Percy Jewett Burrell - Professional Accomplishments

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 employed as field workers by the Department of Community Drama in a program called Community Service, Inc. Such field workers helped local Community Service "chapters establish amateur dramatic programs". 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. From approximately 1917 to 1945, Burrell was in high demand throughout the United States 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. 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 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".

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, was premiered at the New England Conservatory in April 1910 .

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".

Among his early works are The Pioneer Pageant: How the West Was Won (1924), which was a collaboration with Stephen B. L. Penrose (then president of Whitman College), and was produced in Walla Walla, Washington. 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". The Pageant of Wyoming Valley was produced in 1928 to commemorate the one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Wyoming Valley. The Pageant of New Brunswick: the Drama on the Highway was produced at Rutgers University in October 1930.

Burrell produced Pageant of Colorado, a work with music composed by Charles Wakefield Cadman, in Denver, Colorado in May 1927. Also that year, he produced The York Pageant: How the American Federation Was Founded, in collaboration with Lillian White Spencer and Alice Kraft 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. Written and directed by Burrell in collaboration with Alice Kraft and Harry A. Sykes, the production featured over 3,000 participants and included drama, dance, and music. 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 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. 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 celebrating 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 utilized the talents of 1,300 actors, was produced in Philadelphia in 1937, and received coverage in Time magazine. 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.

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 emorial ay" in 1944. This was followed in 1945 with For Freedom’s Sake!, "a pageant of the people in three actions: In celebration of victory; In gratitude for peace; In consecration to freedom" (Library of Congress catalog).