Mark Twain Here! Alumnus Kelley Elder as Mark Twain

Pratt Community College is pleased to host “Mark Twain Here!”, an evening with America’s most famous and beloved humorist. Kelley Elder, a 1975 graduate of PCC, who has been performing as Mark Twain for over 50 years, will bring the great American author to life on the Carpenter Auditorium Stage at PCC on Sunday, September 27 at 2:30pm. “My goal, as an actor, is to make the audience feel like they have gotten to know Twain a little bit. He was a very complex man. At the same time, the audience will discover that Twain is a lot funnier than they might have thought” Elder explained. The show consists almost entirely of material taken from Twain’s novels, non-fiction writing, short stories, essays, and speeches. Elder added, “Twain had something to say about nearly everything. At one time, he was one of the best-known people in the United States and the world.” Elder first performed as Twain in 1973 and since then has performed throughout the US and Europe hundreds of times. As a student at PCC, he performed as Twain at the college and also at area high schools to publicize PCC. He likes to allow two hours to make the transition from being himself to becoming Mark Twain. “As I have gotten older, the makeup does not take as long as it used to” Elder pointed out. Elder emphasized that “Mark Twain Here!!!” is not an academic exercise or a literature lesson. Instead, it is an evening with a true American Character who is funny, entertaining, insightful, and very human. The show is staged very simply, just as Twain would have presented himself on the lecture circuit. Twain lived a full and somewhat tragic life. He was born Samuel Clemens in the tiny town of Florida, Missouri, and grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Professionally, he worked as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi, a silver miner, a gold miner, a newspaper reporter, a foreign correspondent, a traveling lecturer, and a writer. Clemens’ pen-name, “Mark Twain”, comes from a river boat term meaning “Twelve feet” or “Safe Water”. He was exceedingly well traveled, even by today’s standards, having lived in Missouri, Nevada, California, Hawaii, Connecticut, and New York in the United States, as well as in England, France, Germany and Italy. He traveled around the world in the late 1890s. He made a fortune twice from his writings and lost his fortunes to bad investments. He also experienced the deaths of his son, his wife, and two of his three daughters by the time that he died in 1910 at the age of 74. Elder portrays Twain at the age of 72, around 1908. Elder lived in Pratt and attended PCC 1973 to 1975, when he graduated. He is a 1978 graduate of Kansas State and a US Air Force veteran. He and his wife, Dana, make their home in Evansville, IN. “I am happy to be returning to PCC and to support the work of the school. I have great memories of my time here and it is nice to be back and give back”. Elder’s parents, Royal and Shirley Elder, lived in Pratt for over 40. His father worked for the Kansas Fish and Game Commission, now the Department of Parks and Wildlife, for many years This is a fundraising benefit donations go to support the Pratt Community College Performing Arts Department. “We are thrilled to welcome Kelley back to the Carpenter Auditorium stage to portray the great Mark Twain. This is certainly a unique opportunity for our students and community to enjoy a presentation from an actor who has certainly honed his craft throughout the last 50+ years,” said Misty Beck, PCC Performing Arts faculty member.