Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Shakespeare Fellowship President Earl Showerman reported on the 2011 Shakespeare Fellowship/Shakespeare Oxford Society Joint Conference to be held Oct. 13-16, 2011 at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, DC. From Showerman's report it looks like Michigan will have quite a contingent at the conference. In addition to SOS President Richard Joyrich and SOS board member Susan Grimes Width who plan to attend, Oberon Chair Tom Hunter and Oberon Treasurer Tom Townsend have indicated they will submit proposals as well as well-known Michigan authorship researcher, Barbara Burris.  Showerman said: The program committee for the 2011 joint authorship conference in Washington, DC is still accepting paper proposals. The newly-minted conference registration forms for the Shakespeare Fellowship and Shakespeare Oxford Society are attached (below). The conference will take place October 13-16 at the Washington Court Hotel and a block of rooms have been set aside at a discounted rate. Hotel con...

The De Vere Society in the UK has issued a statement repudiating the "Prince Tudor" theory of Shakespeare authorship speculation that promotes the concept that Queen Elizabeth I was Shakespeare-contender Edward deVere's mother and that she gave birth to Henry Wriothesley by deVere. The idea that this notion might be given credence by the Roland Emmerich film, Anonymous , due out September 30, 2011, has concerned some Shakespeare authorship skeptics on both sides of the Atlantic who believe the idea brings disrepute to authorship inquiry. An article on The De Vere Society website dated May 2011 and titled "Anonymous film release" , says: . . . though the Society welcomes all who have an interest in what is known as the “Shakespeare Authorship Question”, it seeks to maintain rigorous academic quality and avoid the illogical, unfounded speculation that afflicts some aspects of Shakespeare scholarship. In particular, the Society considers that the following items...

Anonymous director Roland Emmerich will be in Wales next week to speak at the Hay Festival on June 3, 2011. The event is billed as "Anonymous -- Screening" and the announcement reads: The director discusses and previews clips from his forthcoming historical thriller, which stars Rhys Ifans and Vanessa Redgrave. John Orloff's script plays with the intrigues of the Elizabethan court and the age-old authorship debate surrounding the works of William Shakespeare. Emmerich will be interviewed by novelist and British radio and TV presenter Francine Stock. The program is Event 325 on the Hay Festival program. Tickets may be ordered at:  http://www.hayfestival.com/p-3688-roland-emmerich-talks-to-francine-stock.aspx .  T he Hay Festival, set in the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye, was founded in 1987 and is chiefly sponsored by The Telegraph and SkyArts. The Hay Festival website says:  The festival continues to attract the most exciting writers, filmmakers, comedians, pol...

Dear Oberon, Can it be?  I am looking out the window and seeing the sun shining and feeling temperatures in the mid 70s, and it is only May.  That means only six months of winter this year.  I don't know how you feel about global warming, and I could be wrong, but this year it seemed as if Michigan was the new North Pole.  Aren't you glad that we have Shakespeare to rely on all year long? Speaking of which, be sure to attend our next meeting this coming Thursday, May 26, at 6:45 pm, Farmington Community Library ,  32737 W. 12 Mile Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48334 . Featured on the agenda is Part 2 of our  Merchant of Venice  play and learn.  We will be seeing the second third of the movie starring Al Pacino and then discussing what it tells us about the play, especially from an Oxfordian perspective. Also, don't miss the update on our plans for  Anonymous , the Roland Emmerich blockbuster film coming in September which makes the case ...

Oberon co-counder and Shakespeare Oxford Society President Richard Joyrich recently reported on the Shakespeare Authorship High School Essay Contest, a joint project between the contest founding Shakespeare Fellowship and the SOS.  The contest will award $3000 in prizes. Deadline for submissions is Dec. 17, 2011; awards will be announced April 12, 2012. Joyrich said : After a hiatus of three years the Shakespeare Fellowship, in combination with the Shakespeare Oxford Society, has arranged to revive the annual essay contest for high school students. Our organizations are both committed to the exploration of the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages with particular emphasis on the question of the authorship of the plays and poetry attributed to William Shakespeare. We believe that this exploration leads to further insight into and enjoyment of these great works. We further believe that this subject is and should be open to students and that the high school years is an optimal time to begin. ...

Brief Chronicles Managing Editor Gary Goldstein sent this message about a hard-copy mailing of the Shakespeare authorship journal to members of the American Historical Association: The second issue of  Brief Chronicles  ( www.briefchronicles.com ) ,  a peer reviewed journal of  Shakespeare studies ,  has been distributed to 725 members of the American Historical Association teaching Early Modern Europe at US universities, with an invitation to help resolve the Shakespeare Authorship Question. “Very few academic historians have written about the Shakespearean Question,” said Professor Roger Stritmatter of Coppin State University, general editor of  Brief Chronicles . “We find this situation unfortunate because the issue of who wrote Shakespeare’s works is as much historical as it is literary, and the required investigation raises basic questions of epistemology and method requiring collaboration between historians and literary scholars. We therefo...

Note: The May 10, 2011 post has been withdrawn by the interviewee.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust posted comments today that Chairman Stanley Wells made at the trust's Shakespeare birthday lunch this year. In the last paragraph of his speech (below) Wells mentioned the Stratfordian's imaginary education in rhetoric and classical literature that "lies behind the texts that he wrote". Wells assures us that Shakespeare developed his creative powers in Stratford and demands, "Let no one be in doubt of this." If only it were that simple, Professor Wells. Ladies and gentlemen, Stratford-upon-Avon is the town that gave birth to William Shakespeare. At our grammar school he received the rigorous education in, especially, classical literature and rhetoric that lies behind the texts that he wrote. In this town and its surrounding countryside his creative powers developed. Here in Henley Street and in New Place his family lived, in Holy Trinity Church he and they worshipped and are buried. Let no one be in doubt of this. There is, ...

Shakespeare Fellowship President Earl Showerman asked us to share this request for papers for the Shakespeare Fellowship/Shakespeare Oxford Society conference to be held Oct. 13-16, 2011 at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, D.C. Deadline for proposals is Aug. 1, 2011. The 2011  joint authorship conference  sponsored by  the Shakespeare Oxford Society and the Shakespeare Fellowship will be held in Washington DC from  October 13-16, 2011. Arrangements for a block of rooms at the Washington Court  Hotel  are being finalized. The program will include a tour of the Folger Shakespeare  Library  with a viewing and discussion of the Earl of Oxford's Geneva Bible.  The SOS and SF are organizations dedicated to academic excellence, as  defined through the independent scholarship of several generations of  scholars, among them J.T. Looney, B.R. and B.M. Ward, Charles Wisner  Barrell, Charlton Ogburn, Jr., Ruth Loyd Miller, a...