Mark Twain is dead.
But Saturday’s show at the Carrboro ArtsCenter imagines what the great American writer, lecturer and satirist would say if he lived today.
The one-man show, entitled “Mark Twain Now,” was written by local playwright and actor Paul Newell — who will also star in the performance.
Newell is a member of Playwrights Roundtable, a group of ten local playwrights and actors that put on two group productions and several individual works at the ArtsCenter each year.
It took Newell seven years to formulate and write the play.
His primary inspiration was Mark Twain’s posthumous work, “Letters From the Earth,” in which Twain predicted how the world would both change and stay the same in the years after his death.
Newell said he also used other current events and Twain writings to write the play.
In one particular essay, Twain decries the use of what he called “water cure” to torture Filipinos.
Newell said when he saw the reports of waterboarding done by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, he couldn’t help but think how Twain would have responded — not only to the torture methods, but to the Iraq war as a whole.
“Mark Twain called Teddy Roosevelt the ‘Tom Sawyer of U.S. foreign policy,’” Newell said.
“It was easy for me to imagine him saying the same thing about George W. Bush.”
Newell said he has spent years working by himself and with others learning to portray Twain.
“I’ve tried to channel what I know of his sensibilities and sense of humor on stage,” he said.
Newell also said that actor Hal Holbrook’s one-man Mark Twain show was very useful in learning to master Twain’s cadence and language style.
Jeri Lynn Schulke, director of the ArtsCenter, said she expects the show to be a hit with audiences.
Schulke said that several weeks ago the center put on a one-man show — “Life in a Marital Institution” — that was a big hit.
“There’s something very intimate about a one-man show,” she said.
Schulke said she hopes to produce more small, one-person shows in the future to keep hold of the audience that enjoys them — and to support those who want to write them.
“We’re looking at developing that arm of our stage, encouraging local playwrights,” she said.
“We’re not quite there yet but we’re getting there.”
While much of the content in this show is politically themed, Mark Twain’s writing also has a special meaning for many people who read and listened to him growing up, Newell said.
He said he hopes to capture that feeling of nostalgia in his performance.
“I have strong memories of my older brother reading Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer to me as a small child,” Newell said.
“I found something empowering about those two kids.”
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