SHAKE IT UP: If it’s summer, it must be Shakespeare time. This past weekend, the Trinity Shakespeare Festival launched its first two productions, winning over the crowd from the word go by staging everything inside this year. Count Lawson Taitte as one of the fans, though not just because of the air conditioning. Of Twelfth Night, he writes: “Trinity Shakes’ strategy is to mix seasoned professionals with Texas Christian University students on stage. This Twelfth Night shows the formula can work.” He seems equally pleased with Romeo and Juliet, writing: “Trinity Shakes has given us a Romeo and Juliet gorgeous to look at, intelligible at every moment and (thank goodness) with no axe to grind. It misses some of the work’s tragic grandeur but provides a lot in recompense.” The man responsible for R&J is Alexander Burns, the subject of a recent TheaterJones.com Q&A. UPDATE: Alexandra Bonifield has also weighed in on both plays.

GALLERY TIPS: Artitsts have plenty of places to learn their craft. But where do they turn for advice on staging that first gallery show? Glass Tire has put together a list of 10 tips to help on that front. Everything on the list sounds like pretty sound advice to me, particulary tip No. 9, which asks if the artist should include a performance piece for good measure: “If you want anyone to take you seriously, please do not ever include the word performance or performance art in your vocabulary, unless you happen to be someone like Laurie Anderson, which you are not.”

EVERY WORD COUNTS: Twitter has been around for three years now, but we’re still figuring out exactly what to use it for. So far, most tweets have been along the lines of, “Made sandwich, about to watch Cops!” But one writer is at least testing its limits. Playwright Jeremy Gable is currently in the midst of 140: A Twitter Performance, a play that will unfold over 60 days. In the spirit of Twitter, The Orange County Register is reviewing in appropriately tiny chunks.