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

Author, actor and director Ron Destro has spent years researching one question, “who was William Shakespeare?”

A Jamestown native, Destro after working at the Jamestown Little Theatre and the Shoestring Players, studied theatre at State University at Fredonia before moving to Los Angeles, where he studied with Lucille Ball and John Houseman, and to London, where he studied Shakespearean acting on the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 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 runs the New York and London based Oxford Shakespeare Company, which every summer trains young actors to produce Shakespeare plays in their original settings, such as Elsinore, Burnham Wood, Venice and Agincourt. He currently teaches at the University of North Florida.

Destro will be holding a talk surrounding the question of Shakespeare’s identity and a book signing of his new book “The Starre, The Moone, The Sunne” at Chautauqua Institution on July 3. The talk, “Who Really Wrote as Will Shake-speare?” is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the Smith Memorial Library and the book signing for 4:30 p.m. at the Chautauqua Bookstore.

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

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

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

“In 1624 London, a brave printer is executed, a portly poet is kidnapped, a Stratford-upon-Avon grave is emptied, King James is put into a panic, many swashes are buckled, and things are never as they seem, all because brave Nicholas and clever Valentina are about to discover and reveal the true identity of ‘William Shake-speare,'” the description says. “This is a timely tale that touches on the powerful love of fathers, the plight against the plague, the joys of turnips, and the mysterious life and tragic death of the Bard of Avon. It is a (mostly) true story 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.

“Having researched the Shakespeare authorship question for years, I wanted to tell the real story in an interesting way, so I created a fun Elizabethan murder mystery whose solving just happens to reveal the true identity of the man who wrote using the pseudonym ‘William Shakespeare’,” Destro said. “I’ve written ‘The Starre, the Moone, the Sunne’ so that it would interest a wide readership, including those not familiar at all with Shakespeare. It is a fun read, filled with page-turning cliffhangers, mystery and humor.”

Destro’s talk will also focus on Shakespeare’s real identity, arguing that the man the world knows as Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon, England could not have been the real writer. Destro will provide arguments for the man who seems like the likeliest person to have actually written Shakespeare’s works. He has given the presentation before at places like Harvard University and the Edinburgh Skeptics Society. Destro said Shakespeare has always been of interest to him.

“Having spent most of my life as a Shakespearean actor and director, I consider Shakespeare’s plays to be the best ever written,” Destro said. “And the fact that we know so little about the greatest writer in history is astounding. What little we do know about the man from Stratford-upon-Avon tells us that he clearly was not capable of, and never in his lifetime claimed to be, a writer. This sentiment of doubt has 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 US 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 mystery, based mostly on true, historical facts. It has also been named Book of the Year, second runner-up, Audiobook of the Year, and Best New Author. The audiobook is narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi

As for the talk, Destro said he will be examining primary source documents with history and humor, adding that a poll of the crowd always shows that the presentation persuades at least 95% of the audience.

Destro’s future books include a non-fiction book called “The Shakespeare Authorship Question for Beginners”, along with two novels, “Indira’s Daughters” which is about dowry-burning in India, and “A Day Picasso Mona Lisa Stole” which is about Pablo Picasso and his involvement in the theft of the painting from the Louvre in 1911. Destro is also set to be featured in an upcoming Shakespeare documentary by British filmmaker Amanda Eliasch.

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

“Having grown up in Jamestown, and studying with Lucille Ball in Los Angeles, it’s always a pleasure to come back to Chautauqua,” Destro said. “The last time I gave my talk here, I was asked to return to offer the material as a one-week class, which was a lot of fun.”