July 19, 2008
Oh what a day. As the NY Press stated in their listing, let's party like it's 1599. Jess Winfield, author of My Name Is Will, and one-man troupe (though we have to credit his wife and prop master Sa for her deftness with the "poor" Yorik skull) astounded a stalwart crowd on hand to witness his record setting stunt of the most Shakespeare plays performed solo in the span of a day across one ferry, three bars, a theater, and a park. The highlight may have been his rap Othello at Jalopy (see above), though we are partial to his Hamlet finale in our backyard (below). Not to mention his clever appropriation of B61's pool table as a stage for a finger puppet Romeo and Juliet.

The thermostat hit 100, but we were cooled by the backdraft of Jess's whip-crack delivery.

Thanks go to Cary Goldstein, Jess's editor who presented this idea in the first place, the folks at Rocky Sullivan's (Lisa), Brooklyn Ice House (Trevor), Jalopy (Geoff and Lynette), B61 (Matt, Rachel London's husband and the man behind the incredible Freebird bookshelves), and as always the amazing Brooklyn Greenway (Brian McCormick, who kindly arranged for cold beer to be on hand as we straggled down the home stretch of Columbia Street). And none of this could have gone so seamlessly without the contributions of friends Michael Dashkin, Carrie Majer, and Peter Ohlin.
--Peter Miller