Watch Now: Shakespeare Authorship Forum with Cheryl Eagan-Donovan, Gideon Rappaport, and Bryan H. Wildenthal

Join us as we dive into both sides of this fierce debate, including an appearance by Cheryl Eagan-Donovan, acclaimed documentary filmmaker.

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For hundreds of years, doubts have been raised as to whether William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon, a man of limited education and experience, actually wrote the plays poems, and sonnets credited to him. Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Orson Welles, and Malcom X, to name a few, have expressed such doubts.

We introduce the question for the general audience by showing 20 minutes of a documentary, “Last Will. & Testament,” (trailer below; stream the film here) which provides viewpoints of both so-called “Orthodox” scholars and doubters. An informal discussion followed, moderated by Gordon Gidlund, past President of the Society, with the intent of more fully airing the controversy. Local notables representing both sides—Gideon Rappaport and Bryan H. Wildenthal—will contribute to the discussion.

There will also be a Zoom appearance by Cheryl Eagan-Donovan, an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, who will argue in favor of a leading author candidate, Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, a highly educated nobleman in the court of Queen Elizabeth, who traveled extensively in Italy where so many of the plays take place.