Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Paladian Villa Zamboninal near Verona, Italy, photo courtesy Tuscany Now by Linda Theil A London-based, Italian-villa-rental company called Tuscany Now recently chose to highlight the Shakespeare authorship question in a recent post titled “Shakespeare in Italy” . (At last viewing, readers must link direct to the blog because there is as yet no link to blog posts from the Tuscany Now homepage.) Content creator Phoebe Ryan tied Italian sites to Shakespeare’s work, interviewed principals in the authorship debate, and referred to the work of Richard Paul Roe in his lifework, The Shakespeare Guide to Italy (Harper, 2011) in her "Shakespeare in Italy" post. She said: In Romeo and Juliet, we see the warring Montagues and Capulets against the backdrop of Verona, then Romeo’s solitude in Mantua. Famous for Juliet’s balcony as well as its inspiring Roman arena, Verona has monopolized on Romeo and Juliet. In Verona’s countryside at a beautiful Palladian...

Albergo San Domenico in Urbino, Italy by Linda Theil A new, not-for-profit cultural association called Shakespeare in Italy announced this month that it will conduct a residential summer school   in association with Urbino University during July 12-26, 2014. Participants will reside in the Albergo San Domenico , a sixteenth century religious complex in the main square of Urbino, Italy. The cost of the program is €1965 and the deadline for application is April 30, 2014. Association marketing director Rachel Kruger Hoath said: The course is aimed at anyone with a passion for Shakespeare and Italy, young or old. The company has been set up by the actor Julian Curry (Erskine-Brown in Rumpole of the Bailey ) and his wife Mary Chater. The leaders will be directors and actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company, including RSC associate director Bill Alexander. Background material on the association’s webpage described the program: The summer sch...

Rosalie Books publication of Richard Paul Roe's private edition of The Shakespeare Guide to Italy, June 2010 Peter Henningsen, assistant publicist at Harper Collins, said the late Richard Paul Roe's book, The Shakespeare Guide to Italy will be released by the publisher on November 1, 2011. A limited private edition of The Shakespeare Guide to Italy was published by Rosalie Books in June 2010 to acclaim throughout the Shakespeare authorship community.  The Shakespeare Guide reveals the work of Shakespeare in intimate detail -- mapping his characters' travels, play-by-play through the summer light and moonlit dark of Renaissance Italy. In his introduction, Roe says: No book or article addressing the (Shakespeare) identity issue has provided a forensic examination of the uniue references that the author has specifically disclosed in his plays. Indeed, his familiarity with Italy, its sites and sights, specific details, history, geography, unique cultural aspects, places ...

Daniel Wright, PhD, director of the Richard Paul and Jane Roe Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre at Concordia University in Portland Oregon, reported with great grief the death of Richard Paul Roe, 88, in Pasadena, California today.  Wright said: Dick and his wife, Jane, who survives him, were grand and active Oxfordians. Dick just published last year his breakthrough work of a lifetime -- one of the most important studies in the Shakespeare authorship question ever: The Shakespeare Guide to Italy . I was honored to attend a reception for Dick in Pasadena at the release of his book last year. We are all pleased, given this sad news, that Dick was able to receive the enthusiastic accolades of friends and supporters before his death for undertaking, and seeing through to completion, this titanic accomplishment -- the result of decades of travel, investigation and meticulous research, jaw-dropping in its significance. For this achievement Dick was slated to receive the Concordia...

At last night's Oberon meeting incoming Shakespeare Oxford Society president Richard Joyrich reported that Richard Paul Roe had been named Oxfordian of the Year 2010 at the joint Shakespeare Fellowship/Shakespeare Oxford Society 2010 joint annual conference.  A delegation from the conference had traveled to Roe's home in Pasadena, California to make the presentation previous to the public announcement at the conference banquet September 19, 2010 that Roe was unable to attend. On April 9 this year Roe was honored when the Shakespeare Authorship Research Center at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon was named the Richard Paul and Jane Roe Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre. The center director, Daniel Wright, PhD, said: The gifts bestowed by this revered colleague and his wife, in sums totaling almost half a million dollars, have gone far to make the institutionalization of the Shakespeare authorship inquiry — in a permanent, academic, and non-politica...