Puzzle Winner!

Did everyone enjoy last weeks puzzle? How did you do? I promised to announce the name of the winner and that person is ... Alexi! I hope he doesn't mind, since he sent me the following for a different topic, but here's a little about Alexi (who you've probably spotted in the comments section on a regular basis):

Alexi is an aspiring thespian and director from Philadelphia. Alexi is a high school senior whose interests include Shakespeare, card games, and writing about himself in third person.

Alexi actually got all 50 names in a matter of hours from the time I posted, which either made the puzzle too easy or makes him a serious puzzle geek ;). Great job, Alexi - I'm currently working on an even harder puzzle. Now stop procrastinating and do your homework. :)

Shakespearean Collective Nouns (A Guest Post by Bardfilm)

Once again, Bardfilm offers a guest post for our edification—or, at least, for our amusement.

The English language offers a host of interesting collective nouns. You can describe a lot of geese as a gaggle of geese. More than a few whales make up a pod of whales. When you see tons of crows around, it's natural (and fun) to say, "A murder of crows was on the neighbor's back tree this morning."

But what if you have a lot of Hamlets running around? How do you refer to the twenty-three Lady Macbeths you saw auditioning last night?

Here's a list for exactly those instances. Think how useful (and fun) it will be to say, "I'm not looking forward to auditions. There's a whole scrub of Lady Macbeths out there!" Without much more ado, here they are:

Shakespearean Collective Nouns

An innocence of Desdemonas.

A sack of Falstaffs.

An assignation of Bottoms.

An ide of Caesars.

A jealousy of Iagos.

A wherefore of Romeos.

A vengeance of Hamlets.

A fahrenfoul of witches.

An obscurity of Pericleses.

A gurgle of Ophelias.

A torrent of Lears.

An equivocation of Porters.

An infinite variety of Cleopatras.

A platitude of Poloniuses.

A poke of Gloucesters.

A scrub of Lady Macbeths.

A discontent of Richard IIIs.

Feel free to add your own options in the comments below. I know you've seen one too many Juliets—how would you describe them as a group?

Our thanks to kj, the author of Bardfilm. Bardfilm is a blog that comments on films, plays, and other matters related to Shakespeare in a relatively-informal manner.

Shakespeare on Boston Common 2011 : Commonwealth Announces New Season

And the winner is ..... All's Well That Ends Well?

CommShakes continues to build itself back up to prominence after the disastrous Citibank years. I love going to free Shakespeare on the Common, I think it's one of life's great pleasures. I've seen all of their shows in recent years, excepting only their Hamlet where I mistakenly waited until the last weekend and got rained out :(. So each year I await the announcement of their new main show. This year, it's All's Well.

Here's why I'm a bit troubled by that choice. I understood when they reinvented themselves with Comedy of Errors a few years ago - budget, mostly. But just recently I started the What Play Should I Tackle Next? thread where I listed 7 plays - some minor, some I simply haven't experienced yet. All's Well was one of them. Every play got two votes - except for two. Merry Wives, and All's Well. This concerns me, I worry that audiences less familiar with Shakespeare will never have heard of this one, and simply won't care.

What do we think? If you only get one Shakespeare in the park show a year would you be happy that it's All's Well That Ends Well?