Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Oberon Chair Tom Hunter accepted the invitation of Michigan Shakespeare Festival Managing Director Robert Duha to present two pre-play, public talks during the 2010 festival season. Dates have not yet been set for the performance of Romeo and Juliet and Comedy of Errors  next summer because the festival is currently negotiating for a new artistic director to replace John Neville Andrews. Duha said an announcement is imminent. Duha reported that the festival hired David Blixt to create a 75-minute version of Romeo and Juliet that the company will tour in Jackson County high schools next April. Blixt is a Shakespearean actor, author of the novel Master of Verona , and founder with wife Janice Lee Blixt of A Crew of Patches Chicago-based, Shakespearean theater company. Duha said the festival plans to repeat their annual high school monologue contest, and they hope to present the finalists at the festival for the first time this year. He also said the festival's new Marketing D...

Nine of us spent a glorious day at Jackson Community College yesterday for our excursion to the Michigan Shakespeare Festival. Richard called the festival a gem and I agree with all my heart. This venue never fails to stimulate. Although I am not nearly so well traveled and experienced as Richard and Tom and others, among us we have seen dozens of companies all over the U.S. including world-beaters like the Stratford, the Royal Shakespeare and the Guthrie and we always agree that the Michigan festival can hold its own with any of them. (In fact, we often like it best – and that’s not jingoism talkin’.) The day started a noon with an impromptu book festival in the parking lot. Richard – helping a friend divest herself of her Oxfordian library – generously loaded the books in the back of Tom’s teleportation van and invited us to help ourselves. I came away with Ruth Lloyd Miller’s 1975 edition of A Hundred Sundrie Flowres: From the Original Edition of 1573 and Gertrude Ford’s A Rose by...