Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Yesterday, Oberon member Susan Nenadic  reported this encounter in Ann Arbor: A woman who had taken my Shakespeare Authorship Controversy class came to the program I presented today and handed me a note indicating that the Petit Larousse from a 1965 biographical entry of Shakespeare calls into doubt the authorship by Stratford Will. I Wonder how many other foreign language sources do the same thing. Oberon member Rey Perez followed up with this information from the 2001 edition of Larouse : The online Larousse dictionary of literature, 2001 edition, in the entry “Shakespeare (William)” from its first sentence begins by expressing doubts about the traditional authorship, then continues with the bare facts about Shakespeare from  Stratford . The key sentence is the second, that some have seen in him a pseudonym for others, such as  Oxford . The French seem way ahead of the rest of us. Rey provided this link to the dictionary item on William Shakespeare: http://...

by Linda Theil Simon Russell Beale as Lear in NT Live production. Photo UMS Ann Arbor's  University Musical Society  has announced that they will present re-broadcasts of  National Theatre  of Great Britain's high-definition, live broadcast of  King Lear  and the Royal Shakespeare Company's  Henry IV, Part I  and  Henry IV,   Part II  at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor this spring. The National Theatre's  production of  King Lear  directed by Sam Mendes and with Simon Russell Beale as Lear will be shown at 7 p.m. May 21, 2014. The Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of  Henry IV, Part I  and Part II directed by Gregory Doran and broadcast originally live from Stratford-on-Avon will be shown at 7 p.m. June 15;  Henry IV, Part II  will be shown at 7 p.m. July 13, 2014. These plays will be broadcast live and re-broadcast in venues throughout the USA and world-wide. Check the  NT ...

Tom Townsend, Rosey Hunter, Joy Townsend, Rey Perez, and Richard Joyrich at Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit, March 14, 2014. Oberons supported our chairperson, Richard Joyrich, MD, at his talk about the Shakespeare authorship, "Shakespeare beyond Doubt?" on March 14, 2014 at the Institute for Retired Professionals lecture at the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit. Joyrich ably propounded the anti-Stratfordian point-of-view to an audience of approximately 60 retirees.   "There  is  doubt about who Shakespeare is," Joyrich said, in conclusion. "We should be able to talk about it." Joy Townsend   Tom Townsend Susan Grimes Gilbert After the event Oberons enjoyed a convivial lunch at a nearby Applebys restaurant. In attendance were:  Susan Grimes Gilbert,  Rosey Hunter,  Richard Joyrich, Rey Perez, Linda Theil, and Tom & Joy Townsend. See also: http://oberonshakespearestudygroup.blogspot.co...

Neue Shake-speareGesellschaft   (New Shakespeare Society) board member Hanno Wember reports from Hamburg, Germany: After Don Rubin’s recently published brilliant review in Critical Stages we have now a review from Robert Detobel in Germany (written in English).   Background information: On 9. October 2013 the German online publication Theaterforschung (“theatre-research”) had a review in English of  Shakespeare Beyond Doubt  (Edmonton, Wells) by Michael Heinze. http://www.theaterforschung. de/rezension.php4?ID=1855& PHPSESSID= 462c2bf53aeb939a29aa87d27e9445 34   Although mainly in consent with orthodoxy, it showed some openness in the last sentence: It has to be mentioned that the fierceness of the debate can be read from the fact that  Shakespeare Beyond Doubt. Evidence, Argument, Controversy  was published on April 18, 2013 and was followed on  June 11  (both publishing dates according to  www.amazon.de ) by  Shakespea...

Michael Dudley,  Indigenous and Urban Services Librarian University of Winnipeg In his complex and comprehensive, nine-page opinion piece in the current issue of Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research , University of Winnipeg librarian Michael Dudley exhorts his fellow librarians to embrace the Shakespeare authorship question: . . . the potential benefits of engaging in this issue are many. This subject has engendered an enduring and high level of fascination which is certain to arouse the interest of our campus communities, as it represents a novel approach to locating Shakespeare and provides professional and amateur scholars alike with new perspective. The historical, multicultural and, most importantly, interdisciplinary interest in Shakespeare—be it through a conventional or skeptical approach to the author—implies that an open-minded approach to the question of authorship would appeal to the widest audience. This engagemen...

by Richard Joyrich Professor Don Rubin, of York University in Toronto, who organized the recently concluded and very successful Annual Joint Conference of the Shakespeare Oxford Society and the Shakespeare Fellowship in Toronto (at which the two organizations united to become the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship) has scored a major opportunity. In the current (February) issue of Critical Stages , the online journal of the IATC (International Association of Theatre Critics) Professor Rubin has a wonderful review of the two "competing" books Shakespeare Beyond Doubt (edited by Stanley Wells and Paul Edmonson) and Shakespeare Beyond Doubt? (edited by John Shahan and Alexander Waugh). This is a review that everyone should read. It really compares the tactics and arguments of both books and comes to the proper conclusion (in my opinion) of which book really is about evidence and which book is more of a "smokescreen". The IATC was formed in 1956 in Paris under the ...