Shakespeare Fellowship president Earl Showerman released the schedule for the annual joint conference of the Shakespeare Fellowship and the Shakespeare Oxford Society October 13-16, 2001 in Washington DC. Four Oberon Shakespeare Society members will present papers to the conference on Friday, October 14.
Oberon chair R. Thomas Hunter, PhD and Oberon treasurer Thomas Townsend will present You Had to Be There: Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet. Tom Hunter said:
We explore what we can learn from this play that Stratfordians have missed when one proceeds on the basis that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, had something to do with its writing. By means of a close examination of local detail in the play, its euphuistic language, its humanist philosophy and its connections to Edward de Vere, we discover implications for earlier dating of the play and evidence that the playwright must have had personal knowledge of Verona and northern Italy.Oberon member Ron Halstead will present "A Miracle, a Miracle! -- Shapiro's Defense of the Stratford claim"; and Oberon co-founder Barbara Burris will present "Janssen/Cobbe Portraits".
They will be supported in D.C. by an Oberon contingent including SOS president Richard Joyrich, SOS board member Susan Grimes Width, Oberon safety officer Rosey Hunter, and Oberon members Joy Townsend and Susan Nenadic.