Category Archives: Blog

The combination of media coverage of the shootings last week at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut and the subsequent rhetorical outrages perpetrated by Wayne LaPierre of the NRA have put me in the holiday spirit. I’ve come up with … Continue reading →

A week ago, I was steeling myself for an overnight bus journey to Louisville, Kentucky to attend my grandmother’s funeral. I had driven down I-65 the preceding weekend, turning away from the trajectory that would have taken me home, to … Continue reading →

Below are my introductory remarks for Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of Timon of Athens, on stage from April 24-June 10, 2012. The full title of the play is The Life of Timon of Athens.  As the introduction in the Norton … Continue reading →

The Duchess of Malfi ~ Strawdog Theatre Company, April 30, 2012 A summation of my contributions to a 75-minute conversation about The Duchess of Malfi at Strawdog Theatre conducted by Anna Brenner and Artistic Director Brandon Bruce. You can see … Continue reading →

You thought it was a . . . Continue reading →

How I got hooked on Shakespeare . . . among other things. Continue reading →

“The woman with cheerleading legs has been left for dead…” Continue reading →

John Lithgow called this speech the best acceptance speech for anything, ever, that he had seen in his life. Continue reading →

The main stumbling block to those who argue that William Shakespeare is not the author of the plays who bear his name is Ben Jonson, since, had he been privy to a secret such as the one with which he is burdened in Roland Emmerich’s recent film _Anonymous_ – that the author of the plays was actually Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford – he not only would never have participated in the publication of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, for which he wrote those dedicatory verses, so packed with praises that still echo today, but he would likely have delighted in revealing the secret. Continue reading →