• My Face
  • My Plays
  • What's Noo
  • About
  • Contact
  • I'm Honored
  • My Face
  • My Plays
  • What's Noo
  • About
  • Contact
  • I'm Honored
   

  What's
happenin'

The Twain Shall Meet

7/28/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
Last week, I had an amazing time exploring Hannibal, MO, the boyhood home of Mark Twain.  Although this is very much in keeping with my day job at The Mark Twain House & Museum, it is, of course, inspirational for me as a writer.  I submitted a proposal for the 2015 Clemens Conference to do a brief lecture on Twain's efforts as a playwright and it seemed to go over well.  In between, I attended other lectures, went spelunking around Mark Twain Cave, did a riverboat ride on the Mississippi, ate many foods that were fried and drizzled in white sausage gravy, and drank heavily.

THIS week, I am on a writing retreat at Quarry Farm, the Langdon Family's summer retreat in Elmira, NY where Sam Clemens did most of his best writing (although I do like to think he did his fair share in Hartford).  The house (pictured above) is only open to Twain scholars working on Twain projects, so I proposed that I do a reworking of Twain's flop play COLONEL SELLERS AS A SCIENTIST, co-written with William Dean Howells, editor of the Atlantic and a dramatist in his own right.  Yes, Mark Twain and W.D. Howells are my co-writers.  My update will have a Steampunk/Zombie theme and is being called COLONEL SELLERS: REANIMATOR, on which I hope to collaborate with Steampunk legend Joey Marsocci, a.k.a. Dr. Grymm.

I am already about 30 pages into this play and I am only on Day #2 of the retreat.  After COLONEL SELLERS, I will work on a commission for Asylum Hill Congregational Church, the Clemens Family's place of worship in Hartford, based on Twain's religious writings.  This, of course, will all be accomplished if I do not tipple too much with the caretaker of Quarry Farm and don't find another bat flying around my temporary home!
1 Comment

    Author

    Hi!  Me name is Jacques.

    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2020
    December 2018
    April 2018
    February 2017
    August 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.