Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Oberon Shakespeare Study Group 2010 | Make Your Own Book Yes, that's Lynne Kositsky and her husband Michael on the cover of the  Oberon Shakespeare Study Group yearbook for 2010 -- now available to order from Blurb. The yearbook contains copies of all the posts from our Oberon web-log for the entire year of 2010. This is the third in the series of yearbooks that chronicle the news and ideas of Oberon and the Shakespeare authorship community. The preview above allows readers to examine the entire 120-page book, and a permanent preview badge will be included in this web-log's sidebar for future reference. The cost of the publication in paperback is $34.95 plus shipping; Oberon receives no part of the cost of the book which goes entirely to the on-demand publisher, Blurb.  2010 highlights include: Was Shakespeare gay? Richard Joyrich speaks to Lanier claim to Shakespeare authorship Who is this baby? 90 posts in all

Oberon Chair Tom Hunter says: OOPS!   While taking time off for Father's Day (my favorite gift--an hour of peace and quiet -- this is easy on the credit card) and for our nephew's birthday this weekend, I didn't e-mail you the heads-up for our June 23 meeting this Thursday evening at the Farmington Community Library at 32737 W. Twelve Mile Rd. between Orchard Lake Rd. and Farmington Rd. at 7 p.m.   So here it is! First, we will be hearing some amazing news from the  Anonymous  film people.  This is, of course, the feature length Roland Emmerich film about how DeVere came to be Shakespeare. Anticipation and excitement are building for this event. Come hear how we Oberoners will be involved!   Plus we have our next exciting installment in our voyage through  The Merchant of Venice.  This will be a crucial part of the story, how the play is no funky, weird, mean exercise in filling the seats of London theaters but how it was ...

Shakespeare Fellowship president Earl Showerman reported Tuesday (June 14, 2011) that the fellowship has issued a statement about Roland Emmerich's upcoming film on the Shakespeare authorship question, Anonymous . Showerman said: A majority of the trustees of the Shakespeare Fellowship recently approved  a statement regarding the anticipated plot of Roland Emmerich's feature film, Anonymous. This statement will be published later this year in  Shakespeare Matters, the newsletter of the Shakespeare Fellowship. The entire statement is available on the Shakespeare Fellowship News page under the title "SF board re: Prince Tudor: The Shakespeare Fellowship commends Roland Emmerich for directing the film, Anonymous, but stresses that this production’s 'Prince Tudor' narratives are not essential to the theory that the Earl of Oxford was the writer 'Shakespeare.'" UPDATE 7/15/11: This statement was repudiated by the SF board July 15, 2011. See "Fello...

According to IMDb site Box Office Mojo , Roland Emmerich's film Anonymous  --  an historical thriller about the Shakespeare authorship question -- will be released on October 28, 2011 instead of the September 30, 2011 date previously announced.

Actor and playwright Keir Cutler premiered a new, one-act play June 11, 2011 at the Montreal Fringe Festival 2011 . The two-man show, Teaching Hamlet , with Culter and Brett Watson will run through June 19, 2011 at Fire Station No. 14 in Montreal. The show was mentioned yesterday in an article titled "Montreal Fringe Festival: Even eccentrics are as good as their word" by Pat Donnelly in the Montreal Gazette. Donnelly said: Teaching Hamlet: Keir Cutler's latest variation on the wacky Shakespearean professor theme pits the Oxfordians (those who believe Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the Complete Works) against the Stratfordians (those who believe Shakespeare wrote his own plays). A fanatic Oxfordian scholar (Cutler) lures a young actor (Brett Watson), currently starring in Hamlet, into his studio to record a pro-Oxfordian video for cash. He claims the board of directors of his organization is watching from the control booth. What ensues is an intell...

English-Speaking Union events manager Susan Conway reported today that Sony has given the ESU permission to post the video of the Shakespeare Authorship Debate held June 6, 2011 in London. The one-hour film may be viewed at the ESU web site on the post titled: Shakespeare Authorship Debate .  The June 6, 2011 ESU post describes the event, " The ESU hosted the event in conjunction with Sony Pictures, the ESU and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to coincide with the release of multi-award-winning director Emmerich's latest film,  Anonymous." Conway said today, "The response to the event has been overwhelming -- it is clear that the topic is a hugely topical and relevant issue."  Resources: ESU website: http://www.esu.org/news/item.asp?n=12890 Oberon post announcing live-streamed debate: http://oberonshakespearestudygroup.blogspot.com/2011/06/anonymous-debate-at-esu-streamed-live.html Oberon post reporting on debate: http://oberonshakespearestudygroup.b...

The Sunday Mercury  online edition published an article today titled "Row over new Shakespeare film which claims Bard did not write his plays" by Ben Goldby. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust education director Paul Edmondson is quoted throughout the short article railing against Anonymous , Roland Emmerich's forthcoming film about the Shakespeare authorship question . Edmondson, who took part in Monday's debate on the topic at the English Speaking Union , told The Mercury : This may well provoke debate, but the point we are making is that there is no debate. It is historical fact that William Shakespeare wrote these plays. When I first heard about this film I thought, ‘we have to do something and get the real story of Shakespeare out there’. Several questions occur to this reader regarding Edmondson's comments to The Mercury : Does Edmondson find it odd to insist there is no debate after taking part in a high-profile debate? Since when do academics take to the...

Oberon colleague Susan Nenadic of Ann Arbor will teach a Lifelong Learning non-credit class on the Shakespeare Authorship Controversy at Washtenaw Community College this fall. Four weekly sessions from 6-8 p.m. will begin September 20 and run through October 11, 2011 on the Ypsilanti campus of WCC. Registration information will be available when the fall classes are posted July 13, 2011 on the college website at: http://www.wccnet.edu/lifelong-learning/ Nenadic taught history and English in Saline Area Schools. Since her retirement in 2004, she has taught women’s history for non-credit programs at WCC , the University of Michigan , and Eastern Michigan University . She has completed a book about nineteenth-century working women titled A Purse of Her Own , and is currently consulting with a publisher. Recently, while discussing ideas for non-credit classes at WCC, a new administrator asked: “What else can you say about Shakespeare?” Nenadic replied, “I can tell you he didn’t ...

While the public waits for Sony to approve release of “ The Shakespeare Authorship Debate with Roland Emmerich”  video recorded live at the  English-Speaking Union (ESU) in London   on June 6, 2011, interested readers may read  Stanley Wells’  and  Paul Edmondson’s  debate speeches on the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s site, Blogging Shakespeare. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust   chairman Professor Stanley Wells CBE and trust education director Rev. Dr. Paul Edmondson along with University of London professor  Michael Dobson formed the Stratfordian triumvirate at the ESU debate.  Anonymous  director Roland Emmerich, author Charles Beauclerk, and Dr. William Leahy who is head of the English Dept. at Brunel University where he runs the graduate program in Shakespeare authorship studies defended the anti-Stratfordian position.  The debate chairman was former head of speech and debate at ESU, James Probert, who  c...

It seems like the Stratfordians are trying again to find something, ANYTHING, that can tie their man to the plays written using the name William Shakespeare. Researchers in Oxford have now uncovered a 1569 coroner's report of a two and a half year old girl who drowned in a mill pond while picking marigolds in a small village 20 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon. Her name: Jane Shaxpere Wow! It seems that the five year old William heard about an accident in a "neighboring" village (20 miles away is really a journey of at least a few days), remembered it, and then put it in a play he was working on about thirty years later (to use the Stratfordian chronology of when Hamlet was written). Well, I for one, can now rest easy, knowing that this nagging question has been answered in such a satisfying manner. Oh, by the way, Jane Shaxpere was "almost certainly" related to William Shaxpere (or Shakspere, or Shagspiere, etc) according to these same researchers/ The fullest ac...

Roland Emmerich's Shakespeare authorship film,  Anonymous, will debut at the Shakespeare Authorship Studies Conference held Sept 6-9, 2011 at Concordia University, home of the Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre headed by Daniel Wright, PhD.  Wright said: I hope  that  many  people  will come here to the conference to see Emmerich while he is in the USA and on the Concordia University campus, and I hope that, accordingly, they will sign up for the conference to see the film and participate in the proceedings of the conference which will include discussion and Q&A time with Roland Emmerich and various Shakespeare scholars. It's the rarest of opportunities and of great historic impor t - a  moment that will not return agai n!  We think it a great investment  in opening the discussion up to a broader community  that should yield some far-reaching results for the Shakespeare authorship question in the USA. . . .  Emmerich ’...

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will host an online conference about Shakespeare authorship to be held in August 2011. The conference is limited to 1000 participants. Those who are interested in participating may sign up now at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust website  or at  http://60-minutes.bloggingshakespeare.com/ . The contact person for the event Elizabeth Woledge said there are two authorship projects in the works, " . . .   the 60 Minutes with Shakespeare is 60 short recordings of people answering questions related to the question of Shakespearean authorship; the on-line conference is happening a little later."  

The Shakespeare Authorship Debate with Roland Emmerich at the English-Speaking Union (ESU) in London will be streamed live on the ESU website   beginning at 7:30 p.m. tonight, according to ESU events manager, Susan Conway. (2:30 p.m. EST, DST in USA) Conway said 120 people will be in attendance and 20 names are on a waiting list for the program featuring Anonymous director Roland Emmerich, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust chairman Stanley Wells, trust education director Paul Edmondson, and Brunel University School of Arts head William Leahy  who will debate the Shakespeare Authorship question. According to the ESU website the motion for debate is: "This House Believes that William Shakespeare of Stratford-Upon-Avon wrote the plays and poems attributed to him." The event is being held in conjunction with Sony Pictures, the ESU and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust at the ESU headquarters at Dartmouth House in London, UK. The event will begin with a reception at 7 p.m. ...

Christopher Benjamin as Falstaff in 2008 The Globe production NCM Fathom , the company that brings us the New York Metropolitan Opera Live in HD and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Live, is now featuring pre-recorded performances from London's The Globe theater beginning at 6:30 p.m. June 27, 2011 with the 2008 production of  Merry Wives of Windsor directed by Christopher Luscombe with Christopher Benjamin as Falstaff . (Read an Oct. 2008 review at OnlineReviewLondon.)  This is the same production that toured in New York City in August, 2010.  The plays will be shown in local cineplexes distributed by Arts Alliance Media in the UK and Fathom in the USA. Information from the FathomEvents website says:  NCM Fathom, Globe Theatre and Arts Alliance Media present a four part series of Classical Shakespeare titles in movie theaters nationwide this summer and fall. Captured in 2010 from the prestigious and internationally renowned Globe Theatre in London, the ser...