9:08 a.m., Nov. 24, 2009----"Shakespeare First: A Celebration of the Arts," a special event sponsored by the University of Delaware Department of English, was held Thursday, Nov. 12, and attracted an overflow crowd to the 200-seat Gore Recital Hall in the Roselle Center for the Arts.

THIS STORY

E-mail

Print

Twitter

Those who attended heard a lecture by James Shapiro, professor of English and noted Shakespeare scholar from Columbia University, and a concert of Shakespeare-related music by Lyric Fest, a Philadelphia-based chorale.

The event was made possible by a gift from University of Delaware alumna, Charlotte Orth, who graduated in 1964 with a bachelor of arts degree, and her husband, Kenneth Reckford, professor emeritus of classics at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

As a gift to his wife, Reckford has made a generous donation to the University of Delaware. The contribution will establish an endowment fund in his wife's name that will allow the English department regularly to host a large event celebrating literature and the arts.

Both Reckford and Orth were present for this year's inaugural event and were thrilled by the evening's program and the overwhelming turnout by faculty, students, and friends of the English department.

“It's just so wonderful to see such an energized department coming together for an evening like this,” said Orth, who credits her lifelong love of reading great literature to the encouragement of UD English professors like the late Ed Rosenberry and Jan DeArmond.

“Kenneth Reckford loves his wife and the arts, which is why he made such a generous donation to the University," said Kristen Poole, UD associate professor of English who organized the event. "Charlotte Orth was an English and history major at the University, and they both enjoy reading Renaissance literature together. The gift has been named in her honor, the Charlotte Orth Shakespeare Fund."

The event began with a lecture by Shapiro, professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia, entitled "When Shakespeare Turned Autobiographical."

Shapiro has published in several periodicals, including The New York Times Book Review. He recently published A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, for which he won the 2006 Samuel Johnson Prize and the 2006 Theatre Book Prize.

Following Shapiro's lecture, a reception was held in the Center for the Arts and guests were entertained by student groups, including the E-52 Student Theater Group, the Rubber Chickens improvisational comedy troupe, the English Honor Society Sigma Tau Delta, and the creative writing group Write Out Loud.

There was also a Shakespeare look-alike contest for faculty members and a bad sonnet contest, sponsored by Write Out Loud.

The event concluded with a performance by LyricFest called, "Shakespeare -- A Biography in Music." The performance recreates in song Shakespeare's life and works as a timeless thread that winds through 400 years of music history.