Duha eliminated as MSF managing director

Michigan Shakespeare Festival Managing Director Robert B. Duha told Oberon members at our July 21, 2010 meeting that he will no longer serve as managing director of the festival as of August 8, after two seasons in this position. Duha said he tendered his resignation after being informed that he would be laid-off at the end of the current MSF season. Duha said the festival's new artistic director, Jan Blixt, will probably take over as both managing and artistic director and that the president of the MSF board, certified public accountant John Cross, has taken over as executive director. Loss of funding is one of the factors in the management change, including the loss of a $60,000 Weatherwax Foundation grant that reduced the current budget by approximately sixteen-percent.

Oberon Chairperson Tom Hunter expressed our deep dismay at Duha's dismissal because he has been such a good friend. Hunter proclaimed Duha an honorary Oberon member. Duha said he hopes to continue his association with our group.

Duha said he is hopeful for the future of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, adding that Jan Blixt has a five-year-plan that includes a deep commitment to educational outreach.

MSF High School Monologue Contest at 11 a.m. July 31, 2010
One aspect of MSF's educational outreach, the annual High School Monologue Contest, will culminate at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 31 in the Michael Baughman Theater at the Potter Center on Jackson Community College campus at 211 Eamons Road, Jackson MI. Regional winners will compete by reading a two-minute monologue from a Shakespeare play. Judges are Jan Blixt, Terry Pow, and Betsy Davis.

Richard Joyrich presents Comedy of Errors talk at 6:30 p.m. July 31, 2010
Oberon members plan to attend the monologue contest finals and will stay for the Romeo & Juliet matinee at 2 p.m. and evening performance of Comedy of Errors at 7:30 p.m. Oberon member Richard Joyrich will present an informative talk on Comedy of Errors at 6:30 p.m. in the Michael Baughman Theater lobby. We hope you will consider joining us for a day of Shakespearean surfeit.

Comments

What's a popp'rin' pear?

James Wheaton reported yesterday in the Jackson Citizen Patriot that the Michigan Shakespeare Festival high school tour of Romeo and Juliet was criticized for inappropriate content -- " So me take issue with sexual innuendoes in Michigan Shakespeare Festival’s High School Tour performances of ‘Romeo & Juliet’" : Western [High School] parent Rosie Crowley said she was upset when she heard students laughing about sexual content in the play afterwards. Her son didn’t attend the performance Tuesday because of another commitment, she said. “I think the theater company should have left out any references that were rated R,” Crowley said. “I would say that I’ve read Shakespeare, and what I was told from the students, I’ve never read anything that bad.” She said she objected to scenes that involved pelvic thrusting and breast touching and to a line in which Mercutio makes suggestive comments to Romeo after looking up the skirt of a female. The problem with cutting out the naug

Winkler lights the match

by Linda Theil When asked by an interviewer why all the experts disagree with her on the legitimacy of the Shakespeare authorship question, journalist and author Elizabeth Winkler calmly replied, "You've asked the wrong experts." * With that simple declaration Winkler exploded the topic of Shakespearean authorship forever. Anti-Stratfordians need no smoking gun, no convincing narrative, no reason who, how, when, or why because within the works lies the unassailable argument: Shakespeare's knowledge. Ask the lawyers. Ask the psychologists. Ask the librarians. Ask the historians. Ask the dramaturges. Ask the mathematicians. Ask the Greek scholars. Ask the physicists. Ask the astronomers. Ask the courtiers. Ask the bibliophiles. Ask the Italians. Ask the French. Ask the Russians. Ask the English. Ask everyone. Current academic agreement on a bevy of Shakespearean collaborators springs from an unspoken awareness of how much assistance the Stratfordian presumptive would h

Dudley nails it to the door

Michael Dudley author of The Shakespeare Authorship Question and Philosphy: Knowledge, Rhetoric, Identity (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023) Michael Dudley views his vocation of librarian at the University of Manitoba with dialectic rigor. "Librarianship has a duty to inform democracy," he said in Kathryn Sharpe's virtual bookclub on April 27, 2024. Dudley discussed his new book The Shakespeare Authorship Question and Philosophy: Knowledge, Rhetoric, Identity published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing last fall. Update 08/21/24 Dudley's book is also available as an ebook from Google Play . In SAQ and Philosophy Dudley uses the hammer of logic to nail his accusations against the barricaded door of the Shakespeare citadel. "The question of Shakespeare's authorship is a malformed debate practiced in an unethical fashion," Dudley said. When asked why his book is important, Dudley said: "What sets my book apart from others on the authorship quest

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