Enhanced "Shakesperience" to help make sense of Bard

• Extras include glossaries, audio tracks and videos
• Famed Shakespearean actor Derek Jacobi will introduce the plays
• 'Hamlet,' 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Othello' come out this week

An independent U.S. publisher on Tuesday will begin releasing interactive iPad editions of Shakespeare's most popular plays — each one featuring an embedded glossary, audio and video clips of key scenes and production notes from past performances with stage directions, set renderings and notes on costume designs.

"We want you to get that Shakespeare is produced," said Sourcebooks Publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah.
Sourcebooks, based in Naperville, Ill., has enlisted Derek Jacobi to introduce the plays and promises audio and video clips by leading Shakespearean actors, including Judi Dench, Kenneth Branagh, Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Paul Robeson, among others. The plays, to be released collectively as The Shakesperience, will also feature a "view from the director's chair" that includes interviews with actors on how they approached the roles.
The new edition will allow readers to "explore the text and sort of follow their curiosity," Raccah said. "It supports your interests and makes it very accessible." The embedded glossaries will include upwards of 2,000 terms translated from Shakespearean-era to modern English, she said, "getting the stuff that's in your way out of your way."
Sourcebooks plans to release three plays this week — Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Othello — and another three by January. Raccah eventually plans to include about a dozen plays. Each one, available on the Apple's iBooks store, will cost $9.99,but will cost $5.99 for the first 30 days.
The first three plays are available at www.iTunes.com/Shakesperience.