An Evening with Dan Brown: A Benefit and Celebration of Writers on a New England Stage, Friday, May 18 at 7:30pm, in the Historic Theater
On Friday, May 18, the international #1 bestselling author Dan Brown returns to The Music Hall to talk about writing, movie making, science, religion, and more in the first ever benefit for Writers on a New England Stage. Proceeds from the evening will help The Music Hall and New Hampshire Public Radio continue to present today’s top writers – ranging from Ann Patchett to Chris Matthews, Jodi Picoult to the late John Updike, Elizabeth Gilbert to Stephen King – to Music Hall audiences and NHPR listeners.
“As a big fan of both The Music Hall and New Hampshire Public Radio, I’m honored to help celebrate two organizations of such great local importance,” said Dan Brown.
“Dan Brown was one of the first authors we presented in Writers on a New England Stage, back in our first season in 2006, and we are delighted he’ll take the stage again in this special Benefit. It is fitting that one of the Seacoast’s very own should recognize the great value of this celebrated writers series – to the community, to literacy across New England, and to the ‘life of the mind,’ said Patricia Lynch, Executive Director of The Music Hall and Executive Producer of its signature writers series, Writers on a New England Stage and Writers in the Loft. “Dan’s first event here gained the attention of international audiences, and, deservedly so, as he writes some of today’s most provocative and fascinating books. It’s going to be a remarkable evening,” she added.
Following his on-stage discussion, the author will be in dialogue with NHPR host Virginia Prescott, who will also take questions from the audience. The house band Dreadnaught will provide live music.
About Dan Brown Dan Brown is the author of numerous #1 bestselling novels, including The Da Vinci Code, which has become one of the bestselling novels of all time as well as the subject of heated debate among readers and scholars. Brown’s novels are published in 52 languages around the world with 200 million copies in print.
In 2005, Brown was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine, whose editors credited him with “keeping the publishing industry afloat; renewed interest in Leonardo da Vinci and early Christian history; spiking tourism to Paris and Rome; a growing membership in secret societies; the ire of Cardinals in Rome; eight books denying the claims of the novel and seven guides to read along with it; a flood of historical thrillers; and a major motion picture franchise.”
The son of a mathematics teacher and a church organist, Brown was raised on a prep school campus where he developed a fascination with the paradoxical interplay between science and religion. These themes eventually formed the backdrop for his books. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he later returned to teach English before focusing his attention full time to writing. Brown is currently at work on a new book as well as the Columbia Pictures film version of his most recent novel, The Lost Symbol.
About Writers on a New England Stage Set on one of New England’s most venerable stages, where literary legends Mark Twain, Celia Thaxter, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow have trod, Writers on a New England Stage is both a live stage event and a rollicking radio show. This popular writers’ series attracts up to 900 in a live audience and tens of thousands more in repeat public radio broadcasts: it is a prime showcase for today’s top authors.
The dynamic one-of-a-kind series features an author presentation followed by an interview with a veteran National Public Radio newscaster and host. Live music is performed throughout the one hour event by Dreadnaught, the house band. Book clubs throughout the region are invited; and, supporting literacy, The Music Hall’s outreach program selects small student groups to attend.
Writers on a New England Stage authors, representing all forms of the written word – from novels to histories, investigative reporting to memoirs, literary criticism to graphic novels – bring to our community, to the region, and to the world today’s most popular ideas, provocative thoughts, and keen perceptions.
Tickets to the Benefit, Signed Books Tickets to An Evening with Dan Brown: A Benefit and Celebration of Writers on a New England Stage are $50. Tickets will go on sale to members of The Music Hall and NH Public Radio at noon on Wednesday, February 22, and on sale to the public at noon on Wednesday, March 7. They will be available through The Music Hall Box Office, located at 28 Chestnut Street, Portsmouth, over the phone at 603-436-2400 or online at www.themusichall.org. A limited number of signed books, hardcover copies of The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol, may be available on the evening for purchase at the box office.