EVENT: Shakespeare - The Authorship Question (April 7)

PUBLIC SEMINAR AT YORK UNIVERSITY

Shakespeare:  The Authorship Question

York University will hold a day-long conference on the Shakespeare: The Authorship Question on Saturday, 7 April 2012 (the Saturday of Easter Weekend) in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre.  The event is sponsored by the York University Department of Theatre in association with York’s Faculty of Fine Arts, Winters College, Stong College, the Division of Humanities and the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies Research Fund. 

The conference will begin at 11 a.m. on April 7 with a welcome by Professor Don Rubin (a former Chair of the Department of Theatre and Founding Director of the MA and PhD Programs in Theatre Studies) who is currently directing a fourth year seminar at York on the authorship question. 

The events themselves will be launched with a one-hour performance based on Mark Twain’s comic examination of the authorship question, Is Shakespeare Dead? presented by Montreal actor/playwright Keir Cutler, Ph. D.  Cutler has performed this monologue across North America, and it was televised on BRAVO!  The show premiered in 2002 at the Montreal Fringe Festival. 

The keynote speaker will be Mark Anderson from Massachusetts, author of the critically-acclaimed volume Shakespeare By Another Name which argues the case for Edward de Vere. Anderson’s own website on the subject is called Shakesvere.com. His paper will be entitled: "The Bard's New Clothes: Shakespeare's Autobiography and Why the Authorship Controversy Matters."

Culmination of the day will be a 90 minute panel debate on the subject chaired by Prof. Rubin. Among the participants will be Mark Anderson, Keir Cutler, Italian-born scholar and editor Lamberto Tassarini of Montreal (a major proponent of John Florio), York’s own Canada Research Chair in Theatre Prof. Christopher Innes of the Department of English (arguing for William of Stratford), David Prosser (Literary Manager of the  Stratford Festival) and Dr. Michel Vais, editor of the Quebec theatre journal Jeu. The panel will include questions and answers from the audience.  The conference has already attracted wide interest across Canada and from abroad. 

For additional details, for registration or to support this event please contact Prof. Don Rubin (drubin@yorku.ca) or Tasha Gallant (publicity committee) at Tash89@yorku.ca.