The SOF’s upcoming Denver Conference in September is now totally sold out for in-person attendance.
As indicated in previous announcements, the conference space at the Hyatt Centric is at this point already bulging at the proverbial seams.
“We apologize to anyone who has not already booked,” said Conference Chair Tom Woosnam, “but if we continued adding people at this point not only would those in attendance not be comfortable but we’d also start to run into problems with the fire marshal. The space has limits and we have reached them.”
“That said, anyone still interested in hearing the two dozen or so papers to be presented in Denver can still register for the Livestream broadcast — a bargain at $99 for the four days. Livestream can be found on the website by hitting the conference tab and registering.”
A reminder of our cancellation policy here: We have committed to paying the hotel a minimum fee for booked rooms, food and catering and we will be assessed a penalty if we don’t meet that minimum. In order to best anticipate avoiding a penalty we will issue a full refund up to and including Aug 26. After Aug 26 we will issue a refund of whatever a registrant paid minus $99. That $99 will be applied to the Livestream so you will still be able to enjoy the event.
Livestreamers (and those attending in-person) will have the conference broadcast available to them not just during the conference itself but for up to 30 days after. Though the livestream broadcast will be bookable right up until the conference opens, early booking is again advised.
For anyone already registered but not yet booked at the Hyatt, rooms will remain available until August 28 at the special conference rate. After that date, the hotel will put back into its inventory any rooms being held. It may be possible to get the conference rate from them at that point but SOF can’t guarantee it.
The same situation holds for the specially-priced tickets to Hamlet which the group will be seeing on Friday evening, Sept. 27 at the Denver Performing Arts Center. The production, directed by authorship doubter Chris Coleman, artistic director of the company, opens this professional company’s 2024-2025 season. Coleman himself will be speaking at the conference on the Saturday about his approach to staging the production as part of a panel chaired by Prof. Don Rubin, SOF Board member and editor of Routledge’s six-volume World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre.
Tickets for Hamlet can also be booked on the SOF website but again only through August 28. After that date, bookings will have to be made through the theater itself (if tickets are still available).
Among the many highlights of the 2024 conference will be two separate papers by Prof. Roger Stritmatter of Coppin State University – one on his work on de Vere signatures at Audley End in the UK and the other about his recently completed volume in the SOF’s Brief Chronicles series on Ben Jonson and the First Folio.
Among other featured speakers will be Harvard professor Lisa Quattrocki Knight and Australian scholar Matt Hutchinson, both giving papers on the sonnets; Nashville tv star Jonathan Jackson on Edward de Vere’s spiritual side; Guelph University professor and playwright Sky Gilbert on his new volume, Shakespeare Lied, and Katherine Chiljan on Oxford’s religious portraits.
Also speaking will be former New York Times editor William S. Niederkorn on The Tempest; Robert Prechter on connections between de Vere and Marlowe; Washington State Professor Michael Delahoyde on Shakespeare and the concept of “nothing”; SOF President Earl Showerman on topical allegories; and University of Winnipeg librarian Michael Dudley offering a meta-understanding of the authorship question.
For the record, the SOF’s Annual General Business Meeting will also take place during the conference on Saturday, 28 September and will be accessible (to SOF members only) by a separate Zoom connection.
