Shakespeare in 24 hours

While Shakespeare wrote that "brevity is the soul of wit," students at Wellesley College will soon know if the brevity of Shakespeare in 24 hours will test their wits.

Wellesley College's Shakespeare Society hopes to repeat its feat of five years ago when members and volunteers read the complete, unabridged works of William Shakespeare in 23 hours and 20 minutes.

“24 Hours of Shakespeare” starts Friday, May 1, at 11 am in Shakespeare House on the Wellesley campus, 106 Central St., Wellesley, Mass.

“We hope we can beat the previous record of the past Society members, but that isn't the most important thing to us,” said Elizabeth Stone, 21, a junior from Fairfax, Va. “The event for us is really about testing ourselves, setting up a very difficult challenge that will prove our love of the Bard.”

Knowing the job is bigger than the 37-member society itself, the Shakespeare aficionados are asking for volunteers to help with the massive body of work.

“This event is a huge undertaking,” acknowledged Stone, vice president of Wellesley’s Shakespeare Society. “We will be reading 39 plays, 154 sonnets and the longer poems. This includes The Two Noble Kinsman and Edward III, two plays where Shakespeare's authorship is unclear. In total, it amounts to approximately 14,000 lines.”

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