Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

The  Shakespearean Authorship Trust  -- headed by chairman Mark Rylance -- in collaboration with  Brunel University  will hold a one-day conference at Shakespeare's Globe in London from 11 a.m. go 6 p.m. Sunday, November 28, 2010. The topic of the gathering is  "Shakinomics: Building bridges in Shakespeare studies" . The group defines  Shakinomics   as:  making new connections in Shakespeare studies with particular reference to the cultural capital of Shakespeare; the Shakespeare industry, heritage, tourism, authority, and authorship issues. The bringing together of and mutual respect for knowledge produced by academics, independent scholars, actors, directors, film makers, biographers, and creative writers in the field of Shakespeare studies. Brunel's Dr. William Leahy will host guest speakers: Prof. Willy Maley of Glasgow University  Dr. Sean Gaston of Brunel University Prof. William Rubenstein of Aberwstwyth University Charles Beauc...

Our Pennsylvania correspondent alerted us that the International Movie Database site on Roland Emmerich's upcoming film on the Shakespeare authorship controversy, Anonymous , recently updated information about the film including the fact that Oxfordians Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance have been added to the cast. Jacobi is slated to enact a prologue, and Rylance will play Gloucester. Other additions include Australian Twilight veteran Xavier Samuel  who will play Southampton. Relative unknown Antje Thiele will play Lady de Vere, although the site doesn't specify whether Thiele plays Anne Cecil or Elizabeth Trentham. Newcomer Sebastian Reid will play Essex. Tony Way and Robert Emms will play Elizabethan scribblers Thomas Nashe and Thomas Dekker. These actors join the Anonymous cast headed by Vanessa Redgrave and her daughter Joely Richardson as Elizabeth (old and young), Rhys Ifans as Shakespeare/Edward de Vere, David Thewlis as Cecil (pere) and Edward Hogg as Cecil (f...

It appears that Stratfordian Prof. Jonathan Bate (see letter to the Guardian below) has been caught in a display of ignorance. Chances are my letter will never see print in the Guardian , but we need to answer the obvious gaffes of the traditional camp to get the discussion out into the open -- sooner or later it will happen. Tom Hunter To the Editor of the Guardian: In his review of Mark Rylance’s new play, The BIG Secret Live - I Am Shakespeare - Webcam Daytime Chat-room Show at the Chichester Festival Theatre , Michael Billington (Guardian, Sept. 3, 2007 ) quotes scholar Jonathan Bate: "It is a striking fact that no major actor has ever been attracted to anti-Stratfordianism," the notion, Billington explains, that someone other than Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him. Says Billington, “Now Mark Rylance proves Bate wrong.” The problem is that Bate is as accurate in this statement as he is about the authorship question in general, about which he displays only a...