Jamestown native argues Shakespeare’s true identity in book and debate | News, Sports, Jobs

Ron Destro stands next to his book poster at Bookstore1 in Sarasota, Florida. Submitted photo

Author, actor and director Ron Destro has spent years pursuing a question: “Who was William Shakespeare?”

A native of Jamestown, Destro studied at the State University at Fredonia after working at the Jamestown Little Theatre and the Shoestring Players Theater before moving to Los Angeles, where he studied with Lucille Ball and John Houseman, and London, where he studied Shakespearean acting in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s Marymount program.

As a playwright, he received the Kennedy Center New American Play Award for his work Hiroshima, with original music by Yoko Ono. He directs the New York and London-based Oxford Shakespeare Company, which trains young actors each summer to perform Shakespeare plays in their original locations, such as Elsinore, Burnham Wood, Venice and Agincourt. He currently teaches at the University of North Florida.

Destro will give a lecture on Shakespeare’s identity and sign his new book, “The Starre, The Moone, The Sunne,” at the Chautauqua Institution on July 3. The lecture, “Who Really Wrote as Will Shakespeare?” is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the Smith Memorial Library and the book signing is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the Chautauqua Bookstore.

“The Starre, The Moone, The Sunne” is Destro’s first novel.

“I’ve spent most of my life writing plays, such as ‘Hiroshima,’ a collaboration with Yoko Ono,” Destro said. “My first nonfiction book is called ‘The Shakespeare Masterclasses,’ and is a collection of interviews and insights from the world’s leading Shakespeare actors, including F. Murray Abraham, Glenda Jackson, Dame Diana Rigg and Jeremy Irons.”

Destro’s novel is a murder mystery that eventually leads to the discovery of who Shakespeare really was. The novel focuses on two characters, Nicholas and Valentina, who discover the author’s true identity. According to the book’s description, everything people know about Shakespeare was a lie to protect the English crown.

“In 1624 London, a brave printer is executed, a portly poet is kidnapped, a grave in Stratford-upon-Avon is emptied, King James panics, many flourishes are bent and things are never as they seem, and it’s all because brave Nicholas and clever Valentina are about to discover and reveal the true identity of ‘William Shakespeare,'” the description reads. “This is a timely tale that touches on the strong love of fathers, the battle against the plague, the joy of turnips and the mysterious life and tragic death of the Bard of Avon. It’s a (mostly) true story full of suspense and humor.”

Destro said his decision to write this book came from a desire to tell the true story in an interesting way.

“After years of researching the question of Shakespeare’s authorship, I wanted to tell the true story in an interesting way. So I created an entertaining Elizabethan mystery whose solution accidentally reveals the true identity of the man who wrote under the pseudonym ‘William Shakespeare,'” said Destro. “I wrote ‘The Starre, the Moone, the Sunne’ to interest a wide audience of readers, including those who know nothing about Shakespeare. It is an entertaining read, full of suspenseful cliffhangers, mystery and humor.”

Destro’s talk will also focus on Shakespeare’s true identity, arguing that the man the world knows as Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon, England, could not have been the real writer. Destro will make the case for the man most likely to have written Shakespeare’s works. He has given the talk before at places such as Harvard University and the Edinburgh Skeptics Society. Destro said Shakespeare has always interested him.

“I have spent most of my life as a Shakespearean actor and director, and I consider Shakespeare’s plays to be the best ever written,” Destro said. “And the fact that we know so little about history’s greatest writer is astonishing. What little we do know about the man from Stratford-upon-Avon tells us that he was clearly incapable of being a writer, and never claimed to be one during his lifetime. These doubts have been eloquently expressed by many great authors, including Mark Twain, William James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman. Others, such as Sigmund Freud, Helen Keller, Charles Chaplin, Keanu Reeves, and several U.S. Supreme Court justices, agree. None of them supported the Stratford story.”

The most important thing Destro wants people to know about his book is that it is an easy-to-read crime novel based largely on true historical facts. It also won Book of the Year, Runner-up, Audiobook of the Year and Best New Author. The audiobook is narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi.

As for the lecture, Destro said he will examine primary source documents with historical background and humor, adding that a survey of the audience always shows that the presentation convinces at least 95% of the audience.

Destro’s upcoming books include a nonfiction book called The Shakespeare Author Question for Beginners and two novels: Indira’s Daughters, about dowry burning in India, and One Day Picasso Stole the Mona Lisa, about Pablo Picasso and his involvement in the theft of the painting from the Louvre in 1911. Destro will also appear in an upcoming Shakespeare documentary by British filmmaker Amanda Eliasch.

Destro said he always enjoys returning to the area to give lectures.

“Having grown up in Jamestown and studied with Lucille Ball in Los Angeles, it is always a pleasure to return to Chautauqua,” Destro said. “The last time I gave my lecture here, I was asked to return to offer the material in a week-long course, which was a lot of fun.”