Those supercomputers programmed to determine the last digit of pi have it easy. A more taxing calculation: Totalling the number of Shakespeare productions that grace our city's parks, parking lots, and stages each summer. (Call it Stratford-on-Hudson.) Perhaps that pesky 18th Sonnet inextricably associates Shakespeare and summer in people's minds. But comparing your average New York Shakespeare production to a summer's day—I'll take the day. Cramped rehearsal schedules, scrambles for venues, large casts, and some positively crippling anxiety of influence—it's no small task for an amateur, or even professional, company to stage Shakespeare well. But last week, and not without trepidation, I played the numbers game, attending five Shakespeare plays—two comedies, two romances, and a tragedy—three in plein air and two in... More >>>