Laura Joyce Bell (née Maskell; May â€" May ) was an
English-American actress and contralto singer mostly associated with
Edwardian musical comedy and light opera.After beginning her career as
Laura Joyce in concerts and theatre in Britain, she moved to the
United States in where she earned good notices in the spectacular
shows at Niblo's Garden. With a success in the title role of
Evangeline (), a season in East coast cities with John T. Ford, and
seasons at Daly's Broadway Theatre and the Bijou Opera House, among
others, her career was established. She married the American comedian
Digby Bell, with whom she frequently appeared with over the last two
decades of her career. The two appeared extensively with the McCaull
Comic Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan, Offenbach and many other
comic operas. Throughout her career, she also appeared in comic plays
and dramas.Bell was born in London, the daughter of Maria Dalton
Dauncey, a dramatic elocutionist and voice teacher (died ), and James
Henry Maskell (â€"), a sometime theatrical agent and merchant. She was
coached in acting by her mother and attended the London Academy of
Music, studying music with Francesco Schira. In , as an amateur, she
appeared at the Royal Strand Theatre as Gertrude in a production of
James Planché's Loan of a Lover. From this early period until , Bell
appeared as Laura Joyce in London in a comic opera titled Mina and
played the Count of Flanders in Cupid 'Mid the Roses and The Ring and
the Keeper by John Pratt Wooler. She soon participated in a British
tour of a sketch presentation called Happy Hours of Fanciful Fun by
Frank Green and Alfred Lee, which was followed by a season at the
Theatre Royal, Manchester and an engagement with Dion Boucicault as a
soubrette singer at Covent Garden. At Christmas , she played Oberon in
the prologue to The Children in the Wood at the Theatre Royal, Drury
Lane, and the following year she toured with Howard Paul.
English-American actress and contralto singer mostly associated with
Edwardian musical comedy and light opera.After beginning her career as
Laura Joyce in concerts and theatre in Britain, she moved to the
United States in where she earned good notices in the spectacular
shows at Niblo's Garden. With a success in the title role of
Evangeline (), a season in East coast cities with John T. Ford, and
seasons at Daly's Broadway Theatre and the Bijou Opera House, among
others, her career was established. She married the American comedian
Digby Bell, with whom she frequently appeared with over the last two
decades of her career. The two appeared extensively with the McCaull
Comic Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan, Offenbach and many other
comic operas. Throughout her career, she also appeared in comic plays
and dramas.Bell was born in London, the daughter of Maria Dalton
Dauncey, a dramatic elocutionist and voice teacher (died ), and James
Henry Maskell (â€"), a sometime theatrical agent and merchant. She was
coached in acting by her mother and attended the London Academy of
Music, studying music with Francesco Schira. In , as an amateur, she
appeared at the Royal Strand Theatre as Gertrude in a production of
James Planché's Loan of a Lover. From this early period until , Bell
appeared as Laura Joyce in London in a comic opera titled Mina and
played the Count of Flanders in Cupid 'Mid the Roses and The Ring and
the Keeper by John Pratt Wooler. She soon participated in a British
tour of a sketch presentation called Happy Hours of Fanciful Fun by
Frank Green and Alfred Lee, which was followed by a season at the
Theatre Royal, Manchester and an engagement with Dion Boucicault as a
soubrette singer at Covent Garden. At Christmas , she played Oberon in
the prologue to The Children in the Wood at the Theatre Royal, Drury
Lane, and the following year she toured with Howard Paul.
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