Take a hint from the two gangsters in that grand Bardic knockoff, Kiss Me, Kate, and use this opportunity to “brush up your Shakespeare.” (And should you have no Shakespeare to brush up, not to worry; this is a class for beginners as well as hardened sinners.)

We’ll start by looking closely at some of Shakespeare’s most autobiographical writing, his Sonnets, and examining various reconstructions of his life.  (Was he gay? A secret Catholic? A nobleman in disguise?)  Then we’ll tackle some of the famous longer speeches from the plays, concentrating on the language and the sense of character that make them so memorable.  Finally, we’ll study three plays, each of them part of the Guthrie season in either 2004-05 or 2005-06: As You Like It, Measure for Measure, and Hamlet. 

Participants will be encouraged to attend Guthrie’s Measure for Measure, an “original practices production” imported from the restored Globe Theater in London (little scenery, all-male cast, Elizabethan music).

1.  Sept. 13            The Sonnets

2.  Sept .20            Speeches from Various Plays

     Sept. 27            No Session

     Oct. 4               No Session

3.  Oct. 11            As You Like It

4.  Oct. 18            As You Like It (cont.) 

5.  Oct. 25            Measure for Measure (Guthrie Performance: Oct. 27-Nov 6)

6.  Nov. 1             Measure for Measure (cont.)

7.  Nov. 8             Hamlet (Guthrie Performance: Mar 4 - May 7, 2006)

     Nov. 15           No Session

8.  Nov. 22            Hamlet  (cont.)

Participants will need to obtain a well-annotated, recent edition of each of the three plays.

Rob Foy, a native of Georgia, received his B.A. from Emory University and ventured north to earn his Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Minnesota (with a dissertation on Shakespeare and the Apostle Paul).  He taught at the Universities of Minnesota, Rochester and St. Thomas, and has been a visiting professor at Northwest University, Xi’an, PRC, and at Osaka Gakuin University in Japan.  Now retired, he was a member of the English Department at the University of  St. Thomas for 28 years, teaching a wide variety of courses but specializing in drama and Shakespeare. A published poet, Dr. Foy also continues to write about Shakespeare and is about halfway through a book on A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.

For more information call 651-962-5188 or e-mail mhseiter@stthomas.edu.