PD and former BJ pop culture critic Mark Dawidziak continues his dizzying carousel of books and performances with "The Shawshank Redemption Revealed: How One Story Keeps Hope Alive," which Rowman & Littlefield’s Lyons Press will publish September 1 after an August 16-18 premiere at the Mansfield reunion.

Mark’s latest effort got an enthuastic endorsement from Bob Gunton, who played the warden in “The Shawshank Redemption.”

Mark also is renown for his books and performances tied to humorist Mark Twain. Dawidziak was in Elmira, New York for a symposium based on "Mark Twain and Youth: Studies in His Life and Writings" at the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College. Dawidziak has performed Mark Twain in Elmira, where Twain is buried. I’ve visited Twain’s grave there.

Dawidziak’s Twain books include “Mark Twain’s Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Investment, Romance, Health and Happiness,” "Mark Twain in Ohio," "Mark My Words" and "Mark Twain on Writing." 

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns wrote: “Nobody gets Mark Twain the way Mark Dawidziak does.”

Mark gives Hal Holbrook a run for his money when it comes to Twain impersonation.

Dawidziak began reading Twain as a pre-teen.

Other Dawidziak books – I lost count at a dozen -- include “The Columbo Phile: A Casebook,”  “The Night Stalker Companion,” “The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula” and "The Barter Theatre Story: Love Made Visible," about the famous Virginia theater that took anything – including food -- for audience members who didn’t have cash for admission.

Sara and Mark also perform “Shades of Blue and Gray: Ghosts of the Civil War”; “Ghosts By the Tale,”  spooking their audiences;  “Twain By Three,” a two-act adaptation of humorous sketches by Mark Twain;  “The Tell-Tale Play,” a two-act collection of poems and stories by Edgar Allan Poe; their version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”; and  “The Mystery of Dashiell Hammett,” the author of Sam Spade stories.

Mark was born in Huntington, New York, on September 7, 1956.

He came to the BJ from the Kingsport Times-News in Tennessee in 1983 as David Bianculli’s replacement for TV critic when David headed for the New York Post and living in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

In 1999 Mark joined the BJ exodus to the PD.

Previously, Mark's career took him to the Kingsport Times-News in Tennessee, the Bristol Herald Courier in Virginia, the Associated Press’ Washington bureau and Knight-Ridder Newspapers’ Washington bureau.

He is married to Sara Showman Dawidziak, who often performs with Mark when they’re not in their Cuyahoga Falls home. They founded the Largely Literary Theater Company. Mark and Sara met in Tennessee in 1981 when they appeared together in Neil Simon’s “The Good Doctor.” A year later, there was a Mark-Sara wedding in Johnston City, Tennessee, when Mark was at the Kingsport Times-News.

Their photos, in many instances, are taken by their daughter, Becky, who may have a career in photography art.