Bard

On Tuesday, April 26, 2005, FRIEDA BARD (nee Silverman); beloved wife of the late Albert C. Bard; loving mother of Dr. Richard Henry Bard of New York, NY and Dr. Marjorie Ann Brownstein of Las Vegas, NV; dear mother in-law of Jane M. Bard and Dr. Marshall Brownstein; adored sister of Dr. Frank Silverman and Florence Kramer and the late Jack L. Silverman and Eva F. Goldenberg; loving grandmother of David Evan and Karen Jane Bard and Dr. Jeffrey Neil and...

Brush up on your Shakespeare. When it comes to an intimate knowledge of bullying bosses, weasely co-workers and corporate skullduggery, the Donald can't hold a laser pointer to the Bard. It's true that Shakespeare's comedies, romances and tragedies are about other things, as well - lovers and fairies, murder and war - but the theme of power in all of its corrupting allure is at least an undercurrent in most of the playwright's works. And, of course, power is the main theme - perhaps the only theme - of NBC's The Apprentice.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra brushed up its Shakespeare for the opening of the Symphony with a Twist series. The tightly knit program included music inspired by the Bard and excerpts from his plays interpreted by members of the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington. Modest scenic elements were introduced to Meyerhoff Symphony Hall Saturday night, notably a cute starlit backdrop and bursts of confetti from the ceiling to go with scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream. As a curtain-raiser, conductor Marin Alsop chose the literally striking Death of Tybalt from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet.

They've been mocked, threatened and degraded. Called traitors, cultists, crackpots, amateurs and worse. They've been denied post-graduate degrees and employment in their field. They're among the most reviled scholars on the planet -- and all because they assert that William Shakespeare of Stratford was not the person who wrote the group of plays and sonnets considered the greatest in the English canon. "I hope you have tenure," read one particularly nasty e-mail to Daniel Wright of Concordia University in Portland, "because you'll never get it anywhere else."

Think you know who wrote Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet? Think again. In certain scholarly circles, the identity of the author of these and the other 30-plus plays and sonnets in the Shakespeare canon is open to question. Cases have been made for writers including Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. Beginning today and continuing through the weekend, the Shakespeare Fellowship - whose members support the Earl of Oxford theory - will hold its third annual conference in Baltimore.

Moves Baseball DEVIL RAYS: Recalled P Jeremi Gonzalez from Triple-A Durham. Optioned P Bartolome Fortunato to Durham. INDIANS: Recalled OF Ryan Ludwick and C Josh Bard from Double-A Akron; activated them from 15-day DL. Optioned Ludwick and Bard to Triple-A Buffalo. Designated P Scott Stewart for assignment. Transferred P Joe Dawley from 15- to 60-day DL. MARLINS: Activated P Josh Beckett from 15-day DL, then announced after game that he would return to 15-day DL with finger blister.

Is it William Shakespeare or the Bible - or maybe it is Star Trek: "That Is the Question." It is also the first part of the title of The Ultimate Shakespeare Quiz Book, written by a veteran Carroll County high school English teacher whose love for the Bard grew from his students. "It took a while," said Thomas J. Delise of Century High. "I hated it in high school and in college." He said many English teachers are "intimidated by Shakespeare." But the quizzes in the book are not for grades, but for fun - a word Delise uses often.

Judi Bard, program specialist for the Howard County Office on Aging, applied for a grant to get senior citizens dancing. Last week, in the atrium of Long Reach High School, they did. It was an intergenerational affair, with students from Long Reach greeting the seniors and serving coffee, cookies and croissant sandwiches. "And then we had a sheet cake," Bard said. "The kids were serving sodas and coffee, and they were just wonderful at the service." Dancing to the three-piece Norman Lock Trio began almost immediately, Bard said.

A drum. A drum. The Bard doth come. The Baltimore-based Chesapeake Shakespeare Company returns to Howard County this weekend and next with a workshop production of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida at the Howard County Center for the Arts' black box theatre in Ellicott City. This will be the fourth Shakespeare play the ensemble has brought to Howard County, and this time the presentation is being billed as a "workshop project." "This is a production designed to allow our younger actors to grow and stretch a bit," says Lesley Malin, the company's managing director.

Miracles are the stuff of holiday legend. So staging a Shakespearean tragedy to open the day after Christmas might seem tragic to holiday cheer. But for director and producer Darryl Croxton, the timing was exactly right for King Lear. The date marks the 397th anniversary of its first documented production, on Dec. 26, 1606, at court for James I of England. Tomorrow night -- with actors in modern dress, against a black backdrop and in an Episcopal church -- the tragedy will serve as the inaugural production of Croxton's new theater company, Theatre of the Rising Sun. Croxton, a Mount Vernon resident who grew up primarily in Forest Park, formed the company in April hoping to imbue the local theater community with his lifelong love of Shakespeare's work.