History of cross-dressing the Pelennor Fields outside the city Minas Tirith. In Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness series, the main character, Alanna, disguises herself as a boy for eight years in order to become a knight. William Shakespeare made substantial use of cross-dressing for female characters who took on masculine clothing to carry out actions difficult for women. In "The Merchant of Venice", Portia and her maid dress as men to plead in court on the merchant's behalf, and are quite successful in their ruse; in the same play, Shylock's daughter Jessica dresses as a man to elope with her Christian lover.
Shakespeare by the Sea (Australia) Shakespeare by the Sea (Australia) Shakespeare by the Sea was a summer outdoor event held at Balmoral Beach in Sydney's northern suburbs, using a band rotunda as a backdrop, that ran in summer (January to early March) for twenty-five seasons, from 1987 to 2011. The event was started in 1987 by David MacSwan, pre-dating other similarly named events such as Shakespeare by the Sea, Halifax, which was founded in 1994. Each season featured two plays, mostly from Shakespeare's canon including, "Henry IV" (parts 1 and 2), "Romeo and Juliet", "King Lear", "The Merchant of Venice", "The Two Gentlemen of Verona",