Performance in Digital Editions of Shakespeare

A growing number of apps and iBooks seek to take advantage of digital technologies to incorporate photos, videos, and audio recordings into editions of Shakespeare’s plays, touting these additions as a boon for understanding Shakespeare. But any promise of transforming how editions can draw on and connect to performances of the plays has not yet been met. Instead, such promises run smack into the limitations of technology, money, rights, and imagination—all hampered by a failure to understand what purpose linking to performances might serve and undermining the pedagogical aims of teaching students to interpret Shakespeare on their own.