Shakespeare's Anti-Christian Satires: The Virgin Mary Parodies 8/17/09 11:48 AM

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Shakespeare's Anti-Christian Satires: The Virgin Mary Parodies
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Letters to the Editor On September 5 and 12, 2009 The Dark Lady Players
High Tech (www.darkladyplayers.com) will perform "Shakespeare's
Horoscope Hudson Valley
Anti-Christian satires: The Virgin Mary Parodies," extracts
Entertainment Shakespeare
Entertainment Goss from their Shakespeare Miscellany that illustrate newly Shakespeare Performed
Music discovered satires in the characters of Ophelia, Desdemona in an Open Air Tent with
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and Juliet. www.hvshakespeare.org
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The discoveries are revealed in revolutionary new
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Home & Garden dramaturgy by John Hudson, an English Shakespearean Get Tickets From A
Industry researcher, that presents a 16th century Marrano/Converso Trusted Source. 30+
States Years Of Giving Great
Jewish woman as the real author of Shakespeare's plays
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Senior Health and sonnets. Amelia Bassano Lanier (1569-1645), the so www.Applause-Tickets.com
Environment called Dark Lady who was the first woman in England to
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have a book of her poetry printed ("Salve Deus Rex
SupportOurTroops The Library of America
Iraq Judaeorum," 1611), has been previously known to scholars Fiction, Poetry, History, Investing in Education
Iran only as a poet and early feminist critic of the Christian Drama: American During Uncertain Times
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gospel and the long term mistress to the man in charge of www.LOA.org
Kashmir
Cartoons the English theater. New research by Mr. Hudson,
In the "Hamlet" portion, the light from the eyes of
Video Releases conducted at the Shakespeare Institute, University of
Hamlet/Helios makes Ophelia conceive like the
Most Read The Blessed Virgin
Birmingham and documented in his 800 page biography
Virgin Mary. L: Anna Wood; R: Alexandra Cohen-
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Mary &
Spiegler. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.
"The Dark Lady," presents her as the author of How the Bible Proves
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Shakespeare's poems and plays, which are also shown to contain allegorical anti-Christian satires. This the Teachings of the
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Catholic Church
GlobeNewswire production, guided by this new dramaturgy, is made up entirely of Amelia/Shakespeare's purported www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com
PRNewswire
spoofs of the Virgin Mary. Educators No. 1 Online
Send2Press Graduate School Program
CCNMatthews Hudson River Art
The Amelia Bassano Theory is gaining ground fast in Shakespeare Exhibit Advertising provided by:
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WebitPR circles. The Canadian literary journal The Queen's Quarterly, in an 11 Celebrate 400 yrs with ARALifestyle.com

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page review in summer 2008 titled "Rethinking Shakespeare,"
ACNNewswire
Galen & Sharon Gordon
concluded that "the case for Amelia Bassano Lanier is as plausible as www.elisatucciart.com Top Stories in New
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Shakespeare's and more plausible than many others." The peer- York
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Spanish Releases reviewed Shakespearean authorship journal, The Oxfordian, edited by
Volunteers Create Ghost
Movers/Shakers
Dr. Michael Egan, is issuing a special issue in October, 2009 on the Bike Memorials Around
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main Shakespearean authorship candidates, including a 5,000 word NYC
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Contact Us article on this new candidate. Indicating the growing interest in this
[Sponsor] BREAKING:
Feedback latest Shakespearean discovery, Eastern Connecticut State University Mom Loses 52 lbs With 1
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in Willimantic, CT will have Mr. Hudson give the University Lecture on Amelia Bassanio Lanyer. Courtesy Rule!
Resources Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Link to Us this subject on November 11, 2009 at 3:00 pm. Professor Kelly
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Advertise Morgan, the founder of the Mint Theater and a regional chair of the Kennedy Center American College
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Theater Festival, says these insights "open new and breathtaking performance avenues for professional
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companies and a multitude of possibilities for academic researchers" and is collaborating with Mr. 1 train service impacted by
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Hudson on an allegorical production of "Twelfth Night" next year at Fitchburg State College, MA. debris at 181 St.
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The Dark Lady Players has previously staged demonstrations of Jewish allegories in "Midsummer Parker Meridien Offers 50%
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off Knave Sandwiches
Wi-Fi Night's Dream" and "As You Like It," but the Virgin Mary allegories in "Othello," "Hamlet" and "Romeo
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and Juliet", are being acted live for the first time. BK Farmyards and the
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Before the first staging, on September 5 at 2:15 pm, the company will precede its performance with an Agriculture
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Folsom outdoor event, "The Virgin Mary Mystery Play Procession," based on the York Mystery Plays, starting at
Orange County the southern end of Washington Square near the chess boards and leading the audience to Manhattan
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Theater Source, where "Shakespeare's Anti-Christian satires: The Virgin Mary Parodies" will be
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Vero Beach unveiled.
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Dramaturg John Hudson, author of the theory, is a strategic
Amazon Kindle Leathe…
consultant who specializes in new industry models and

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Shakespeare's Anti-Christian Satires: The Virgin Mary Parodies 8/17/09 11:48 AM

Amazon Kindle Leathe…

consultant who specializes in new industry models and
Dexter: The
innovation. He has degrees in Theater and Shakespeare, in
Management, and in Social Science. He recently wrote in the Complete… Glenn
Clyde Fitch Report, "This work will thus raise a profound Beck's Common …
question: Why would a recusant Catholic like the Man from Kindle: Amazon's 6"
Stratford write such shocking anti-Christian parodies? Surely
… Mastering The Art of…
their existence is one more indication--like the comic parody of
Michael Jackson -
the crucifixion in A Midsummer Night's Dream--that the plays
may have been written by someone else, a someone who is Vi… The
Off the Wall
certainly not a Christian. In Elizabethan England, that narrows Time Traveler's …
the field down considerably." (http://www.clydefitchreport.com/? Watchmen (Director's…
p=2324)

The Dark Lady Players have staged the underlying allegories

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using meta-theatrical devices. Their aesthetic is drawn partly
John Hudson. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.
from Gordon Craig's early 20th century concept of the actor as
the "uber-marionette," but more significantly from the Elizabethan theater of the early 1590s, when the
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first Shakespearean plays were being written. This includes using actors sort of like human puppets. NewsBlaze on Facebook
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Visible symbols are used to literally enact hidden literary
references. In the current production Hamlet, played by
Alexandra Cohen-Spiegler, wears a large sun-hat with rays
of colored paper coming out of his head to indicate that he
represents Helios, since his father is described as Sponsor Links:

Hyperion. Ophelia, played by Mimi Hirt, is heavily

costumed in blue and white cloth to represent the Virgin Recent Visitors
Mary. When she receives Hamlet's letter, she is even
physically labeled as Mary by having the attributes of her
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name listed on Hamlet's letter. This is similar to the way
1. Advertisers
that Elizabethan actors might wear a physical label ("'this
Pulling Their Ads
VISIBLE SYMBOLS -- Hamlet's letter to Ophelia
is a dog' or 'this is a hare'" -- Ben Jonson) to make their From Fox News'
reveals her to be an allegorical Virgin Mary. L: Anna
identities known to those who were not sufficiently sharp or Wood; R: Alexandra Cohen-Spiegler. Photo by Ellen
Glenn Beck 51.84%
Rolfes.
learned to work it out from other clues. In Romeo and 2. District 9 Film Writers Wanted
Juliet, the Nurse (played by Megan McGrath), who is named Angelica (after the root of the Holy Ghost), Review 12.04%
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3. District 9 Movie
has little wings to show that she is allegorically the angel of the Annunciation, which is why she refers to news, including top stories, Home
Susan (from Susannah, the Hebrew word for lily,the symbol of the Annunciation). This indicates the Review 6.88% and Garden, Technology, The
4. Pope Benedict to Environment and more.
nature of the getting mary-ed that she wants to impose upon Juliet, and explains why part of the Nurse's NewsBlaze Writer
scene is based on an apocryphal account of the Virgin Mary in the Temple. Catholics: Kneel
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For
This performance is offered as a "proof of concept" demonstration. It is directed by Jenny Greeman, who Communion 5.16%
is the resident director of the Dark Lady Players. The cast includes Alexandra Cohen-Spiegler, Anna 5. Video: The Miley
Cyrus Stripper
Wood, Mimi Hirt, Megan McGrath and Riah Werner.
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Controversy 4.91%
Using scribd.com, a variety of presentations of Hudson's research can now be accessed online, which
6. (500) Days of
should be good news to directors of Shakespeare, dramaturgs and just about everyone interested in the
Summer Film
most recent thinking on these questions. To look them up, search online for "Amelia Bassano Lanier: A Review 4.67%
New Paradigm for the Shakespearean Authorship" and a variety of Hudson's other writings, including 7. Breastfeeding
treatises on "As You Like It" and "Midsummer Night's Dream." Moms Stage
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