This coming Sunday, July 3 10,000 British school children in 400 schools will all perform Shakespeare simultaneously. Organizers hope to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for most Shakespeare performances in a single night. What an odd record :).

Apparently, “Pupils will perform their own interpretations of shortened versions of some of Shakespeare’s plays, directed and produced by their teachers.” Own interpretations of shortened versions? Exactly how much of the original has to remain in order for it to still be Shakespeare?

This day in Shakespeare history, the original Globe Theatre burned down during the first performance of Henry VIII.

Found here.

As a Shakespeare geek, I find it cool that Shakespeare’s hometown is going wireless in a big way. Not just setting up wifi hotspots around time (so bloggers like yours truly wouldn’t have to wait until we get home to braindump everything in sight!), but you can actually get your hands on a dedicated PDA that will provide an interactive map of the area, pointing out all the good spots.

Highly neat! One of these days I have to get out there.

Well here’s interesting news for a change. Author Hank Whittemore has issued a press release claiming to have the solution to the sonnets. By solution I assume that means “who they were written about.”

The solution of course comes in his new book, “The Monument : ‘Shake-Speare’s Sonnets’ by Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford” which weighs in at 900 pages. What I’m trying to grasp from the press release is how the Earl of Oxford fits into the picture – does the book just start with the premise that Oxford was Shakespeare (as does “Shakespeare by Another Name”, which I just wrote about yesterday)?

More information available at ShakespearesMonument.com.

P.S. Wait til you find out who the Dark Lady is!

Here’s a cool link to how Shakespeare has been illustrated over the centuries (found via del.icio.us). Interesting concept that takes the whole notion of Shakespeare’s works in a very different direction. Does a particular artistic rendition represent a copy of what at one point was a live performance, like you might see in an encyclopedia these days? Or is the artist envisioning the play in his mind and depicting what he sees there?