Alex McNeil, Oxfordian scholar and past president of The Shakespeare Fellowship is available to give a PowerPoint presentation about the Shakespeare authorship question and Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford. His presentation is a good “overview” for those who would like a cursory beginner's guide to the Shakespeare authorship question and why the question is an important one that should be asked.
Hank Whittemore, Oxfordian scholar, actor, and writer is available to give lectures about his research regarding Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Hank is also available to perform his 90 minute one-man show, Shake-Speare’s Treason. Please contact us for more information.
Dr. Charles Berney, information forthcoming
Please watch this page for additional speakers and topics.
Speakers
Welcome to The Shakespeare Symposium. Our presentations on Shakespeare are from the Oxfordian perspective, which means from the viewpoint that Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford is the author of the works attributed to William Shakespeare.
This page is currently under construction. However, we do have Oxfordians who are available to give presentations. If you are interested in a speaker to address your school or organization, please contact us by email, info@shakespearesymposium.org or telephone, 617-955-3198. We can make arrangements for one or more of our speakers to give a presentation at your school or organization.
The Shakespeare Symposium was formed in 2009 with the advent of our first symposium held in Watertown Square, Massachusetts. We are a group of Oxfordians who live in the New England area who enjoy meeting periodically to discuss the many different facets of Shakespeare, including the authorship question and Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford.
To learn more about the type of discussions our group presents, please visit A Symposium: Shakespeare from the Oxfordian Perspective, held May 8, 2010, in Watertown Square, Massachusetts, at our 2010 Symposium page. You may also be interested in reading Caldwell Titcomb’s June 3, 2009 article about the event in the online arts magazine, The Arts Fuse: “Theater Symposium: Who Wrote Shakespeare.” Mr. Caldwell attended the symposium, and although not an Oxfordian, wrote a detailed and informative account of the presentations. Bill Boyle, a presenter at the symposium blogged about the event on his website, “The Shakespeare Adventure Page.” To read Bill’s blog and view a video excerpt of Hank Whittemore’s performance of Shake-Speare’s Treason please visit: The Lone Oxfordian.
We look forward to hearing from you with any questions or comments you may have. If you would like to be on our mailing list to receive announcements of upcoming events, please email us at: info@shakespearesymposium.org, or telephone us at: 617-955-3198.
Thank you for your interest in Shakespeare from the Oxfordian Perspective.
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 served three terms as 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. Check out a profile of Alex McNeil in The Boston Globe, May 16, 2007. Also see a related Boston Globe Chat with Alex.
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.