Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Helen Potter" in English language version.
Overt theatricality wasn't allowed (the residual influence of Victorianism) but the "restrained readings of literature" focused attention on individual performers who enlivened the prose with their own special forms of acting...For example, Helen Potter was an important entertainer who did impressions of actors and lecturers.
Her selections comprised imitations of pulpit oratory, the three styles taken being the negro, Darwinian and the frontier; recitation of T. B. Read's poem "Drifting," in which she displayed a rare ability to modulate her voice; specimens of the reading by a country school class; two scenes from Henry VIII; Queen Katharine of Arragon's plea in court, and her speech when near death; remarkable portraits of Charlotte Cushman; an impersonation of Oscar Wilde, whom, by the way, she commended for having brought some good ideas to this country; an imitation of a Yankee spinster giving her ideas upon training boys; and an address "newspapers" a la T. De Witt Talmage.
