The Leland Powers School, also known as the Leland Powers School of Communication, Leland Powers School of Radio, Theatre, and Television, Leland Powers Theatre School, the Leland Powers School of Expression, Leland Powers School of the Spoken Word, and originally called the Leland Powers School of Elocution, was originally located in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, and later in Brookline, Massachusetts. Speaker and author Leland Powers founded the school in 1904. The school educated several notable speakers and authors of the early 20th century, including drama educator T. Earl Pardoe, actress Reta Shaw, and journalist Wendall Woodbury.

History

Leland T. Powers founded the school after teaching with the Redpath Lyceum Bureau, a chautauqua circuit business. While working for the bureau, Powers was assigned as a reader during chautauquas, and as a coach to other readers. Powers also edited scripts for usage, focusing on readability and performance. During this time Powers was an associate of Carl Sandburg.

Leland T. Powers (January 28, 1857 – 1920) was an American performing arts educator, author, and actor. The founder of the Leland Powers School, he was once renowned as "the highest paid man in the Lyceum field."

Biography

Born in Pultneyville, New York, Powers attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and graduated there in 1875. In 1884, Powers gained popularity for acting all the roles in plays on his own, and was noted for being "the first man on the Lyceum platform in America to do this." In 1888, he married his first wife Louise Baldwin. They were divorced in 1895. He eventually traveled across the country and to South America, and was noted as being the best paid performer on the Lyceum circuit in America between 1890 and 1900, during which time he was managed by the Redpath Lyceum Bureau. In 1895, he married Carol Hoyt Powers, and they had two children. The family were Christian Scientists.

In 1893, it was written that, "Leland Powers is small and active, and tropical in temperament, and he dare enact a play with great fidelity."