San Marco Books and More has announced that author Jodi Picoult will be coming to Jacksonville on Aug. 24. The New York Times best-selling author, who has written more than 25 books, brings a fascinating new novel about the possibility of Shakespeare’s true identity, “By Any Other Name.”
Here’s a summary:
In 2024, playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor, Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.
In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatrical productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage — by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.
Tickets to the Aug. 24 event are available on the San Marco Books and More website, or at bit.ly/JODISMB.
