Mark Twain and Henry VIII Round Out June Chautauqua at Dangberg Historic Park

McAvoy Layne will portray humorist and author Mark Twain on Saturday, June 25, at 1:00 pm. For over thirty-three years, in over four thousand performances from Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City to Leningrad University in Russia, McAvoy Layne has been preeminent in preserving the wit and wisdom of The Wild Humorist of the Pacific Slope, Mark Twain.

Layne is a winner of the Nevada Award for Excellence in School and Library Service. Layne plays the ghost of Samuel Clemens in the Biography Channel’s episode of Mark Twain, and the Discovery Channel’s Cronkite Award winning documentary, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”.

“It’s like being a Monday through Friday preacher, whose sermon, though not reverently pious, is fervently American” said McAvoy Layne.

Frank X. Mullen will portray Henry VIII on Sunday, June 26, at 1:00 pm. The monarch was born Henry Tudor in 1491, the second son of the King of England. Henry was crowned king when he was 17. He married six times and beheaded two of his wives. When the Pope refused to allow him to divorce his first wife, he separated England from the Catholic Church, declaring himself the supreme ruler over his people in matters both civil and religious.

Frank X. Mullen, editor of the Reno News & Review, is a Reno-based journalist, author, historian and Chautauqua scholar. He has been a newspaperman for 40 years, including 25 years as investigative reporter at the Reno Gazette-Journal. He is the author of “The Donner Party Chronicles,” and a contributor to several other books about Nevada history.

Mullen has been a Chautauqua performer nationally since 1998. In addition to Henry VIII, his characters include Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein and mountain man Caleb Greenwood. He has appeared on the History Channel, PBS and other network. In 2021 the Nevada Press Association inducted him into the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame and he was named Robert Laxalt Distinguished Writer for 2021 by the Reynolds School of Journalism and the Nevada Humanities Committee.

Chautauqua tickets are $15 for adults and are available on-line starting at dangberg.eventbrite.com. Members of the non-profit Friends of Dangberg can purchase discounted tickets at $10 each and should contact the park directly to make arrangements. Youth 16 and younger enter for free when accompanied by a ticketed adult.

This and other Chautauqua programs at the park in 2022 are funded in part by a grant from Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The full 2022 Dangberg Summer Festival event schedule is available at Dangberg.org.

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