|
News
& Events
The
Shakespeare Authorship Coalition
PRESS
RELEASE
Award-winning
Shakespearean actors Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance joined
by growing list of declared Shakespeare authorship doubters.
Michael York joins fellow actors as SAC Patron. Shakespeare
Authorship Coalition marks 2nd anniversary of Declaration
of Reasonable Doubt. Seven signatories added to SAC list of
'notables'.
Internationally-renowned Shakespearean actors Sir
Derek Jacobi, winner of this year's Olivier Award for
Best Actor for his portrayal of Malvolio in Twelfth Night,
and Mark Rylance, winner
of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Actor for his leading role
in Boeing-Boeing, are being joined by a growing list
of actors, academics and others who openly express doubt about
the identity of the author of Shakespeare's works.
Both
actors are patrons of the Shakespeare
Authorship Coalition (SAC), which advocates for recognition
of the legitimacy of the authorship issue in academia. SAC
Chairman John Shahan congratulated Rylance and Jacobi for
taking the top acting honors on both sides of the Atlantic.
"We've always had the best arguments on our side,”
he said, “and now we have the best actors!"
Tuesday,
April 14, is the second anniversary of the launch of the SAC’s
Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About the Identity of William
Shakespeare. On that day in
2007, Declaration signing ceremonies were held at both
Concordia University in Portland, Oregon, and UCLA's Geffen
Playhouse.
Five months later, on September 8, 2007, Rylance and Jacobi
teamed up to promulgate the Declaration
in the U.K., with a signing ceremony in Chichester, West
Sussex, following a performance of Rylance's play about the
authorship question, 'I Am
Shakespeare'. The event attracted worldwide media attention.
So
far, 1,471 people have signed the Declaration, including 263
college or university faculty members. Of the total, 214 have
doctorates, and 310 master’s degrees. Among faculty members,
the largest category is those in English literature (57).
But doubts about the authorship have spread across all academic
departments. Portland's Concordia University, and Brunel
University in West London, offer master's degree programs
in Shakespeare Authorship Studies.
Shahan
took the occasion to announce that actor Michael York has
joined his two fellow actors as a SAC patron. York has long
argued that the authorship question is legitimate. He was
a featured speaker at a reception at the Biltmore Hotel in
Los Angeles in 1994, when the Shakespeare Association of America
and World Shakespeare Congress met there. Shahan said it was
his first event as an authorship doubter, and he found York's
enthusiasm for the issue inspiring. He said he hopes being
a SAC patron portends good things for his career, too!
Notable
Signatories
Shahan also announced the addition of seven people to the
list of 'notable' signatories on the SAC website. He said
it's always difficult to decide whom to put on the notables
list because the SAC has so many distinguished signatories.
"We have set the bar high, in keeping with the quality
of the twenty past doubters named in the Declaration itself,"
he said. That list includes Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Charles Dickens, John Galsworthy, Orson Welles,
Sir John Gielgud, Sigmund Freud and two U.S. Supreme Court
Justices. Keep in mind that all faculty members appear on
the separate list of academic signatories. We trust you will
agree that the following are all worthy additions:
Alan
K. Austin – Producer of the documentary "The
Shakespeare Mystery," Frontline (PBS). Author of novels
"The Adagio" and (due in 2010) "A Walking Shadow,"
involving Edward DeVere.
Barry
R. Clarke, M.Sc. – Daily Telegraph puzzlist; author,
“Challenging Logic Puzzles Mensa” (Sterling: 2003),
and “The Shakespeare Puzzle” (Lulu: 2008), which
argues for Francis Bacon.
Dr.
Keir C. Cutler, Ph.D. – Actor, playwright; Ph.D.
in theatre; adapted Mark Twain's "Is Shakespeare Dead?"
Performed it across Canada, and it was televised nationally.
Mr.
Gareth L. Howell, J.D. – President World Affairs
Council, Greater Cincinnati, formerly Director of Programs,
United Nations International Training Center, Torino, Italy.
Dr.
Mark Andrew Morris, Ph.D. – Visiting Scholar-in-Residence,
Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta – "As Canada's
most-performed librettist, I cannot believe Shakspere was
the author."
Michael
D. Rubbo, M.A. – Director, "Much Ado About Something,"
award-winning documentary on the case for Christopher Marlowe;
co-winner, Hoffman prize. Former lecturer on film, Harvard.
Prof.
Jack M. Shuttleworth, Ph.D. – Professor of English,
Emeritus, US Air Force Academy; long time Oxfordian; currently
editing the Oxfordian edition of Hamlet. We should note that
Professor Shuttleworth is also a retired Air Force general,
and a former Chairman of the English Department at the Air
Force Academy – not a stereotypical doubter.
Signatory
recruitment letter
We have asked our patrons and Academic Advisory Board members
to help recruit additional signatories by sending letters
to prominent doubters and others they know. We would like
to ask each of you to do the same. Please try to recruit at
least one new signatory this year.
We
have created a draft letter you can revise and send. Feel
free to change the names at the top to names of other signers
who may be known to those to whom you send letters. Please
include copies of the Declaration and signing form from our
downloads page. You can also copy the text of the letter into
an email and send it that way, if you prefer.
Thanks
for helping to recruit new signatories. We hope to have another
high-profile media event this year, possibly on September
8, the second anniversary of the Doubters’ Day signing
event in Chichester. We want to maximize the number of new
signers we announce this fall.
Donations
Finally, please make a tax-deductible donation to the SAC.
We depend on your donations to operate our website, disseminate
the Declaration, recruit signatories, organize signing events,
and keep our tax-exempt status. Donors of $40.00 or more ($50.00
outside U.S.) are eligible to receive a Declaration poster
like those used in signing ceremonies.
Sincerely,
SAC Board of Directors,
John Shahan, Chairman
http://www.doubtaboutwill.org/
|
