Mark Twain Festival Coming To Angels Camp
The first ever Mark Twain Festival in Angels Camp this Friday through Sunday will celebrate both the history of the Motherlode and honor the legacy of America’s most renowned writer and humorist.
Caroline Schirato, Executive Director for the Festival, was KVML’s Wednesday “Newsmaker of the Day”.
2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Samuel Clemens death and at last the unveiling of his autobiography.
Twain’s 88-day sojourn in the Mother Lode during the winter of 1864-1865 filled his notebooks with observations that captured the spirit and personalities of the time. The famous Jumping Frog story, which came from those notebooks, provided Clemens his first taste of national fame as “Mark Twain” and remains the most well read of all his publications.
The Mark Twain Festival will celebrate and be a part of history as the scholars from the Mark Twain Project at the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley unveil a completed comprehensive “autobiography” with previously unpublished material written by Clemens. A pre-publication release of Volume 1 of that work will be available for purchase!
The schedule of activities is as follows:
Friday, October 15th
Bret Harte Theater, Angels Camp
7pm – Debut performance of Ron Powers’ new play about Samuel Clemens, “Sam and Laura” – presented by the University of Missouri Drama Department. Powers is the author of the 2005 biography of Mark Twain, “Mark Twain: a Life” and of other works centering on Clemens and on Hannibal, Missouri, where both Powers and Sam Clemens spent their childhoods. Powers also is the co-author of the acclaimed work, “Flags of Our Fathers.”
“Sam and Laura” is based on a true story from Clemen’s life, according to Powers, who discovered its essence while researching the biography. It centers on a lifelong infatuation Twain developed over a young girl he met while working as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. “‘Sam and Laura’ is a commemorative play for this century, and it is also a play as timeless as are dreams, love, loss and yearning,” he writes.
Saturday, October 16th
Greenhorn Creek, Camps Restaurant
10A.M. – Symposium on the life and work of Samuel Clemens presented by scholars from the Mark Twain Project at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, who have recently completed a comprehensive “autobiography” with previously unpublished material written by Clemens. A pre-publication release of Volume 1 of that work will be available for purchase at a very low price. Greenhorn Creek, CAMPS Restaurant, Angels Camp. The first volume, of three to be published, totals about 600 pages. Editors of the work are expected to be on hand to speak and answer questions about the project.
2 P.M. – Matinee Performance of “Sam and Laura” (Bret Harte Theater, Angels Camp)
6 P.M. – Gala Evening- An evening celebrating Mark Twain with Ron Powers (Greenhorn Creek, CAMPS Restaurant). 6 P.M. cocktail reception; 7 P.M. dinner, and “Trouble at 8!” The California Press Association will present the first Mark Twain Award to Samuel Clemens for his contributions to the journalism and literature of California. The evening’s entertainment will include music of the Gold Rush era as well as live and video performances by McAvoy Lane, an internationally known Mark Twain impersonator, and video presentation with Will Durst, a San Francisco political satirist who carries on the “stand up” tradition of social comment pioneered by Mark Twain.
Seats are limited. Tickets are available by calling (209) 736-0049. More information can be found by logging onto www.marktwainfestival.org
The “Newsmaker of the Day” is heard each weekday morning on AM 1450 KVML at 6:47, 7:47 and 8:47am.
Written by mark@mlode.com
