Oklahoma City University President Robert Henry spoke at the Casady High School Board of Visitors Luncheon April 13. He enjoyed connecting with OCU alumni and discussing the university with the dynamic board. Pictured: Henry's speech and Henry with Devon Executive Chairman Larry Nichols.

OCU President Robert Henry visits with faculty, staff and administrators during the first Conversations with the President meeting on April 13. President Henry hosted three informal conversations in April to address questions and comments from the university community. Major topics included recent fundraising for the Kramer School of Nursing, academic programs, athletic programs and future university plans.

Greetings, ye Prerogative followers. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…” well actually, throughout the rest of this month, we celebrate ShakespeareOCU. “Hamlet,” perhaps Shakespeare’s greatest play, runs from April 12 through 14. Featured in a distinctly American setting with OCU-composed music, the play is indeed “The Thing.” Professor Lance Marsh and I had an interesting interview about the play, reprinted below. After the interview is the script for our introduction to Bard Week, and here’s a link to all of the ShakespeareOCU events. Hope to see you there!

Script of theater professor D. Lance Marsh’s interview of President Robert Henry:

Lance: We are proud to have our eccentric—er—eminent President here who is a big supporter and huge fan of the Bard.

Henry: That was the Lard. But I like the Bard, too, whoever he was.

Lance: So, is there another writer you would hold in as great a stead?

Henry: I cannot tell what the dickens his name is. (Hamlet, Act III, Scene ii)

Lance: But I’ve heard you say that Shakespeare answers just about all of life’s questions. Let me test you—what is life’s most basic question?

Henry: Well, I don’t think the Bard has much to say about such important things. To me the answer is extremely basic: To be, or not to be: that is the question.” (III, i)

Lance: Don’t you think that’s a rather bad answer for such a complicated question?

Henry: There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. (II,ii )

Lance: If nothing is either good or bad, then does truth exist?

Henry: Truly: “This above all: to thine own self be true/And it must follow, as the night the day/Thou canst not then be false to any man.” (I, iii)

Lance: You are sounding a bit philosophic today—you wouldn’t be one of those humanists we hear about would you?

Henry: What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!” (II, ii). “I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.” (V, ii - a defense of the liberal arts?)

Lance: Your wife, Dr. Henry, says you sometimes let your sense of humor go too far.

Henry: The lady doth protest too much. (III, ii)

Lance: Well, I know you are longtime friends as well as spouses, but even so, what do you do when you have a major disagreement with your spouse?

Henry: I will speak daggers to her but use none. (III, ii) (She is better at daggers than I!)

Lance: Well, do you think you’re funny?

Henry: In my mind’s eye. (I, ii)

Lance: How do you respond to her criticism then? Would you say it’s…

Henry: A little more than kin, a little less than kind. (I, ii) 

Lance: And speaking of strong-willed women, there is our Acting General Counsel, Mary Jenkins. Let me take a different tack: What would you not say about her?

Henry: Frailty, thy name is woman. (I, ii)

Lance: I do understand, all seriousness aside, that you love the Bard’s sonnets.

Henry: This is the very ecstasy of love: (II.i)                                                                                              

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. (Sonnet 116)

Lance: You went a little overboard there, after all, I’ve heard [ahem]: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

Henry: Doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love. (II, ii) 

Lance: well, we had better move on. Everyone knows you are a foody, but the other day you ordered a Scandinavian cheese for a donor’s dinner, and I understand you complained to Kelli about it. What did you say?

Henry: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. (I, iv) 

Lance: Well, we had better move on, but in closing, wouldn’t you say that Theatre is the most important endeavor we have here at OCU?

Henry: Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? (III,ii)

Lance: As we wrap it up, would you just tell us what is the worst thing about being a college president?

Henry: When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. (IV, v)

Lance: How would you like to be remembered—uh, I mean many, many, many years from now when you are finally asked to leave—er, I mean when you retire? What kind of a man would you want to be?

Henry: A man that fortune’s buffets and rewards/Hast ta’en with equal thanks. (III, ii) (I’m not there yet.)

Lance: Closing advice?

Henry: Assume a virtue if you have it not./That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,/ of habits devil, is angel yet in this, /That to the use of actions fair and good/He likewise gives a frock or livery,/ that aptly is put on. (III, iv)

Lance: In other words, do good deeds. Practice makes perfect.

Henry: This is the short and long of it. (a ringer: this is not from Hamlet but from The Merry Wives of Windsor (II, ii, 39)

Lance: Before leaving, I can’t help but note that your son Josh, whom you claim to have purchased from gypsies, graduates this year. In reality, I know you love him very deeply; he favors you too much to be purchased; like you he loves sword-fighting; and he can hold his own in jesting with you. How would you describe him?

Henry: He capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May. [III, ii, 71]

Lance: How do you think or hope that Josh would put it?

Henry: Why, then the world’s mine oyster, /Which I with sword will open. (ii,ii,2)

Lance: A hit, a very palpable hit!

Script for introduction of Monday’s Shakespeare Costume Parade: HERALD: Hear ye! Hear ye! Today, this ninth day in the month of April in the year of our lord twenty-twelve, is the first day of the first annual BARD WEEK here on the OCU campus!! Where we shall, forsooth, celebrate the works of the greatest playwright in the English language- WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE! Can I have a Huzzah?! HUZZAH! Checketh thee upon the table tents in front of ye for a schedule of ye old events—including free pizza and a discussion with the president about Shakespeare’s words tomorrow and culminating with a production of the bard’s great tragedy — HAMLET — this Thursday, through Sunday! Can I have a Huzzah?! HUZZAH! Be warned, forsooth, for Shakespeare-themed staged combat will explode upon the quad this Thursday, and a Shakespeare Insult Machine will teach ye to mock your friends and enemies this Friday, also upon the quad! Can I have a Huzzah?! HUZZAH! And today, an honor of the launch of BARD WEEK, we present the crowning of the KING of Shakespeare month! Not satisfied to be merely ye old chief justice of the 10th circuit court of appeals, nor even, verily, the President of Oklahoma City University — having schemed and plotted and poisoned all his rivals for the throne, I give you the newly crowned monarch of Shakespeare Month- KING ROBERT HENRY! And finally, to officially launch BARD WEEK in all its glory — a brief parade of costumes from Shakespeare’s plays- presented by the TheatreOCU costume shop and our friends at Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park!

Hold up on the provost selection, Oklahoma City University! We have a new candidate, and this one is proof that we've searched high and low for the best (ahem!) person for the job. 

When it comes to campus housing, sometimes you just need to build a little birdhouse in your soul...