Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Above: Richard and Dorothy made it to the center of the labyrinth while Rosey continuted her journey. Thanks to all Oberoners who spent a glorious Sunday afternoon together. I had a great time watching my friends walk the labyrinth with Sting singing Dowland in the background. Here is the resource list I used for my introductory talk about the labyrinth and the music of John Dowland (1563-1626). Mazes & Labyrinths: their history and development by W. H Matthews; Longmans, Green & Co., London 1922, Dover Publications, Inc., 180 Varick St. 1970 Shakespeare by another Name by Mark Anderson, Gotham Books, 2005 Shakespeare and Music -- Arden Critical Companions by David Lindley, Thompson Learning, 2006 Sting: Songs from the Labyrinth, Music by John Dowland , UMG Recordings, Inc. 2006 The Journey & the Labyrinth, the Music of John Dowland performed by Sting, DVD & CD, UMG Recordings, 2007 Edward deVere and his circle: My Lord of Oxenford’s Maske by Mignarda Lutesong du...

Dear Oberon, Some special people couldn’t be with us at Oberon Thursday evening. We missed you all, but we want to send special wishes to Laura and Gary, and also to Robin and Judy. Although we missed Robin, we certainly understand. He did get some cookies, however, so not to worry. For those of us who were there, we had, as Richard said, “another great meeting.” Thank you, Richard, for that. I can’t disagree. Preparations are under way for our Oct. 25 meeting with guest speaker Lonnie Morley. Lonnie will tell the assembled multitude about herbs in Shakespeare and their authorial implications. Linda Theil and her committee have already gotten the word out to a number of groups, will make some follow-up contacts, and will work on final preparations. The meeting will be at the Farmington Library , Room 1A, starting at 7 p.m., doors open at 6:45. Also Linda urged everyone to visit our blog, which by now features many contributions from various people. Even better, she urged everyone to co...

Ian McKellon as Lear in the world tour of Trevor Nunn's Royal Shakespeare Company production will be at the Guthrie in Minnesota from October 5-14, 2007. Check the NPR interview from September 13.

Dear Oberon, Well, now. We are meeting at just the right time--next Thursday, Sept 20 at 6:45 at the Farmington Community Library , which apparently has become our comfortable new home. It's the right time for updates about the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt authored by the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition which many of you signed and which is creating quite a stir in England, having been presented by Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance this past week to a responsive public! Not bad company to be in. And this right after Prof. Jonathan Bate, from up high on his Stratfordian throne, declared that no major actors have ever doubted Stratford Bill (my term not his, of course) as the true author. I say let's start with this glaring error and take a systematic look at the rest of what Prof. Bate has said on the subject! By the way, a report just in from John Shahan, one of the originators of the Declaration, that whereas we had just under 300 signers when Jacobi and Rylance made the anno...

Here is my note to Jos. Harker, Response Editor of The Guardian , after The Associated Press scooped The Guardian on the anti-Stratfordian actor issue raised in my letter to the editor -- see text in Sept. 7 blog below. Note: The coalition referred to in the AP story is the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition . Tom To Joseph Harker, Response Editor, The Guardian Dear Joseph, I followed your suggestion of Wednesday, Sept 5 and sent the letter below to letters@guardian.co.uk correcting Prof. Bate's misinformation passed along by your reporter. Apparently nothing was done about correcting the error. Apparently my letter was not printed. Apparently The Guardian has not bothered to look into the error. Now Yahoo has run a story by Associated Press writer D'Arcy Doran providing accurate information about famous actors who have doubted the traditional attribution of Shakespeare authorship which you can link to here: " Coalition Aims to Expose Shakespeare " by D'Arcy Dor...

Earl Showerman has told me (and the other members of our Joint Committee for putting on the upcoming Conference in Carmel) about an upcoming novel by Jennifer Lee Carrell called "Interred With Their Bones" due to be published in "early September". Earl somehow got an advance manuscript copy and he is two-thirds through reading it. It seems that the novel is going in an Oxfordian direction (although Earl didn't want to "spoil" it for us). He is going to invite the author to try to attend the Carmel Conference to do some book signings and maybe speak to us. She has a good academic background including a PhD in English from Harvard. Reading about the book on her website , it seems like it will be interesting, but I can't tell from what is on the website whether she is really an Oxfordian, but there are many good links on her site to information on the Authorship. The book is about a murder and then the search for clues to a "Shakespearian puzzle...

It appears that Stratfordian Prof. Jonathan Bate (see letter to the Guardian below) has been caught in a display of ignorance. Chances are my letter will never see print in the Guardian , but we need to answer the obvious gaffes of the traditional camp to get the discussion out into the open -- sooner or later it will happen. Tom Hunter To the Editor of the Guardian: In his review of Mark Rylance’s new play, The BIG Secret Live - I Am Shakespeare - Webcam Daytime Chat-room Show at the Chichester Festival Theatre , Michael Billington (Guardian, Sept. 3, 2007 ) quotes scholar Jonathan Bate: "It is a striking fact that no major actor has ever been attracted to anti-Stratfordianism," the notion, Billington explains, that someone other than Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him. Says Billington, “Now Mark Rylance proves Bate wrong.” The problem is that Bate is as accurate in this statement as he is about the authorship question in general, about which he displays only a...

Our Oberon Stratford group this year was able to fit into one car. The five of us, Richard, Linda, Sue, Rosey, and I, headed eastward toward the bridge at Port Huron/Sarnia early last Saturday morning, August 25. There was no wait at the bridge, and the merry little band was admitted to Canada after brief questioning by the attendant as to who we were (Oberon, Shakespeare study group), what did we do (study Shakespeare), where we were bound (Stratford),for what reason (to see a play), at what time (2 p.m.), which play (Merchant of Venice), brief plot summary please (one followed--just kidding), by which author (Shakespeare), was he the real author (just kidding). Fortunately, I had given the driving over to Richard, so it was Richard who patiently answered the questions as opposed to me who, as Rosey likes to relate, undoubtedly would have become totally irritated and scornful and who would have gotten everyone strip searched and jailed, thereby missing the curtain. The drive through C...