Schneider, Evelyn Lenora
Biographical / Historical Note
Evelyn Lenora Schneider was born in Revere, MA in 1903, the daughter of Charles and -------- Schneider. She attended Revere High School, where she was the treasurer of the Senior Class and active in the Dramatic Club. On September 20, 1921 at the age of 17, she enrolled in the freshman class at the Emerson College of Oratory. She studied at Emerson until 1925, when she received her B.L.I. Subsequently, she took extension courses at Brown University during the summer of 1931, and also at Boston University, where she returned in 1956 as a candidate for Master of Education degree.
Upon her graduation from Emerson, Evelyn worked as a dramatic counselor at a girl's camp in West Dennis. Her professional career also included teaching public speaking and auditorium work at both Revere Junior and Senior High Schools, teaching Speech to special children in the Sharon High School System, and providing instruction in elocution to young children in her own home. In the tradition of instructors who will not teach what they themselves cannot do, Evelyn was an accomplished dramatic reader, impersonator, and story teller in her own right. In addition to giving performances as a solo artist, she was a founding member of Evmarede, a trio of women who sang, plated violin and piano, and gave dramatic readings to civic and social groups. This trio was still receiving favorable notices in the 1950's, nearly thirty years after her graduation from Emerson. She was also very active in the Braintree Curtain Call Theater until the late 1970's, an activity she shared with her husband Harold Pearl, who did all the theater's photography.
Evelyn's niece, Carole Nutile, described her as a woman who loved children and always seemed to be surrounded by them, even though she had none of her own. She was a "pied piper" of sorts, always telling them stories and playing catchy little tunes for them on the piano. Evelyn taught and influenced many students, including June Hamblin Mitchell, a long term Emerson faculty member. In an oral history tape located in the Emerson College Archives, June states that she learned about Emerson College from her high school drama teacher, a woman named Evelyn Schneider.