Wagner College Community Celebrates Shakespeare With A Sonnet Thon

On April 20, the Wagner College community and SI Shakespearean Theatre will honor William Shakespeare with the second annual Shakespeare Sonnet Thon from 2:00-4:00pm on the steps of Main Hall.

The FREE event is open to public, rain or shine.

The Sonnets are Shakespeare's most popular works, and a few of them, such as Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day"), Sonnet 116 ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds"), and Sonnet 73 ("That time of year thou mayst in me behold"), have become the most widely-read poems in all of English literature.

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, likely composed over an extended period from 1592 to 1598, they were published In 1609.

The actual date of Shakespeare's death is a mystery, but it is commonly estimated to be April 23, based on the date of his funeral, April 25, 1616. His birth is thought to be the same date, based on his baptism record of April 26, 1564.

The idea for the Shakespeare Sonnet Thon came from Adjunct Professor and '95 alum Charlie Siedenburg who worked on a Shakespeare Sonnet Slam in Central Park. The Sonnet Thon for the Wagner College community will celebrate the words of the world's greatest playwright. "We all know Shakespeare as the author of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet" being two of his most performed plays worldwide. The 154 sonnets we celebrate with the Shakespeare Sonnet Thon, sing to us of love," said Charlie Siedenburg. "They might have fallen out of fashion, but that is no reason to neglect these exquisite pieces."

Join Prof. Siedenburg's Theatre Appreciation class along with other students, faculty, and staff as they share Shakespeare's sonnets. To become a Sonnet reader contact charlie_siedenburg@yahoo.com.

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