Ok, I admit it: I've always had a hankering to play Macbeth. Not because of his character development or the poetry of his speeches, but ... well ... because of the sheer violence!

It's such a big part to play. You get to brood on murderous thoughts, get overcome with ambition, guilt and wield that big sword around at the end. That's what performing Shakespeare is all about! Who wants to play Hamlet and mope around in black for three hours? Not me.

Playwright Dennis Kelly said earlier today that "I can't imagine a more violent writer than Shakespeare," and I must agree with him. There's something about Shakespeare's plays - the tragedies in particular - that require violence. For Shakespeare, violence is a language, a force of nature. Through it he communicates the passion of his best characters. Even Hamlet springs into action at the end of the play after shuffling around the stage in a depression.

Am I alone in this? Is anyone else attracted to Shakespeare for the violence? I hope that someone out there is with me.

On Friday, the Wellesley College Shakespeare Society will be attempting the impossible - reading the complete works of Shakespeare in 24 hours.

All 39 plays and 154 sonnets will be read aloud by students, staff and guests at the all day (and all night) literary festival.

This is surely a mammoth task - and reading Hamlet in the early hours of the morning would surely be a surreal experience. If you're awake and want to follow the society's progress, then why not follow them on Twitter (www.twitter.com/24hrShakes) - another surreal undertaking for one of our oldest pre-Twitter Shakespeare Societies which was established in 1877.

I have a suspicion that a 24-hour festival could add something to Shakespeare - I've always felt that particular plays suit certain times of the day and night. Macbeth at midnight? The Tempest at dawn? A Midsummer Night's Dream at dusk?

Good luck to you all!

Last week, staff at Shakespeare's Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon waited eagerly for a very special visitor.

Unawares, Alison Smith and her family made their way through the ticket office and were met with a very special surprise - she had become the house's 25th million visitor!

25 million visitors is an impressive number - especially if you've ever seen how small the house is!

The family from Ireland has joined a long tradition of literary pilgrimage. The house in Henley Street has been attracting visitors since the early 1800s and has been visited by a host of famous names including Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Thomas Hardy. It was customary for these guests to scratch their names into the glass of the birth room window - a practice that the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust put an end to. The original window is on display and a "signature free" replacement now adorns the birth room.

The family from Ireland received a facsimile of the First Folio, a lifetime entry pass and a special performance from actors - but did they get to scratch their name in the glass? I hope so (but I think we all know the answer).

Photo © Peter Scholey / Getty Images

I recently reported that the Royal Shakespeare Company will be shipping over to New York a full-scale replica of its Stratford-upon-Avon theater for a repertoire of five plays in 2011. I can't get over the scale of this project - so I've been looking into what the RSC will be packing in their suitcase.

• 1 x replica theatre (930 seats)
• 425 x costumes
• 20 x wigs
• 38 x fake facial hair pieces (15 beards, 15 moustaches, 5 sideburns, 2 joke beards and one set of eyebrows)
• 20 x liters of blood
• 5 x tins of lychees for eye balls
• 4 x prosthetic wounds

As we all know, packing for a holiday can be stressful and you always forget something important! If you can think of anything they've missed, please comment below.