Melissa Swenson, Brown Grand Theatre
Photo Courtesy of Brown Grand Theatre
On Saturday, September 27 – Fall Fest Weekend – the Brown Grand Opera House Inc. in downtown Concordia (310 W 6th Street) will present Leavenworth, Kansas actor Ken Church in “Twain for Twainiacs.” Church will present two forty-five-minute performances on Saturday, September 27th. The first will be at 11am, immediately following the Fall Fest Parade. The second performance will be at 1pm. There will be a time for questions and discussion with Ken after each performance. Both performances are free and open to the public. Donations will be welcome at each performance to help support the Brown Grand’s capital campaign “Giving Voice to the Past, Illuminating the Future.” This campaign is dedicated to replacing the antiquated lighting and sound systems, as well as the vintage cyclorama at the Brown Grand.
Ken Church is a seventy-three-year-old retired English, Speech, and Drama teacher who taught in Kansas schools for forty-one years Church’s first teaching job was in Concordia in 1974. It will be the fourth time Ken Church has performed as Mark Twain on the historic stage at The Brown Grand Opera House. Church’s last performance there was nine years ago when he gave a performance for The Cook Lecture Series. His most recent performance in North-Central Kansas was for The Washington County Historical Society on June 17, 2025.
Ken Church has been performing as Mark Twain since 1972. One might say that, “I have ‘aged into the part!’” Church says. Ken Church first performed his show at The University of Kansas at Stephenson Scholarship Hall for a political fundraiser in October 1972. Originally, the show was called “A Mark Twain Portrait.” Of his show, Church says: “My goal is to do all I can to allow
each listener to feel as though Mark Twain is speaking just to him or her.” The question-and-answer session at the conclusion of the presentation is an opportunity for audience members to pose questions to the performer or to the character. Many times, Church says he is often asked: Why Mark Twain? Isn’t he well known already? His answer is three-fold. “I love to read Mark Twain and so do many others. In performing Mark Twain, I get to meet incredible people, many of whom are much more knowledgeable than I am concerning Mark Twain. I also relish the opportunity of introducing Mark Twain to younger audience members. They come with a parent, grandparent, or a friend who shares who shares my sense of responsibility in passing on thoughts of this remarkable man to future generations.” Finally, Church underscores that his performance pivots on his very conscious effort to speak to the individual audience member as if she or she is the only one in the room, so that in the performance, Twain and his era are interacting “in real time” with the person who is living in this present era. Jokingly, Church adds, “Like Twain, when I have spoken to some very sparse houses, achieving this effect has not been too big of a stretch.”
Ken Church grew to love the writing of Mark Twain and Leo Rosten, the great Yiddish writer, through the influence of the late Edith Hetzel who was the speech and drama teacher and librarian at Crest High School in Colony, Kansas during the nineteen sixties and seventies where Church attended high school. “Mrs. Hetzel introduced all of us to great writers and great literature. I have a special place in my heart for her and for librarians and English teachers everywhere. They are the keepers of the freedom of thought and expression in our schools today.” Of Twain, Church says, “He is a big part of the cultural fabric of our country. He is not a perfect human being, but he is one of the most human of human beings. I believe he is America’s most gifted writer. Church also observes that noted biographer Ron Powers, who also hails from Hannibal, Missouri, has called Mark Twain “America’s First Rock Star”.
Concordia holds another special place in his heart because it is also where he met Sandra Herman, his wife of forty-nine years. Ken and Sandra have four children: Caleb Church, Seth Church, Hannah Church, Sarah Church Hamilton and one son-in-law, Nicholas Hamilton. In May of 2025 they became grandparents with the birth of Halina Hamilton.
