Florence Adelaide Fowle Adams (October 15, 1863 – July 31, 1916) was an American dramatic reader, actor, author, and teacher.

Biography

She was born Florence Adelaide Fowle in

Chelsea, Massachusetts Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. As of the 2020 census, Chelsea had a population of 40,787. With a total area of just 2.46 s ...

, the only child of the artist Edward Augustus Fowle. She attended the Chelsea public school, the

Girls' Latin School Boston Latin Academy (BLA) is a public exam school founded in 1878 in Boston, Massachusetts providing students in grades 7th through 12th a classical preparatory education. Originally named Girls' Latin School until 1977, the school was the ...

in Boston, and the

Boston School of Oratory The Boston School of Oratory was a private institution in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1879 by Robert R. Raymond, a dramatic reader. It succeeded the Boston University School of Oratory, which had sometimes been informally known by the same ...

, from which she graduated in 1884. Fowle joined the faculty of the Boston School of Oratory, where she taught the Delsarte method of dramatic expression developed by the teacher

François Delsarte François Alexandre Nicolas Chéri Delsarte (19 November 1811 – 20 July 1871) was a French singer, orator, and coach. Though he achieved some success as a composer, he is chiefly known as a teacher in singing and declamation (oratory). Applie ...

. Feeling the lack of a textbook for beginning students that clearly set forth the principles of the Delsarte method, she published her own book on the Delsarte method, ''Gestures and Pantomimic Action'' (1891), using herself as the model for the volume's many illustrations. She occasionally appeared on stage in dramatic roles; for example, as Julie de Mortemar in

Edward Bulwer-Lytton Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, PC (25 May 180318 January 1873) was an English writer and politician. He served as a Whig member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841 and a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. He was Secret ...

's play '' Richelieu''. She also organized her own company of young women for staging

tableaux vivants A (; often shortened to ; plural: ), French for "living picture", is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatric ...

, the Boston Ideal Tableaux Company.

References

External links

Florence Adelaide Fowle Adams
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Florence Adelaide Fowle 1863 births 1916 deaths 19th-century American actresses American stage actresses American textbook writers American women non-fiction writers Boston Latin Academy alumni Drama teachers People from Chelsea, Massachusetts