For more details on all our events, please visit our website.
TRANScribing: Gender Identity, Self-Expression, and Creativity
Wednesday, March 18, 7:30 p.m.
The program will feature three transgender authors: Joy Ladin, a poet and the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution, and Tobias Davis, a transgender activist, playwright, and young adult novelist, and Dr. Joe Wenke, a writer, social critic and LGBTQ rights activist.
The panel will discuss their varied journeys and how they create their writings. Topics will include what audience the authors are writing for, does their transgender status make it hard to get visibility for their work, and how they use their writing as a form of self-expression. The discussion will be moderated by Jacques Lamarre, Director of Communications and Programs at the Mark Twain House.
This is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.
Exhibit Opening Reception
'Travel Is Fatal to Prejudice': Mark Twain's Jouneys Abroad
Thursday, March 19, 5:30 p.m.
Mark Twain's first major work was a travel book, The Innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrims' Progress, published in 1869. In it, he writes: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts." We celebrate three great journeys he took during his lifetime, each of which led to a significant travel book full of humor, wisdom and lyrical description. It is our major exhibition for 2015, and we invite the public to a free wine & cheese reception at 5:30 p.m. on March 19 to welcome it.
The exhibition will include such extraordinary items as Ottoman Turkish garb purchased on the first of these journeys, jewelry and other exotic items purchased on the second, and a rare jade pendant received by Mark Twain's wife as a gift from the Maori people -- along with books, manuscripts and revealing letters. Visitors will enter set-piece scenes from the books that will put them in the traveling spirit -- and provide a spot for a "selfie."
This exhibition is generously supported by The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Company, United Technologies Corporation, the
Department of Economic and Community Development, and the
Greater Hartford Arts Council.
The opening reception is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.
BOOK/MARK: Fed, White and Blue with author and Food Network star Simon Majumdar
Wednesday, March 25, 8:00 p.m.
Simon Majumdar will be in conversation with local restauranteur Jamie McDonald, owner and chef at Bear's Smokehouse BBQ in Hartford and Windsor. Jamie is featured in the first chapter of Simon's book. In the book, Simon sets off on a trek across the United States to find out what it really means to become an American, using what he knows best: food.
Simon has become a mainstay on the The Food Network, appearing in numerous episodes of Iron Chef American, Beat Bobby Flay, Best Thing I Ever Ate, Extreme Chef, and as a recurring judge on Cutthroat Kitchen.
This is a free BOOK/MARK event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.
Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours
Friday, March 27, and Saturday, March 28; 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, and 9:00 p.m.
We reprise our popular Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours for some winter chills. The Mark Twain House has been featured on Syfy Channel's Ghost Hunters and the Biography Channel's My Ghost Story. On these tours participants will hear all these creepy tales -- and learn about Mark Twain's own interest in the supernatural. Filled with haunted history, dark tales and Victorian traditions surrounding seances and spiritualism, these nighttime tours are as educational as they are goosebump-inducing.
The tours are tsponsored by Tsunami Tsolutions.
Please call (860) 280-3130 for more information & ticketing. Or, click here for tickets.
Direct from New York!
BRIAN DYKSTRA: $ELLING OUT Directed by Margarett Perry
Friday, March 27, 7:30 p.m.
You will not want to miss award-winning actor and playwright Brian Dykstra in his latest exploration of the American condition. Audiences can expect an uncensored, highly charged one-man tour-de-force that is a hilarious and impassioned examination of the corrupting influence of money and the pursuit of happiness. This show is anything but safe and will make you think as hard as you laugh. Dykstra's $elling Out combines stand-up, storytelling and slam poetry.
Tickets are $20/$15 for Mark Twain House & Museum Members. For tickets please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.
A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher; Directed by Ian Belknap; Performed by The Acting Company
Saturday, March 28, 8:00 p.m. at The Hoffman Auditorium, University of Saint. Joseph, 1678 Asylum Avenue, West Hartford
Legendary actor-director John Houseman founded The Acting Company in 1972 and its alumni have gone on to become a "who's who" of great American Theatre. Lancelot, Guinevere, Merlin and Mark Twain himself (as Hank) come tumbling your way in this satirical tale. Wander with Twain as he time travels from the 21st Century to 6th Century England's medieval times through the eyes of Hank Morgan of Hartford, Connecticut who, after a blow to the head, awakens to find himself transported back to the time of legendary King Arthur. Hank astonishes the Middle Age with heroic fireworks, modern medicine and electricity. These tricks from the future initially advance and improve King Arthur's Court but society ultimately struggles to evolve 1300 years into the future. Mark Twain's satirical romp exposes the foibles and fortes of both ages leading audiences to question and laugh at themselves and the principles of the 21st Century.
Part of the Twain on Stage Festival; Support provided by The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, and Webster Bank, with additional support from the Greater Hartford Arts Council and The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts.
Tickets are $30 / $25 for MTH&M Members / $20 for children and University of Saint. Joseph Students. Please call 860.231.5555 or visit www.usj.edu/arts.
AND EARLY IN APRIL!
CLUE Tours! - April Fools Edition!
Wednesday, April 1, Tours step off every 15 minutes beginning at 7:00 p.m. Reservations required.
Play our live-action version of the classic game CLUE in the Mark Twain House. This special, one night only April Fools edition features some very unusual weapons and suspects--NOT what and who you'd expect! This hour long tour features SEA TEA IMPROV as the suspects--and all the murder, mayhem and merriment one would expect in a whodunit. Featured on the Travel Channel show Wackiest Tours!
Tours step off every 15 minutes. Reservations required. $22, $17 for MTH&M members, and $13 for children 16 and under. Please call (860) 280-3130 for more information & ticketing. or click here.
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Writers' Weekend 2015!
April 17-19
Our Annual Mark Twain House Writers' Weekend is back for its 4th year!
This year, our keynote speakers are Dani Shapiro, best-selling author of Devotion and Still Writing, and
Random House employees Ann Kingman & Michael Kindness, hosts of the Books On The Nightstand podcast.
Peek into the inner lives of the region's best writers; hone your craft with workshops on fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and storytelling; learn the publishing industry's secrets on pitching, agents, and publicity; meet other writers; and read your work aloud at our closing event. Tickets are available for the whole weekend or just one day. Become a better writer at the home of one of the best writers in American history--it's a weekend of inspiration and hard work, bound to get you on the right path to the next stage of your writing life.
For reservations, please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.
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The Mark Twain House & Museum: Spring Writing Classes & Workshops
Be the writer you've always wanted to be-- study at the home of America's greatest writer!
6-Week Classes ($265):
Political Poetry
Self Publishing
Humor
Fiction
Writing for the Web
4-week Class ($199):
Writing from found texts
Memoir
One-Day Workshops ($40):
Getting Started
Memoir
Writing for Young Adults
Don't miss out -- for the start dates and schedule of classes and workshops, or to register, please visit www.marktwainhouse.org or call (860) 280-3130
Questions? Email [email protected]
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Membership has its rewards!
Each month, all new and renewing members for the previous month will be entered into a drawing to win a $25 gift certificate to The Mark Twain House Store.
Congratulations to January's winner: Lavell Thompson
And also congratulations to February's winners:
Jeffrey & Suzanne Burgess
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