The University of Jamestown in North Dakota will mark the four-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare’s death next year with “A Year of Shakespeare.” The program will host a Shakespeare-oriented event on campus each month through April 2016. Robert Badal (UJ President), Phyllis Bratton (library director), Paul Olson (vice president of academic affairs), and Richard Walentine (music program director) assembled the roster of events.
First up in September, actor Tim Mooney will perform his own one-hour, one-man version of Hamlet with “Breakneck Hamlet.” Then in October, President Badal will present a free gallery talk entitled “Bright Stars of the 19th Century London Stage,” which will include a collection of posters from the Royal Theatre in London.
The University’s Theatre Department will present the musical “Kiss Me, Kate” during the month of November.
In December, Bratton will focus on the student body when she hosts “Tudor Crafts for Christmas: 16th Century Gift Making” before exams. Those who join in will have the opportunity to make felt gloves, orange pomander balls, pomander beads, marzipan candies, and stained-glass windows while enjoying hot cider and refreshments.
Sean Flory, “the university’s expert on Shakespeare,” will conclude the month of January with a free lecture on the phrases and words in Shakespeare’s works that influence our modern language. In February, Walentine will host “Shakespeare in Song and Solioquy” with performers who share their favorite pieces of music in Shakespeare and works of music they have inspired. Art students of professor Sharon Cox will offer a dinner in March that will present information about court life in Elizabethan Europe and include food from the era.
The program will conclude in April with a production of “Twelfth Night” and National Poetry Month readings. Each day in April, students will stand and read sonnets during lunch.
