Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to tell people I saw Sir Patrick Stewart, Professor X, Captain Jean Luc “Make It (Fucking) So” Picard perform Shakespeare at Outside Lands. My brain is still having trouble processing that it happened. Did somebody slip something in my drink? Did I fall asleep in one of the long food lines and dream it? No, ’twas real and the photo above proves it. Improvised Shakespeare was one of the most intriguing events at the fest’s comedy tent the Barbary and proved to be a major highlight. The Company asks for a name of an imaginary Shakespeare play and proceeds to perform it in the Bard’s style and language for a full 50 minutes or so. Since most of what they’re doing is in meter, you’re essentially seeing someone trying to be funny, keeping the plot moving, doing it in Shakespearean language, all while free-styling so it rhymes. It’s a remarkable thing, made even more so by the guest addition of Stewart who fit it in so well he could have passed for a regular. -Miles