"Set in Messina, the play begins as Don Pedro’s army returns after a victory. Benedick, a gentleman soldier, resumes a verbal duel with Beatrice, the niece of Messina’s governor, Leonato. Count Claudio is smitten by Leonato’s daughter, Hero. After Don Pedro woos her in disguise for Claudio, the two young lovers plan to marry in a week. To fill in the time until the wedding, Don Pedro and the others set about tricking Benedick and Beatrice into...

Planning a school or amateur Shakespeare production? The best way to experience the plays is to perform them, but getting started can be a challenge: The complete plays are too long and complex, while scene selections or simplified language are too limited. "The 30-Minute Shakespeare" is a new series of abridgements that tell the "story" of each play from start to finish while keeping the beauty of Shakespeare's language intact. Specific stage directions...

William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," is a classic comedy of mistaken identities, a device employed in a number of the bard's plays, which is believed to have been written sometime between 1601 and 1602. When Viola is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria she is separated from her twin brother Sebastian, who she mistakenly believes to be dead. With the help of the ship captain who rescues her, she enters into the service of Duke Orsino, who has fallen...

"Romeo and Juliet", one of William Shakespeare's most iconic tragedies, tells the poignant tale of young love and family conflict. Set in Verona, Italy, the story revolves around the passionate romance between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, members of feuding families. The star-crossed lovers meet at a masquerade ball and quickly fall deeply in love, despite their families' bitter rivalry. Their secret relationship leads to a series of events...

Exiled royals--including a duke's daughter, disguised as a man--and country folk, learn lessons about class and gender through a series of love triangles in the Forest of Arden.

The New Folger Library edition of Shakespeare's plays provides accurate texts in modern spelling and punctuation, as well as scene-by-scene action summaries, full explanatory notes, many pictures clarifying Shakespeare's language, and notes recording all significant departures from the early printed versions. The play is prefaced by a brief introduction, by a guide to reading Shakespeare's language, and by accounts of his life and theater, followed...