Renaissance Acting Editions: The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice [Othello, the Moor of Venice]

Book excerpt: Shakespeare's actors did not receive a copy of the entire script but instead worked from "cue-scripts" or "part scripts" which contained only the lines and cues for a single character. The Renaissance Acting Editions provide cue-scripts for those who wish to experiment with the early modern acting process. Each play in the series consists of a set of cue-scripts and an unabridged prompt-script in modern font edited and prepared from William Shakespeare's First Folio of 1623. A "platt" (a.k.a. a "plot," a running list of entrances, exits, and major stage business) and instructions for assembling a cue-script roll are also included. These editions are not direct transcriptions of the First Folio texts. Original spelling, punctuation, and verse lineation have been retained throughout, but minimal revision has been done (e.g., correction of missing entrances and exits, restoration of simultaneous dialogue, etc.) to make the scripts more user-friendly.