(from John Shahan; via Patricia N. Saffran, 5/4. The audio is from NPR.)
Outcome of 400th anniversary global events
In our tenth anniversary news release, we said that Shakespeare authorship doubters in cities worldwide were planning to hold events this April to reaffirm their doubts about the identity of Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of the death of Mr. Shakspere, and several of them specifically to reaffirm support for the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt. Now that April is behind us, what was the outcome of the events?
Overall, they were a big success, demonstrating that doubts about the authorship have clearly gone global. Events were held in Sydney, Australia; Oslo, Norway; London; Toronto; Upstate New York; South Florida; Flint, Michigan; Los Angeles and Palo Alto, California. If Stratfordians thought doubters were incapable of mounting a meaningful response to all the 400th anniversary celebrations, they were very much mistaken. One easy way to get a sense of how they went is to take a look at this gallery of photoson the SAC website.
The most effective “event” was a meeting in London between Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance in which they reaffirmed their support for the Declaration in a high-quality video now on the SAC YouTube channel. Perhaps equally important was the opportunity the meeting afforded for an interview by Renee Montagne, co-host of U.S. National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. The interview, which is excellent, aired on April 25. First and foremost among the many people we have to thank for their contributions to this effort are Derek and Mark, for their courage and commitment to the issue, and Renee Montagne, for her excellent coverage.
Right up front, we want to emphasize that the purpose of these events was to call attention to the evidence. We are often accused of “arguing from authority” for calling attention to notable people who are doubters. Nothing could be further from the truth. Stratfordians have created a false negative stereotype of doubters, and we must first debunk that before anyone will take the issue seriously enough to look into it themselves. But it is really all about the evidence. We are proud that these events kept the focus firmly on the evidence. That is the focus of the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt, and also of the sequel, Beyond Reasonable Doubt.