Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

David Montee, AEA, as King Lear at Interlochen Center for the Arts 2017. Photo courtesy Interlochen Center for the Arts A Review of King Lear at Interlochen Center for the Arts—July 8, 2017 by Richard Joyrich I had the distinct pleasure of seeing a wonderful production of King Lear Saturday night along with Linda Theil at Interlochen Center of the Arts in northwest Michigan. Interlochen has held an annual Shakespeare Festival for 10 years now and I am been privileged to have been able to see at least two productions there in the past, Twelfth Night in 2008 and The Taming of the Shrew in 2009. Both of these were excellent performances, but the production of King Lear this year far exceeded them. Of course, the main reason that I enjoyed the production so much is the extraordinary talent of David Montee in the title role. I have seen King Lear at many other venues, including productions at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario with William Hutt and Colm Fe...

Torch Lake, Michigan This year Oberon Up North was about exuberance and awe. Our visit to Interlochen Center for the Arts ' Interlochen Shakespeare Festival provided a  Taming of the Shrew  unlike any Shakespeare performance I've ever seen. Dustin Tucker and Laura Ames Mittelstaedt portrayed Petruchio and Kate as a lion tamer and knife thrower in William Church's exuberant circus of a production. From the first act when Kate whirled knives at her terrified sister played by Ana Luderowski -- tied hand and foot to a giant wheel -- joyous imagery burnished this frolic a play.  Laura Ames Mittelstaedt as Kate in Interlochen's Taming of the Shrew Marshall Maynard Fredericks ' "Two Bears" sculpture fit into the circus theme outside the Harvey Theater on the Interlochen campus. Sue Width, Tom Hunter and Richard Joyrich admire Fredericks' bears. Oberoner and Interlochen Market Research Manger Gordon Berg  escorted our group around the huge Interlochen campu...

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 wi...

Hey, everybody!    In all the excitement about the Wall Street Journal article  about self-announced Oxfordian U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and our involvement with the Farmington Players (more later) and looking forward to the Interlochen Shakespeare Festival and Oberon Up North 2009, we can’t forget our Shakespeare UNbirthday party Thursday evening at our usual meeting place, Room A of the Farmington Library. Be with us as Oberon celebrates Shakespeare’s UN-birthday!   Come for a great PowerPoint presentation by Ron Destro about the authorship issue.   And don’t forget a piece of that great UNbirthday cake, coffee, and good fellowship.    We will toast Justice Stevens and the fact that the Shakespeare issue near and dear to our hearts is now front page news in one of the most read and authoritative newspapers in the country, the Wall Street Journal. Bring a guest.    Let us all enjoy Shakespeare’s UN-birthday toget...