In the latest effort to use digital technology to transform how consumers, students and teachers engage with the Bard, independent U.S. publisher Sourcebooks has just released The Shakesperience, enhanced e-books that exploit the iPad’s touchscreen technology to bring Shakespeare’s plays to life in new ways with a selection of multimedia and text.

The Shakesperience editions of the classic plays offer:

• a glossary embedded in the text

• audio introductions and commentary by theatre professionals like Sir Derek Jacobi and voice coach Andrew Wade of the Royal Shakespeare Company

• video and audio presentations of classic scenes and performances from such well-known actors as Orson Welles, Paul Robeson, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Sir Laurence Olivier, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sir John Gielgud as well as rare recordings by Edwin Booth and F. Scott Fitzgerald embedded alongside the text

• presentations that examine individual scenes in different ways, offering analysis, historical context and interviews with full casts and directors

• image galleries of costume and set design and interviews with voice coaches on how to approach the Bard’s various characters, language and scenes

• ability to make notes, bookmark and highlight the text.

Sourcebooks has launched Shakesperience editions of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Othello which are available worldwide exclusively on the iBookstore.