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News notes from Oct. 18-21 SOS/SF conference in Pasadena

News highlights as reported by Oberon Chair and outgoing Shakespeare Oxford Society President Richard Joyrich from the 2012 Shakespeare Oxford Society/Shakespeare Fellowship annual conference held in Pasadena, CA Oct. 18-21, 2012:

John Hamill was elected SOS president by the Shakespeare Oxford Society board.

Tom Regnier is the new Shakespeare Fellowship president.

The Shakespeare Oxford Society and the Shakespeare Fellowship presented Shakespeare Authorship Coalition President John Shahan the 2012 Oxfordian of the Year award at the conference banquest October 21.

Actor Michael York was present to be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Shakespeare Oxford Society and the Shakespeare Fellowship.


Next year's joint SOS/SF conference will be held in Toronto, Canada, and will include a side trip to Stratford, Ontario. SOS board member and Oberon chair Richard Joyrich will work on the conference committee along with new Shakespeare Fellowship board member Torontonian Don Rubin on next year's conference.

The new authorship documentary film Last Will. & Testament directed by Laura Wilson and Lisa Wilson will be available from iTunes and on-demand beginning tomorrow, Oct. 23, 2012. Richard Joyrich reported the Wilson's said the film may be shown on PBS next year.

Jack Shuttleworth has completed work on an Oxfordian Shakespeare Series edition of Hamlet that will be released in 2013 from Llumina Press. Llumina also published Oxfordian editions of Othello and Macbeth under the general editorship of Dan Wright and Richard Whalen. Order online from Llumina:
Oxfordian Shakespeare Series: Macbeth by Richard F. Whalen
Oxfordian Shakespeare Series: Othello by Richard F. Whalen and Ren Dreya

Lynda Taylor's historic novel about the Shakespeare authorship, To Be or Not to Be, has been released and is available on Amazon and may also be purchased for $5 as a Kindle download.

Outgoing Shakespeare Fellowship President Earl Showerman sent Oberon some highlights of his experience at the 2012 conference:
Our joint conference with the SOS came off rather well with about 80 people attending, including Renee Montagne and Michael York on special occasions. The presentations included 5 by our own board, as well as our journal editor, all of which were notably well received.
Michael York received a beautiful lifetime achievement award donated by Bonner, and wrote back that he was so thrilled with the award that it would have 'pride of place' on his personal desk.  Ben August donated the bronze statuette which went to John Shahan for his work on the SAC and the 60 minutes rebuttal coordination. The LA folks were gracious in helping with a big carpool, Sylvia Holmes sang beautifully, Betzi Roe brought 4 lovely dancers who performed for the group, and former SF trustee Michael Dunn was a raucously animated Charles Dickens who delighted the audience.
The Huntington put up a very special collection of 16th c. books with dedications to de Vere and his son.  One could easily note that on many dedication pages, Alexander the Great was the inspired figure compared to de Vere, which helps explain why Alexander is mentioned 4 times in just a few lines of Hamlet Act 5 - this was brought to our attention by Jack Shuttleworth, whose Oxfordian Hamlet edition is going to press any day - this  was +my personal revelation coming out of the conference.  All in all, a great time was had, and Don Rubin and his committee's plans for Toronto and Stratford, Ontario next October were approved by acclamation.

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