Afternoons with Shakespeare 2009

If you have always wanted to know more about Shakespeare, but were afraid to ask, here is your opportunity to study several of his plays with an eminent Shakespearean scholar. The course will feature the four plays being performed at the 2009 Oregon Shakespeare Festival (www.osfashland.org): Henry Vlll, Much Ado About Nothing, All's Well That Ends Well and Macbeth. Even if you have no plans to attend the festival, these plays provide an excellent introduction to Shakespeare's genius--a comedy, a problem comedy, a tragedy and an English history play.

The course will begin with Henry VIII (he of six wives), one of Shakespeare's least performed plays. The initial lecture, maternal influences of Henry VIII, will provide historical background about the world in which this most infamous of England's monarchs grew up. Note: Dr. Okerlund is about to publish a book on Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII. Subsequent class sessions will discuss individual plays in the order listed above. Plan to read each play before class discussion. Initially, reading will be diffucult, but it becomes easier with each play and you will learn to revere this writer's mastery of the English language. Copies of the plays are available at all public libraries and bookstores. Full texts are even available online. Have fun and increase your understanding by viewing videos or DVDs of each play.

Whether you are experiencing the wonder of Shakespeare for the first time or adding depth to our knowledge, here is the ideal opportunity to spend afternoons with the greatest writer who ever put pen to paper.

Arelene Okerlund, a retired professor of English for San José State University, specializes in Shakespeare and in medieval/Rennaissance studies. She has taught in SJSU's Semester-Abroad in England program where she loved studying Shakespeare and English history on site. During retirement she published a biography of England's first Yorkist queen, Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen, now available in paperback as Elizabeth: England's Slandered Queen. Her biography of Elizabeth of York, England's first Tudor queen and mother of Henry VIII, will be published in October 2009 by Palgrave Macmillan. During retirement, she began taking banjo lessons and plays tenor banjo with the Peninsula Banjo Band (Tuesday nights at Straw Hat Pizza in San José)