We are a group of Oxfordians who live in the Boston area who enjoy meeting to discuss the works of Shakespeare and Edward de Vere, the 17th earl of Oxford. We are very fortunate to have two Oxfordians with us this year who have not previously presented in the Boston area. They will be joined by four of our outstanding local Oxfordians for this weekend event. Following are biographies of our presenters:
Mark Anderson is a journalist who devoted more than a decade to researching the life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford. The resulting book, “Shakespeare” by Another Name, is recognized as a major document of the Shakespeare authorship discussion. Mark has published articles on de Vere in Harper’s Magazine, The Boston Globe, and on PBS.org, and has lectured worldwide on the authorship issue.
Bill Boyle is a graduate of Lake Forest College (BA, English, 1967); SUNY-Albany (Masters in Library Science, 1973). He presently works as a cataloger at the Social Law Library (Boston, MA). Bill has been active in the Oxfordian movement for 30 years and was editor of two society newsletters about Shakespeare and the authorship issue (1995-2005). He founded several websites in the 1990s: Shakespeare Oxford Society (1995), and: The Ever Reader (1998). Bill has presented papers at the Shakespeare Authorship Studies Conference (Portland, OR) and the conferences of the Shakespeare Oxford Society and The Shakespeare Fellowship over the past ten years. On the Internet he is presently maintaining a new website and blog, The Shakespeare Adventure, a Shakespeare library with an online catalog, New England Shakespeare Oxford Library, and is working on a Shakespeare Authorship Resources online database, to be announced later this year.
Bonner Miller Cutting has studied the authorship of the Shakespeare Canon for several decades. She is on the Board of Trustees of The Shakespeare Fellowship and is the President of the Lone Star Shakespeare Roundtable in Houston, Texas. Mrs. Cutting has recently presented papers at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon, the 2008 conference on authorship studies held in White Plains, New York, and the Shakespeare Authorship Roundtable in Los Angeles. A Louisiana, native, Mrs. Cutting holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Tulane University and a Masters of Music Degree from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA.
Cheryl Eagan-Donovan is a director and independent film producer who studied Shakespeare and poetry at Goddard College. Her debut documentary, All Kindsa Girls (2006), screened at film festivals and theaters in London, Toronto, and throughout the U.S, and is featured in Paul Sherman's book Big Screen Boston. She serves on the Board of Directors of Women in Film & Video/New England, and is a freelance writer for newenglandfilm.com. Her production company, Controversy Films, is currently working on a documentary, Nothing Is Truer than Truth, based on the life of Edward de Vere and Mark Anderson’s “Shakespeare” By Another Name.
Alex McNeil received his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from Boston College Law School. A non-practicing attorney, he is the Court Administrator of the Massachusetts Appeals Court in Boston. Alex became interested in the Shakespeare Authorship question after seeing the 1989 PBS Frontline program on the subject. He was one of the founding trustees of The Shakespeare Fellowship, and currently serves as its president. He is the author of Total Television, a reference book on TV programming, and can be heard on the radio as the Friday host of "Lost and Found" on WMBR-FM (88.1, Cambridge MA), a program spotlighting lesser-known pop and soul music of the 60s and 70s. Also see a related Boston Globe Chat with Alex.
Marie Merkel’s poems have appeared in The Carolina Quarterly and The New Republic. She is the author of The First Mousetrap: Titus Andronicus and the Tudor Massacre of the Howards, a full-length study of the play’s links with Howard family history, and the dramatic methods used to conceal this politically explosive story. A condensed version of chapter 1, “Tyrant’s Crests and Tombs of Brass” will appear in the 2009 issue of The Oxfordian. Currently, she’s working on an edition of The Tempest that highlights Ben Jonson’s pervasive influence on the play’s conception and execution.
Hank Whittemore has been a professional actor, newspaper reporter, award-winning television writer and best-selling author. Hank began acting professionally after high school, appearing in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions working with theater greats Herbert Berghof, Art Carney, Helen Hayes, and John Cullum. He earned a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, where his roles included Jamie in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Jerry in The Zoo Story, Cassio in Othello, and Laertes in Hamlet. Hank worked as a newspaper reporter and radio news director before writing the first of his eleven published books – one novel and 10 nonfiction works. Among his various parallel careers he has written scripts for dozens of television documentaries winning two Emmy awards; and he has contributed more than a hundred articles to PARADE magazine. He was the 1988 winner of the Little Theatre of Alexandria National One-Act Play-writing Contest.
In 1987, intrigued by the theory that Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford, had written the Shakespeare works, he conducted an intensive study of the autobiographical Sonnets until an unexpected discovery in 1998 led to the first comprehensive, coherent explanation of the 154 numbered verses. The result was The Monument, his 2005 book demonstrating this explanation in every line. Hank currently performs a one-man show entitled Shake-Speare’s Treason, co-written by director Ted Story and based on The Monument. He lives with his wife Gloria and their son Jake in Nyack, NY.
