parts of the
| Indian belief by the following songs;
Sunrise CALL" BIRD Dance Song.
"Corngrinding Song Land of the
Sky-blue Water" and Far Off I Hear
! Lovers Flute4'@- ---'-
Her program was closer with the
"Incantation Over Sleeping Child,
and the Invocation to the Sun God,
which was beautifully illustrated by
Miss Lynch, who took the part of the
Indian Squaw with her Papoose. Miss
Lynch, who is a student Of the Rus
sian ballet, and a teacher of folk-dan-
cling in the Salem, Mass, public
schools, was a delight. She first APP
peared in the primitive savage dance,
in the wilds of the forestl Her leopard
skin costume fitted in wonderfully
we'll with the atmosphere and move
! metns of the dance Following this,
she appeared in a Mexican dance and
| kept admirable time to the musical
accompaniment with the castanets.
Next, she appeared as a dapper young
Creole lover, which brought to the
| mental view Of the audience the for
NAL dress of the South when hoop
skirts and powdered wigs were in
vogue.
! Her first Interpretation of the Indian
life was by the Indian maiden DANCE,
searching for her lover. In this, she
completely captivated the audience.
This, was followed by the Indian
blanket dance, and her program was
CLOSED by her assuming the part of the
Mother in the appeal to the Great
Spirit for her child.
| The generally expressed opinion on
the entire program was that it had
been the finest thing that had been
presented in any educational form in
'the city, and Principal E. e. Cort-
right, at the close of the program,
spoke for the audience when he de-
clared that "his only emotion through
out the program as Mrs. Darrell and
her company interpreted the folk lore
of the country, was that he was glad
he was an American" and assured
Mrs Darrell that arrangements would
be made for their return.