WilliamOnWeb—a Vancouver-based company devoted to digitizing Shakespeare texts—has launched a new Website and editing software, Scriptivate.

“We’re thrilled to be out in the real world,” chief operating officer and Vancouverite James Pollard told the Straight. “We’ve been working with the community and doing lots of tests for the past three years.”

The online service (at www.williamonweb.com/) provides full versions and director’s-cut versions of the Bard’s most popular plays. While full text scripts are free, the ones dubbed Director’s Cuts are $19.97.

To create an authoritative cut version of each play, a team of theatre professionals headed by lead editor Patricia Ludwick consulted and referenced numerous editions, drawing on 400 years of editing practices—including Arden and Applause as well as Norton Facsimile First Folio.

Due to the length and scope of the average Shakespeare play, most directors need to cut characters or scenes from the text—a process that could take weeks, according to Pollard. The Director’s Cut version of a play is supposed to provide directors with a head start.

The cuts are made by WilliamOnWeb through Scriptivate, the editing software designed by the company. The edits appear on the digitized script with a line through them. Directors can then see where the cuts were made, choosing to accept or reject them, and can also add their own.

“The Website is directed towards people who know Shakespeare and understand how to work with his texts,” says Pollard, who stresses that the cut scripts aim to maintain the integrity of the original plays.

Pollard says it was not until recently that digital versions of Shakespeare’s texts were available. Those that did exist online were often more difficult to use than the analogue processes. Vancouver CEO Lionel Lukin Johnston—a former stage manager and IT designer—founded WilliamOnWeb to make the process easier for directors while still leaving room for their interpretations.

“There are only a few choices out there to shorten the plays and tighten them up” says Pollard. “We provide one option, but it’s still entirely up to the director. There’s room for flexibility.”

There are currently six plays on the Website: As You Like It, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo And Juliet, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night. By the end of this summer, WilliamOnWeb plans to feature 21 of Shakespeare’s most popular plays.