Tom Hunter reviews May meeting

Dear Oberon,

Looking ahead, our next Oberon meeting will be Thursday, June 18, at the Farmington Library; room opens 6:45 p.m.

We are most pleased to announce that, courtesy of the Adult Learning Institute, Oberon will be making a donation to the Michigan Shakespeare Festival this year. I will be presenting “The Real Shakespeare” to ALI at their meeting on October 1, featuring Ron Destro’s “Who Really Wrote as Shake-speare,” which we ran at the UNbirthday party in April to good reviews.

Looking back, we covered a lot of territory at our May meeting. It was good to welcome from the ALI new Oberon member Del M.

Final plans have been made for this year’s Oberon Up North, which will take place at or around Torch Lake at the end of June and will include an afternoon at Interlochen, a performance of The Taming of the Shrew at Interlochen’s Shakespeare Festival, and a surprise junket into Michigan’s literary history. This year’s participants will be Richard, Linda, Sue, Tom and Rosey. Although Oberon Up North is open to our general membership, we are discovering that it can be difficult for members to commit 2-3 days four hours away. Nevertheless, I am urging you to consider it for next year. It usually occurs at the end of June. Perhaps our Interlochen contact Gord can advise us of the 2010 dates some time soon. Please ask me for further details.

Planning for Oberon Up North has given us some understanding of what we need for Oberon to be able to reach out to the rest of the state as part of its educational activity. Those plans are prominent on this year’s agenda. Some ideas have been to approach communities through their libraries, schools, great books clubs, adult learning groups, and so on. All ideas are welcome. Please let me know your thoughts.

Richard Joyrich gave his annual report on speakers at the Portland Concordia Conference in April.

Editor Linda Theil’s first SOS Newsletter has gone to press. Please look for yours by mid-month. If you are not yet an SOS member , please consider joining. The low annual dues include the newsletter. This edition will have Richard’s much more detailed review of the Concordia Conference plus an article by yours truly about Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ finding beyond a reasonable doubt for Oxford as the true Shakespeare.

Don’t forget our June 18 meeting. We will be planning our second extravaganza of the year, our October celebration of the 400^thanniversary of the Sonnets. The meeting will also feature a 20 minute video, “The Implausible Mr. Shakespeare.”

Finally, the University Musical Society has announced that it will be presenting the Globe Theater’s Love’s Labour’s Lost in Ann Arbor October 20-25. If it is anything like Mark Rylance’s Globe TheaterTwelfth Night of a few years ago, it is not to be missed. I am looking into group rates.

Yours truly,

Tom Hunter

Oberon Chair

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Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

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