KAILUA-KONA — Mark Twain heads back to Connecticut in Aloha Performing Arts Company Artistic Director Jerry Tracey’s first-ever main stage production, “Christmas with Mark Twain.”
Christmas with Mark Twain premieres tonight at Aloha Theatre. Set in 1885, in Twain’s beloved Hartford House in Connecticut, Tracy will portray Twain as a white-haired old man looking back some years later on the best days of his life — the times when his family was young and healthy.
“Christmas was a very, very important time and a very special and exciting time for this period in Twain’s life. Although I am an old man looking back at this time, when Twain was 50 years old — these were the happiest and most productive times of Twain’s life,” said Tracy, who also wrote and directs the play. “He had a pretty miserable and sad existence overall, but this was kind of a respite. He was rich and famous and had a beautiful family and a gorgeous house. Everybody wanted a piece of him, he was the talk of every town.”
Performances continue Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through Dec. 20. Regular admission is $22, $20 for seniors and young adults, and $10 for those younger than 18. Tickets can be purchased at www.apachawaii.org, by calling 322-9924, or at the box office before showtime.
The two-act play first welcomes the audience into Twain’s family home in Hartford, Connecticut, for Christmas 1885 before jumping ahead to 1909, a year before Twain’s death and after he’s lost his wife and one daughter. That year, Tracy said, Twain was enjoying the holidays, but on Christmas morning finds his daughter, Jean, drowned in her own bathtub after having suffered a seizure.
“And then, bop! We’re back with the second act and the lights and music come up and we’re back in the Hartford House with the three young daughters saying, ‘Welcome to our home,’” explained Tracy. “After going back in time to tell the kind of sad story that’s happening on Christmas, we move back into 1885 for the rest of the play.”
The second act of “Christmas with Mark Twain,” who’s real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, features several plays within the play, including Twain’s family enacting scenes from his book, “The Prince and the Pauper” and the reciting of “The Visit from St. Nicholas” and “A Letter From Santa Claus” that Twain wrote to his daughters.
Tracy, who’s portrayed Twain during his visit to Hawaii in 1866 in one-man shows for more than a decade, spent a year researching Twain’s life to complete the script, referencing a handful of biographies by various authors including Albert Paine and Ron Powers, as well as two written by Twain’s own daughters, Susy and Clara.
“It’s very biographical,” said Tracy, whose interest in Twain piqued during high school in the 1960s when previously unpublished works from later in Twain’s life were released. “I was in pig heaven putting it together, reading all these books and taking a piece from this one and that one.”
The play also features a bit of interaction between the actors and audience, from Twain chatting with attendees as he enters the auditorium to a book signing for one special keiki.
“At the beginning of the second act of each show, I will give away a Mark Twain book to a kid and sign it for them on stage,” said Tracy.
Six actors will join Tracy for his newest take on Twain’s life including Twain’s wife, Olivia, or “Livy” Clemens, who will be portrayed by Robin O’Hara. The oldest Clemens daughter, Susy, will be played by Riley Newton. Mahina Farmer plays Twain’s middle daughter, Clara. Lotus Buss takes the role of Jean, the youngest daughter. John Holliday and Catherine Williams are Mr. and Mrs. Brown, who each play several different characters.
“I think Christmas could not have been done without his family. His family was so important and so much a part of and reason for his enjoyment of Christmas,” Tracy said about the change from a one-man show to a cast of seven.
“A lot of people think that this is the one-man show again, but this is a brand new work. In fact, it is the world premiere of a new work by Jerry Tracy and I intend to publish it after this showing,” he said, also noting it is the first main stage season production he’s written in his quarter century with APAC. “This is the biggest project I’ve ever undertaken as a playwright.”