Night of Shakespeare supports English department

Students and faculty shared sonnets and support for a book database.

By David Conway

Published Nov. 6, 2009

Students and faculty came together Wednesday to celebrate the works of William Shakespeare and raise money in the process. The English department held the event to support a subscription to English Early Books Online, a database that would give users digital access to books published in English from the late 15th century to the end of the 16th century.

The event began with a performance of a scene from "The Comedy of Errors," followed by a trivia competition that posed questions to the audience, such as the names of Shakespeare's children and the date of the first performance of "The Taming of the Shrew."

After the trivia competition, 15 people performed various works of Renaissance literature, most of which were Shakespearean sonnets.

Sophomore Bethany Welcher recited a non-Shakespearean sonnet, John Dunne's "Holy Sonnet No. 10." She said she got involved after graduate student Katy Didden, an organizer for the event and the instructor of Welcher's poetry class, offered the opportunity to all of her students.

"She asked if any of us would be interested, and we had already memorized a sonnet in her class, so I thought it would be fun," Welcher said. "I love to perform in front of audiences. And I tied for second place, which was awesome."

As the votes were tabulated to determine the top five speakers, English professor Anne Myers gave a presentation outlining the benefits of English Early Books Online.

"What EEBO does is let you have access to many rare book libraries at any time you want," Myers said. "These are libraries that, unless you have a Ph.D., you aren't getting in."

After performances of scenes from "The Tempest" and a gender-reversed "Romeo and Juliet," judges named Sally Foster, a theater assistant, the best performer for her take on "King Lear."

Ruth Knezevich, a graduate English student, said she attended the event to support both the push for English Early Books Online and the work put into planning the event.

"I liked the scenes that were acted out and the way each group took a twist and made it something the audience could really enjoy," Knezevich said.

English department Chairwoman Pat Okker said the event was held in conjunction with the English Leaders Board, a group of alumni tasked with taking leadership on important issues.

"The English department has a group of alumni whose job it is to support the department in various ways," Okker said. "One of the things I talked to them about were the problems about acquiring resources for early British literature."

Didden said the event, which requested a $3 donation from those who attended and also featured a bake sale, was an attempt to entertain a large audience and get as many people as possible to participate.

"We though we would do some sort of a performance, but we weren't sure how many people could contribute to a larger production," Didden said. "We thought with the scenes and the sonnets that we could get more people involved."

Didden said she was pleased with the turnout for the event and efforts to gather funds for English Early Books Online would not stop after Wednesday.

"The leaders board is running an ongoing campaign," Didden said. "We're hoping to raise the money we need by April 23, Shakespeare's birthday."