(Editor's Note: This story was updated to correct the name Jack in the seventh paragraph.)

POWERS ON: About 20 friends, colleagues and admirers of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, novelist and author, Ron Powers, gathered last night to honor Powers on the eve of the premiere of his first play.

A benefit staged reading of the play, "Sam and Laura," will debut tonight at 8 p.m. at the St. Louis Actors' Studio at Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle Avenue, with a reception to follow.

Powers, 69, is a native of Hannibal, Mo. He was a sportswriter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the 1960s and is the author of the critically acclaimed biography, "Mark Twain: A Life."

He also co-wrote the bestseller "Flags of Our Fathers," with James Bradley in the 1990s, and collaborated with the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on his memoir, "True Compass."

Powers said he wrote the play about Twain to commemorate three events involving the author. This year marks the centennial of Twain's death; the 175th anniversary of his birth; and the 125th anniversary of the publication of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Board members of the St. Louis Actors' Studio organized the dinner last night at the West End Grill and Pub, next door to Gaslight Theater, to celebrate Powers' play and to give people an opportunity to meet him.

Among those at the gathering were: William and Lisa Roth; Ed Roth; Don and Ann Franke; Greg Brewer; Joe and Ann Pollack; Molly and Milt Zoth; Bob Duffy and Marty Kaplan; Peter LeBlanc; Bill and Jack McClellan; and Emily Huber. Actors Boo McLoughlin and Elizabeth Tucker stopped by during a break in rehearsal.