Owens to Host 2010 Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference
The influence of “the Bard” is still alive and well and will serve as the focus to a three-day Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference at Owens Community College, Oct. 14-16. The theme of this year’s annual statewide conference is “Shakespeare’s ‘Loose Ends’” and will examine the gaps, lacunae, indeterminacies and silences in the work of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
The 2010 Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference will feature various seminars and workshops occurring in the College’s Center for Fine and Performing Arts on the Toledo-area Campus. Owens is located on Oregon Road in Perrysburg Township. Admission to keynote addresses (plenary sessions) is free and open to the public. Individuals interested in the seminars and workshops are encouraged to register for the conference.
“Owens Community College is honored to once again serve as host to the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference,” said Dr. Russell Bodi, Owens Professor of English and Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference Coordinator. “The nationally-recognized conference will allow both students and the local community to learn alongside humanities scholars about a variety of issues related to arts, literature and theatrical performance, and how it relates to the study of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries.”
Bodi added, “This event will not be confined to a narrow scholarly audience and we welcome the public, professionals and students to attend the insightful sessions.”
Daily sessions will provide an opportunity for students and scholars from around the world to view and present research, participate in panel discussions and attend workshops to gain insight into cultural, dramaturgical, cinematic, theoretical and editorial issues specific to Shakespeare and his literary work. Areas of specific interest will include the role of actors, directors and editors related to the inevitable gap between players and performers and how bias and the historical treatment of Shakespeare reflect and affect appreciation, among other topics.
Attendees will also have the chance to learn about Shakespeare in performance, including how to stage combat scenes. Additionally, there will be two plenary sessions occurring throughout the three-day event in the Center for Fine and Performing Arts Studio Theatre Room 111.
Serving as the conference’s keynote speakers are nationally recognized literary scholars Dr. Matthew Wikander and Dr. Katharine Maus. Wikander serves as Professor of English at the University of Toledo, while Maus holds the position of James Branch Cabell Professor of Renaissance Literature at the University of Virginia. The topic of Wikander’s keynote address is “‘This is not the man’: Falstaff and Martrydom” and will occur at 11:15 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 15. Maus will address conference attendees at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 16. Her lecture topic is titled “The Properties of Friendship in ‘The Merchant of Venice’”.
The Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference will commence at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 14, with the first two Shakespeare seminars titled “Sexual Indeterminacies” and “Inwardness and Character”. Presentation topics within the two seminar sessions will include “Hermaphroditism vs. Androgyny: The Function of Cross-dressing in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’”, “Mixing Metaphors: Horses, Riders and Hermaphrodites in ‘The Taming of the Shrew’”, “‘Twelfth Night’: A Close Reading of the Plato-Ovidian Characters”, “Othello’s Other Visage”, “The Fair Black Woman: The Politics of Beauty in Shakespeare’s Sonnets” and “Emelia: lago’s Marionette or Fellow Puppeteer”. Other seminars taking place on Thursday are titled “Staging and Editing” and “Interiority and Landscape” and will begin at 3:30 p.m.
On Friday, Oct. 15, seminar session topics will include “He Never Blotted Out a Line!” and “A Scholarly Conversation Concerning the Composition of the Shakespearean Corpus: Twentieth Century Theatrical Practice Versus Conventional Literary Assumptions” at 8:30 a.m.; “Omissions and Potentialities” and “Gaps and Indeterminacies” at 10 a.m.; “Identity”, “Loose Ends and Film Adaptations” and “Key Roles” at 2 p.m.; and “History and the Histories”, “Music and Other Ornaments” and “Refiguring Comedy” at 3:30 p.m.
The final day of the conference will feature Shakespeare seminar sessions titled “Gaps and Authority”, “Gender Issues” and “Reconsidering Gender Roles” at 8:30 a.m.; “Edition” and “Staging the Unusual” at 10 a.m.; and “Comedy in Theory” and “Gender and Interiority” at 1:30 p.m.
Among the colleges and universities participating in the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference are the University of Windsor, University of Southern Indiana, University of the West Indies at Mona, Owens Community College, The Ohio State University, National Changhua University of Education, University of Cincinnati, Marietta College, Oberlin College, Ashland University, University of Nebraska Kearney, Kent State University, Shepherd University, Keystone College, Urbana University, Michigan State University, University of California Santa Cruz, Northern Kentucky University, Bowling Green State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Akron, Chang Gung University, Southern Utah University, West Virginia University, University of Michigan, Wright State University, Mary Baldwin College, Concord University, Muskingum University, Cincinnati State Community College, Ohio University, Penn State University, Loyola University Chicago, University of Montreal, University of North Carolina at Greensboro and University of Akron.
In addition to the seminar sessions and workshops, the Toledo Repertoire Theatre and Owens will present a theatre staged reading titled “A Merry Regiment of Women” by J. Rae Shirley on Thursday, Oct. 14. The staged reading will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for Fine and Performing Arts’ Mainstage Theatre. The theatrical comedy tells the story of five women being called to a meeting by a sixth female to discuss the availability and quality of their roles in William Shakespeare plays. During the meeting, three of Shakespeare’s men arrive, each with their own perspective on the situation.
On Friday, Oct. 15, attendees will have the opportunity to witness one of William Shakespeare’s most revered comedies as the National Players, America’s longest running classical touring company, presents “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Center for Fine and Performing Arts’ Mainstage Theatre. The theatrical production will begin at 7:30 p.m.
National Players’ productions are known for adhering to strict traditions of touring theatre that includes company members not only performing multiple roles, but also technical assignments ranging from lighting to set-up. The theatre group will provide a fresh, contemporary take on the timeless “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” production to mirror today’s fast moving electronic media saturated world. A glowing woods and fairies dancing to electronica will set the scene for wacky things to happen when a man loves a woman who loves a man who loves another man in a lover’s quarrel of titanic proportions.
Prior to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” production on Friday, attendees will have the opportunity to hear the rich colorful blend of the harp and acoustic guitar as part of TAPESTRY’s live performance featuring Owens Adjunct Faculty member Denise Grupp-Verbon and Michael Grupp-Verbon. The two professional musicians will perform an array of Renaissance music at 7 p.m. in the Center for Fine and Performing Arts Rotunda.
To purchase tickets for “A Merry Regiment of Women” or “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” performances, visit www.owens.edu or contact the College’s Box Office. For more information about the productions, contact the Center for Fine and Performing Arts at (567) 661-2787 or 1-800-GO-OWENS, Ext. 2787. For more information on the 2010 Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference, call (567) 661-7524 or 1-800-GO-OWENS, Ext. 7524, or access the conference website at www.marietta.edu/departments/English/OVSC/index.html.
Press Release Contact Name: Katie Warchol
Press Release Contact Email: [email protected]
Organization Name: Toledo.com