Regina Buccola is Associate Professor in the Department of Literature and Language at Roosevelt University, USA.

• Series Introduction; Timeline; Introduction, Regina Buccola (Roosevelt University, USA); 1. The Critical Backstory, Dorothea Kehler (San Diego State University, USA); 2. Performance History, Jeremy Lopez (University of Toronto, CA); 3. The State of the Art - Current Critical Research, Tripthi Pillai (Loyola University, USA); 4. New Directions: Soundings in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tom Clayton (University of Minnesota, USA); 5. New Directions: The Weaver's Dream - Mnemonic scripts and Memorial texts, Paul Menzer (Mary Baldwin College, USA); 6. New Directions: Spirits of Another Sort: Constructing Shakespeare's Fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Matthew Woodcock (UEA, UK); 7. New Directions: Shakespeare and the Fairy King: Re-viewing the Cultural and Political Contexts of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Annaliese Connolly (Sheffield Hallam University, UK); Resources, Adrienne L. Eastwood (San Jose State University, USA); Notes on Contributors; Index.

"In her excellent, comprehensive introduction to this exciting new collection of essays, Regina Buccola rightly states that 'the authors gathered here have offered new visions of [A Midsummer Night's] Dream on the page and on the stage.' Although several books and collections on the Dream have appeared over the years that help introduce students and teachers to various critical approaches making this play more thoroughly enjoyable as well as accessible, Buccola's collection updates and carries the process considerably further; hence, the book is an indispensable guide to anyone interested in plumbing deeper the rich depths of Shakespeare's comedy." - Jay Halio, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Delaware, USA