These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen).
Features of each edition include:
- The introduction to the original Kittredge Edition
- Editor s Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play s performance history on stage and screen.
- Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge s superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare s sometimes demanding language.
- Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices.
- How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare s words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page."
- Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare s life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays.
- Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions Introduction.
- Select Bibliography & Filmography
- Images from major productions, for comparison and scene study.