The Tank Presents THE REPORT OF MY DEATH 3/23

After a successful premiere aboard the Manhattan-docked Steamship Lilac, THE REPORT OF MY DEATH sets out to follow the equator, re-creating Twain's international lecture tour from over a century ago.

Mark Twain said that people cannot be completely honest until after they're dead, and this play takes him at his word - with the deceased great writer saying anything he wants.

Featuring rare, previously censored and posthumously published Twain letters, stories, and historical artifacts, this one-man docudrama follows Clemens from his bankruptcy through his worldwide lecture tour, personal tragedies, unlikely recovery, and his fiery opposition to the Philippine-American War. This production introduces audiences the "other" Sam Clemens - American radical and dark prophet.

In 1895, Samuel Clemens went bankrupt from misguided investments and a disastrous business partnership in the publishing industry. To recover from debt, he went on an international speaking tour circumnavigating the globe that traveled across America, Canada, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), India, Mauritius and South Africa from 1895 to 1896.

THE REPORT OF MY DEATH celebrates the centennial of Mark Twain's death by re-creating this tour along Samuel Clemens' original itinerary.

Presale tickets are available here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/104506

Michael Graves (Samuel Clemens)
Celebrating 39 years as a professional actor, he is proud to be a member of Actors Equity, SAG and AFTRA. HIGHLIGHTS; Musicals: Zorba (w/Chita Rivera); Man Of La Mancha (w/Lainie Kazan); 1776 (Rutledge); Shenandoah (w/David Canary); Unsinkable Molly Brown (co-star). Opera: La Traviata, Don Giovanni, Faust. Off Broadway: Irrevocable Trust, No Man's Land, Embers, A Doll's House, Trigorin's Notebook (Blue Roses Company); Maurizio Pollini (Samuel French Festival); Angels Fall. Films: People I Know (with Al Pacino), Every Little Crook And Nanny (with Lynn Redgrave); Shelter (with Julianne Moore); See Saw (Co-star); HBO pilot The New Americans; The Seer (just completed shooting in Sardinia); A Binding Silence (star); Letting Go (star); Skull And Bones (co- star); Vendetta (The Patriarch); The Infidel (The Bedouin Hermit-co-star). Theatre Highlights: Macbeth (w/James Earl Jones/Public Theatre); Timon Of Athens (Shakespeare Theatre of D.C.); All's Well That Ends Well (The King of France-Pearl Theatre); A Cry Of Players (w/Anne Bancroft at Lincoln Center); King Lear (w/Lee J. Cobb at Lincoln Center); Othello (w/James Earl Jones/Mark Taper Forum); All The Queen's Men (w/Elizabeth Ashley); Royal Hunt Of The Sun (National Company w/Morgan Freeman); Dracula (Maine Public Theatre); The Crucible (Rev. Parris-European Tour); King Henry II in A Lion In Winter; The Cherry Orchard (Lopakhin- Cincinnati Playhouse); The Seagull (Dr. Dorn); Major Barbara; A Season Of Ashes. Daytime TV: Professor Pinkham in All My Children. He appears frequently in Love Letters with his wife and acting partner, Jennifer Lee Graves.

Adam Klasfeld (Playwright and Director)
Adam's docudrama The Report of My Death premiered in Manhattan on the deck of the Lilac steamship in Summer ‘09 after having been developed in New York, New Jersey, New Mexico and Alaska. His drama The Prostitute of Reverie Valley was developed at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Alaska before premiering at the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival. His tragicomedy Good Fences Make Good Neighbors received a chashama AREA Award and opened at the 2005 FringeNYC. Adam's first full-length play Europa's Child was part of Amphibian Productions' Spring 2004 New Play Reading Series. As a screenwriter, he's written the short films La Virgen de la Caridad and Before Dawn and the feature Club Red: The Innocents Abroad. The Report of My Death is the first part of a trilogy, of which the second i dreamed i saw Joe Hill's lover, last night will be developed in 2010. He is the artistic director of the Production Company One Armed Man, and is also a journalist and director.

Guy Smith (Production Manager)
Guy has been designing lighting for 17 years for theater, concerts, special events, and parties. Some of his event designs include concerts of Diana Ross, Pavarotti, the Three Irish Tenors, Donna Summer, and Justin Timberlake, at venues such as Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Jones Beach Amphitheater, 55 Wall Street, Hammerstein Ballroom, and Epcot Center, and 47 charter cruises. He has also designed two theaters, and is currently the resident designer for all shows at The Box. Guy still designs innovative and groundbreaking nightclubs such as the 8300 person venue ‘Ageha' in Tokyo, a new theatrical show at Sea World Orlando, ‘Allure ~ The Call of the Ocean,' and the Jim Jones musical, The Hip Hop Monologues.

About The Tank
Founded in 2003, The Tank is a non-profit arts presenter whose mission is to provide a welcoming, creative, collaborative, and affordable environment for artists and activists engaged in the pursuit of new ideas. Through a wide range of low-cost, high-concept arts and public affairs programming, The Tank seeks to cultivate a new generation of audience for live performance, civic discourse, and the work of emerging artists.

Follow The Tank online:
http://twitter.com/thetanknyc
http://thetanknyc.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Tank/7307983751

To post a comment, you must register and login.