The Project: Project Folio will be an attempt to create an on-line UR-TEXT of the complete Shakespeare works. I hope to take a scholarly approach towards recreating, as closely as possible, the original intentions of Shakespeare's works. We will work from the text out. From the text we will simulate original blocking, lighting, etc. the way Shakespeare envisioned it and the way they were originally performed in the Globe theatre in the 1600's. We will use 3-D models of the Globe Theatre, simulate animated blocking and more. Ideally, we would create an interactive frame-work where a visitor could re-block scenes.

Overview:In 1995 I successfully defended my NYU Master's thesis, "Theatre and the Interactive Stage of the Computer. " Broadly, the thesis explored the storytelling possibilities of the computer as an emerging medium within the context of previous emerging mediums (television, radio, film). I argued that since previous emerging mediums have started with theatre as an entry point towards discovering the possibilities of their new medium, computer storytellers should consider the potential of interactive storytelling within the context of theatre and its techniques.

Since completing my thesis, I have focused my creative energies working in the bunkers of interactive media. I worked for two years with Ingenius, a daily news/educational venture with Reuters NewMedia and TCI. For the past year and a half I've worked for NBC Digital productions in the Interactive Broadcast Group focusing on the convergence of the the computer with television. To date, I've worked on "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."

Although I've enjoyed my work in the front lines there's been a nagging in the back of my mind. There are unfinished questions from my thesis, there is work that still needs to be done. One of my grand ideas was using interactive media to look at a Shakespeare play and use the collaborative community to discuss and discover the many possibilities of scene blocking, lighting design, etc. I imagined it to be an on-line, pseudo scholarly effort and a chance to share with others the thrill of creative collaboration in a play. Given the changes in the medium in the past four years (easier to build a site, a growing on-line community, etc.) and in an effort to silence the nagging guilt of inaction in my mind I have decided to proceed with the project. From the onset, let me say that I do not pretend to be a scholar or an expert. What we discover I will learn through trial and error and with help from you. This project will be a labour of love. It will be a continuation of my lifelong passion for theatre, an effort to explore the possibilities of interactive media within the context of theatre and an experiment in collaboration.

Acknowledgements: At the onset of this project I'd like to acknowledge my creative inspiration. Brenda Laurel's "The Computer as Theatre" got me started on this journey in 1992. She made the connection between theatre, computers, interactivity and character. Perhaps someday I'll have the opportunity to meet her and thank her. My thesis advisors: Jaime Levy, for agreeing to work with me when nobody else at NYU would give me a chance, understood what I was talking about or believed I could do it. Professor John Carroll for similar reasons. He didn't understand a thing about computers or new media, but he damn well knew theatre and storytelling. He pointed me in the right directionand stayed with me to the end. John James and my former television colleagues in Syracuse New York, for encouraging me to follow my bliss and return to school and pursue my Master's.