Shakespeare Reduced: Actor Guy Wants to Break Bard Record
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! will ring out in Red Hook this Saturday, July 19, when [Jess Winfield] performs 31 condensed plays by Shakespeare. If he manages to complete his task, he will set the record for the most Shakespeare plays performed solo in Brooklyn in a day. This isnt Winfields first time dabbling in condensed Shakespeare. He is the founding member of the [Reduced Shakespeare Company](http://www.reducedshakespeare.com/index.php) in California, a theater company that abridged all of Shakespeares plays into a two-hour performance. Though he, [as he put it](http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2008/07/17/segments/103716), hung up his tights in 1992, Winfields obsession with the playwright hasnt died down.
The performance Saturday will help promote Winfields new book, [My Name is Will], a story about a young Shakespeare scholar (named Willie Shakespeare Greenberg) tripping on mushrooms. The plays will take place in various spots, mostly in Red Hook, and each has a theme. The only non-Brooklyn location starts the show at 2 p.m. during the 20-minute Water Taxi ride from [Pier 11 ](http://www.nywatertaxi.com/P11/)in Manhattan where he will tackle 16 comedies. B61 Bar features Hamlet and you can get more of Julius Caesar at the Brooklyn Ice House. More locations can be found on the [Freebird bookstore,](http://www.freebirdbooks.com/events.html) where the performance ends and you can party down like its 1599.