Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Happy UN-birthday to Shakespeare today. Anti-Strats get a nice present from the traditionalists at Wikipedia with the main page devoted to today's featured article on the Shakespeare Authorship Question at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page . Despite Wiki's elimination of all anti-Stratfordian voices from editing the article, the essay's prominent placement indicates the vitality of the issue and provides a slap in the face to Stratfordians on what is traditionally celebrated as Shakespeare's natal day.  An example of the biased SAQ essay: At the core of the argument is the nature of acceptable evidence used to attribute works to their authors. [26]  Anti-Stratfordians rely on what they designate as  circumstantial evidence : similarities between the characters and events portrayed in the works and the biography of their preferred candidate; literary parallels with the known works of their candidate; and hidden codes and cryptographic  allusions in Shak...

Richard Whalen,MA, co-publisher with Llumina Press of The Oxfordian Shakespeare Series, has  released two editions in the series:   Macbeth , which Whalen edited, and  Othello , which he co-edited with Ren Draya of Blackburn College. Three more editions are due out soon: Hamlet , edited by Jack Shuttleworth, PhD professor emeritus USAF Academy, may be out by then end of 2011,  Antony and Cleopatra   by Michael Delahoyde, PhD of Washington State University and  The Tempest   by Roger Stritmatter, PhD of Coppin State University and Lynne Kositsky are forthcoming . Whalen serves as co-general editor of the series with Dan Wright, PhD of Concordia University and is the author of Shakespeare -- Who was he? The Oxford Challenge to the Bard of Avon (Praeger, 1994), a seminal Shakespeare authorship work for which there is a  Kindle edition available .  We asked Whalen about his work on The Oxfordian Shakespeare Series. What can the reader expec...

Oberon has been in the news twice this week.  An article by Dolly Moiseeff was published today in the Farmington Patch titled, "Local Group Loves Shakespeare -- No Matter Who He Was: The Oberon Shakespeare Group (sic) believes the playwright may have written under an assumed name".  Moiseeff wrote:  Yes, there is agreement that Shakespeare is excellent playwright whose work is still immensely popular today. About this, they are passionate. They are equally passionate about what they believe is the mistaken identity of the famous playwright and poet. And an article titled "New Festival Brings Authors, Books, Readers Together" by staff writer Sharon Dargay appeared on April 9, 2011 in the Observer & Eccentric Hometown Life. The O&E article is about the Michigan Spring Book Festival where Oberon will celebrate Shakespeare's UN-birthday on Saturday, April 16, 2011. Sources:   http://farmington-mi.patch.com/articles/local-group-loves-shakespeare-no-mat...

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford, England is sponsoring an archeological dig on the site of New Place , where William Shaksper retired after presumably becoming bored with the life of a literary titan. Dr Paul Edmonson, head of learning and research at the trust, reported progress yesterday in a post titled  "Digging the Dirt on Shakespeare"  on  the Blogging Shakespeare web log: Finds so far include roof tiles, pottery and animal remains which suggest that New Place was at times a high status household, with venison, and salt and fresh water fish supplementing the diet of meat from cows, pigs, sheep, geese and chickens. Shakespeare was a wealthy and famous man by the time of his death in 1616; his daughter Susanna is known to have entertained Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles, at New Place in 1643. It is my hope that the Dig will help us understand more about Shakespeare’s own social status. In purchasing New Place, he was purchasing social cache;...

Oberon Chair R. Thom Hunter and Treasurer Tom Townsend will appear on the 11:40 a.m. segment of WDET-FM's highly respected The Craig Fahle Show on April 14, 2011. In honor of April as poetry month Tom and Tom will discuss their favorite sonnet writer and honor the true poetic creator of Shakespeare's works. The Craig Fahle show airs daily from 10 a.m. to noon on WDET-FM , 101.9 on the FM dial. Fahle's daily shows are repeated at 7 p.m. every evening except Friday. The poetry segment of Thursday's show will air again at 8:40 p.m. The segment will also be available to download as a Podcast at  http://www.wdetfm.org/rss/ . Tom Townsend, who is a big fan of Fahle's has been working on this project for several months.  "I have been communicating with one of the producers, Townsend said. "She said this is poetry month, would you be interested in having members of your group talk about poetry. I said yes. I told her about our UN-birthday party at the Laurel Pa...

The Oberon Shakespeare Study Group will host Shakespeare's UN-birthday celebration 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 16 Laurel Park Place Mall 37700 West Six Mile Road, Livonia, MI 48152 Everyone is welcome and attendees will receive a slice of UN-birthday cake! The celebration will include a panel discussion of the Shakespeare authorship question by: Oberon Chair R. Thomas Hunter, PhD, Oberon founder and Shakespeare Oxford Society President Richard Joyrich,MD Oberon Treasurer Thomas Townsend Although the Shakespeare authorship question has puzzled Shakespeare lovers for centuries, the topic is intriguing new devotees because Roland Emmerich will release Anonymous -- a major motion picture about the Shakespeare authorship with Vanessa Redgrave, Joey Richardson, Rhys Ifans, and David Thewlis -- this fall. The Oberon Shakespeare Study Group UN-birthday celebration is featured as part of the Michigan Spring Book Festival held April 15-17 from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday...

Rhys Ifans as Oxford in Anonymous Yesterday Sony released the teaser trailer for Roland Emmerich's film, Anonymous , about the Shakespeare authorship question. The trailer features a montage of images from the film, voice-over by anti-Stratfordian actor Sir Derek Jacoby, and scoring of the Radiohead song "Everything in its Right Place". The teaser is everywhere on the web with several links on YouTube , citations in entertainment news magazines , and on several Facebook pages including Ben August's Edward de Vere -- Shakespeare page that has a growing fan-base of thousands. One demoralized Stratfordian blogger posted a message titled "Anonymous trailer" with only one line: "I'll just leave this here without comment." Also several entertainment news sites posted articles this week claiming that Emmerich expects trouble from Stratfordian protesters. A site called Contact Music titled their report, "Roland Emmerich Expects Fury over Sha...

Bill Boyle,  Alex McNeil, and  Marie Merkel report that although there will be no authorship seminar in Watertown this year, they will host a dinner in Cambridge. Here is their invitation: The Shakespeare Oxford Spring Dinner   When: Friday, May 6, 2011 Cocktails at 6:30; Dinner at 7:30 Where: The Elephant Walk , 2067 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA Why: Much to talk about in 2011! In the spring of 2009 and 2010, we enjoyed a day-long seminar at the Watertown Free Public Library. This year we thought it would be good to relaunch the evening dinner of years past. There is so much news in the Oxfordian community this year, with the upcoming premiere of Roland Emmerich's blockbuster film Anonymous, the expected completion of two documentaries, Cheryl Eagan-Donovan's Nothing Truer Than Truth and Laura and Lisa Wilson's Last Will and Testament (working title), as well as the long-awaited publication of Richard Roe's The Shakespeare Guide to Italy . Please join...

The Spring 2011, Vol. 62, No. 1, edition of Shakespeare Quarterly  features an article by textual analyst Brian Vickers titled, "Shakespeare and Authorship Studies in the Twenty-First Century" wherein Vickers attributes additions to the 1602 anonymous edition of The Spanish Tragedy  (a groundbreaking play generally considered to have been written in the 1580s and lately attributed to Thomas Kyd) to Shakespeare. The abstract reads: Authorship attribution studies have traditionally been based on a wide reading knowledge of a text in its historical and generic contexts. With the advent of computers, it became possible to process large quantities of data quickly. However, the first computer-driven attribution methods could only deal with individual words, ignoring grammar, syntax, and all the individualizing features of authorial language. By counting word frequencies and subjecting the word-count information to statistical analysis, it was hoped that authorship problems could...

William Niederkorn, who has written previously on the Shakespeare Authorship Question in many publications, including the New York Times recently reviewed the new book, Dating Shakespeare's Plays , published by Parapress in England for the De Vere Society. His review appeared in the Brooklyn Rail and a link to the online version (I don't know how long the link will be active) is http://www.brooklynrail.org/2011/04/books/the-shakespeare-chronology-recalibrated The book may be ordered directly from Parapress for $43 ( http://www.parapress.co.uk/ ).

The Stratfordian editors of the Shakespeare Authorship Question (SAQ) page on Wikipedia have recently succeeded in placing the page in “featured article” status, effectively closing the page to any further edits for a year. After bullying and banning any anti-Stratfordian editors who attempted to work on the article, Stratfordian editors chose this method to assure that anyone searching for information on the authorship question would find a view skewed toward Stratford. Rational thought had no position in the scrim before the whistle. To cite an example of the kind of anti-academic stone-walling at this site, consider the fate of anti-Stratfordian editor Nina Green . Green suggested moving the placement of the authorship topic out of “fringe” status. She cited the publication of new books on the Shakepseare authorship question, major media coverage of the topic, support by important public figures, and a 2007 Education Life survey reported in the New York Times showing considerable...

In my life, peak experiences always come as a shock; unmitigated joy is always a surprise to me. I wasn’t keen on seeing Propeller. I was afraid they might be one of those Shakespeare companies that substitute butchers’ offal for clear and honest delivery of the language. Oh, I was so wrong. From Richard’s first discontented sneer I knew I was in good hands. Every furnishing, costume, sound, light, movement, and speech express the highest degree of artifice. Every rumored excess from the disembowelment in Richard III to the naked clown with the lit sparkler protruding from his bum in Comedy of Errors serve the drama. If you love Shakespeare, do not pass an opportunity to see this company. Leslie Staunton at UMS Lobby reported that  Propeller will be back in the USA this spring, at the Boston University Theater after their successful run at the Power Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Oberon had the opportunity to see their current tour of Richard III and Comedy of Errors . Pr...