Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Canadian  Monster Theatre  troupe that was to have presented the anti-Stratfordian comedy titled  The Shakespeare Show: Or, how an illiterate son of a Glover became the Greatest Playwright in the World  by Ryan Gladstone on March 24-26, 2011 at the  Portland Mini Fringe Festival  will not be performing.  Dan Wright, PhD --  director of t he  Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre  at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon -- reported today: I am sad to announce that due to some complications at the US-Canadian border, the troupe that was to perform The Shakespeare Show Friday night at Theatre! Theatre! as part of the Portland Mini Fringe Festival has been turned away and denied US entry. Hence, the play is cancelled. Perhaps we'll find some occasion for another get-together this Spring. For more information on this event see Oberon post:  The Shakespeare Show plays at Portland's Mini Fringe Festival March 24-26, 2011 Mar...

Scene from Richard III The U niversity Musical Society has offered discounted tickets to Oberon members and readers of this blog to performances of Propeller all-male Shakespeare troupe March 30 through April 3 at the Power Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For schedule of performances and more information about the productions, see Richard III and Comedy of Errors. Special Offer from UMS! Members of the Oberon Shakespeare Study Group, and readers of this blog, are eligible for discounted tickets to Propeller performances – simply call the UMS Group Sales Office at  (734) 763-3100  and mention the promotion code  OBERON  to receive up to 4 tickets for opening night of either title at $35 each and up to 4 tickets for any other performance during the run at 25% off per ticket!  This offer applies to both Richard III and Comedy of Errors performances; offer is not available at the door or on previously purchased tickets. Don’t forget to ask about coach transporta...

Daniel Wright, Ph.D., director of t he  Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre  at Concordia University in Portland Oregon reports that   Monster Theatre will present an anti-Stratfordian comedy titled  The Shakespeare Show: Or, how an illiterate son of a Glover became the Greatest Playwright in the World  by Ryan Gladstone on March 24-26, 2011 at the Portland Mini Fringe Festival . The festival is hosted by the Fuse Theatre Ensemble in the Theater! Theatre! space at 3430 SE Belmont, Portland, Oregon.  The Calgary- and Toronto-based  Monster Theatre  proclaims its mission as "Repackaging history and mythology for today's audiences". Playwright and Monster Theatre artistic director Ryan Gladstone describes his play on the festival website as follows:  Based on the greatest theatrical debate of all time The Shakespeare Show investigates the theory that the plays of William Shakespeare were actually penned by Edward de Vere, the ...

Jim Manganello is raising money for his Chicago production of War and Peace . Supporting Manganello's project is quick and easy using Kickstarter -- and how often do you get a chance to personally affirm artistic brilliance? See our reviews of Manganello's production of Shakespeare's Richard II at: http://oberonshakespearestudygroup.blogspot.com/2009/11/alexandra-clement-jones-plays-richard.html and at: http://oberonshakespearestudygroup.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-of-fridays-performance-of.html March 25, 2011 UPDATE Oberon will financially support this project and encourages readers to do the same. Jim Manganello sent this message on March 23, 2011: Many thanks for promoting War and Peace on Kickstarter. I've been telling everybody, W&P really started with Richard II -- we're growing on relationships forged there and ideas that stewed around. And it's another grand epic in which humanity pushes through the surface of power. We need whatever help we c...

Lynne Kositsky Shakespeare authorship researcher and novelist Lynne Kositsky has been honored by the Canada Council for the Arts with a $25,000 grant. The funds were awarded to help Kositsky finish her young-adult novel with the working title of  A Scattering of Stars . Kositsky said: Every year, in October, Canadian authors can write applications to the Canada Council for the Arts for grants to help them finish their new books. I entered last year, enclosing about 15 pages of my new young-adult novel -- all I'd written of it at the time. I added some pages from one of my published novels, as allowed. There are, obviously, a limited number of grants available, and fierce competition for them. Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from the Canada Council telling me that I'd been awarded a $25,000 grant -- the maximum given -- to help me finish my book. The grant covers living, research, and travel expenses. It's very welcome and I'm totally thrilled.   Kositsky has...

Like James Shapiro's  Contested Will  and Roland Emmerich's  Anonymous ,   Arthur Phillips ' novel The Tragedy of Arthur  provides further evidence that the Shakespeare authorship question has engaged the post-modern imagination. Phillips' pseudo memoir containing a pseudo pseudo-Shakespeare play will be released in hardcover by Random House on April 19, 2011.  An excerpt of Phillips' novel on Scribd.com describes the narrator's anti-Stratfordian sib: Back in 1979, a month after my father began serving that ten-year sentence, fifteen-year-old Dana finally staged her only adolescent rebellion, expressing her pain at Dad's incompetent wonder-working and abandonment ofher. Her attack may not impress anyone who's given their parents a truly rought ride, but you have to judge her act in context. Considering that her own personality (gay) was already an unwilling blow against parental expectations, she had never felt the need to "act out," all re...

The Earl of Oxford and the Making of Shakespeare: The Literary Life of Edward de Vere in Context  by DeVere Society Secretary Richard Malim will be published by McFarland & Company , and will be available from Amazon on July 5, 2011 at a cost of $45 in paperback.  DeVere Society newsletter editor Elizabeth Imlay said: The main argument of the book is that the Renaissance happened earlier in England than is usually supposed and that Oxford was a leading light in promoting this and in wreaking the transformation of English into a tongue capable of eloquence. 

Professor Dale Priest of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, addressed the annual joint meeting of the Conference of College Teachers of English and the Texas College English Association on March 5, 2011 at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas.  A March 9, 2011 press release from Lamar U. reported: Professor Dale Priest earned special honors in being selected to speak at the association’s breakfast and to select his topic: “What’s in a Name? The Shakespeare Authorship Debate Revisited.” Known as a Shakespeare scholar, Priest has been a member of the conference for more than 30 years. We asked Professor Priest why he chose the Shakespeare authorship as his topic; he said: That controversy has been a favorite diversion for me ever since 1987, when I helped bring to our campus the satellite-TV coverage of the Supreme Court debate about that issue. That was interesting and fun. Chief Justice Stevens -- now retired -- is a long-time Oxfordian in that battle. . . . (My p...

Notice from the Los Angeles Philharmonic regarding an all-Shakespeare-inspired concert to be broadcast live nationwide on March 13, 2011: LA Phil LIVE - Dudamel conducts Tchaikovsky Sunday, March 13, 2011 (5PM ET / 2PM PT) Expected Running Time:  2 hours, 30 minutes  LA Phil LIVE is an immersive sight and sound experience, featuring full concert performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by its dynamic music director Gustavo Dudamel, broadcast live from Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. This all-Tchaikovsky program features his three Overture-Fantasies inspired by Shakespeare plays – Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and The Tempest. Preceding each of these powerful symphonic poems are selections from the Bard’s immortal works performed by the cast of actors ( Orlando Bloom  as Romeo,  Malcolm McDowell  as Prospero, and  Matthew Rhys  as Hamlet).  Kate Burton , the prolific Tony-nominated stage and screen actress and daughter of the ...