C.V.
Roberta Ballantine
Roberta
Light. Born
Berkeley, California, 1922.
Educated Pomona
College, Claremont, CA. English Lit
major. Studied drama with Virginia Princehouse Allen. Graduated B.A.
Studied
acting with Maria Ouspenskaya, speech with Margaret
Prendergast McLean in
Hollywood. Studied drama at
Feagin
School in Manhattan.
Worked
stock at Jacoby Playhouse, Cedarhurst, Long Island.
Showgirl at Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe for 1 year.
Played clubs and vaudeville with partner-comedian Herman
Hyde for two years, across country and back—Florentine
Gardens, Hollywood; Rancho Vegas, the first nightclub in
La Vegas; the Keith Circuit, San Francisco, Chicago, NY;
agent Miles Ingalls.
Studied
voice with Edith Henry in NY. Played clubs as
featured singer and headliner in
Manhattan.
Toured
as center-ring showgirl, 1948 Ringling Circus season.
Married clown-author-artist Bill Ballantine. Five
children.
In
1962-63, courtesy Lotte Lenya, sang Brecht-Weill songs
in clubs, NY city and upstate, CT, St. Louis, using Brecht’s words, Marc
Blitzstein’s translations and my own.
Published 10 poems as Charlotte Russell in Bill
Ballantine’s book, Nobody Loves a Cockroach,
published by Little Brown.
Moved
to Sarasota.
From 1969-77, Bill Ballantine directed Ringling Clown
College, and I began
investigation of the Shakespeare mystery.
Years
of research—questioning letters, library study, review
of lacunae and mutilations in historical records. At last, certain
that Marlowe wrote the Shakespeare plays, I published
articles in newsmagazine Marlowe Lives!, editor
David More.
Lectured about Marlowe at Shakespeare Authorship
Roundtable in
Pasadena, CA, 1995.
Published article in peer-reviewed Shakespeare Bulletin,
Summer 1996, on Shakespeare Epitaphs in Trinity Church,
Stratford-on-Avon.
Authored a trilogy of novels (unpublished) on Marlowe’s
early life.
Discovered in 1997 that Marlowe began each play and poem
by putting some form of his name in a hidden anagram in
its first two lines and then continued, two lines by two
lines, meaningful linked anagrams, telling news of the
day or setting down recollections—corroborating my
research. I
continue to decipher as well as work on a story of
Marlowe’s later years, his death and its immediate
influence.
Currently working on a television documentary with Bill
Hutchinson of
Gainesville,
FL.
Memberships: The
Marlowe Society of
America
Shakespeare Authorship Roundtable,
Santa Monica,
CA
Phi Beta Kappa
