Dawidziak back to Massillon as Twain

Plain Dealer and former Beacon Journal television critic Mark Dawidziak was in Massillon's Historic Lions Lincoln Theater Oct. 31 as the director/lighting operator for his Largely Literary Theater Company’s "The Tell-Tale Play," while wife Sara Showman, Tom Stephan and Alex J. Nine spoke Edgar Allen Poe's words.

He'll be on stage at the same theater, at 156 Lincoln Way E, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21 as his troupe performs "Twain by Three" -- our Mark, wife Sara and Jason Davis. The performance will be nine days before Twain’s 175th birthday.

Tickets, available at the door, are $8 for adults and $6 for students. For information, call (330) 832-0717 or go to www.lionslincolntheatre.com/home.php

Mark and Sara's company performed "Twain By Three" in March at Akron's Wayne College in Orrville and in July at the Nordonia Hills public library.

Mark and Sara perform folk tales annually in Akron's St. Bernard Church for the Books for Africa Library Project’s fundraising dinner.

The troupe does Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" in area libraries in December.

Dawidziak's 12th book, which Kent State Press will publish in 2011 and which is co-authored by Kent bookseller Paul J. Bauer, is "Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler." Tully, who was fired twice by the Beacon Journal and also worked for the Akron Press, became a boxer and Charlie Chaplin's ghost writer and biographer.

Click on the headline for photos of Dawidziak as Twain and sketches by Dawidziak of Twain.