This release is the story of how the outline for the Macbeth Chart arrived one night, in [my mother's] dreams. And what happened next.

My mother loved Shakespeare (I didn't, till much later,) and she wanted to invite her trainee- teacher students to create their own charts of his plays - one at a time. Once the Chart appeared to her in a dream, she got them all drawing and exploring the plays.

When I started work on charting (Macbeth,) I soon realised that the plays are, indeed, very complicated. We needed to find a way to explore and celebrate all that complexity.

Shakespeare had lots of fun writing his plays, and putting them on at the Globe Theatre in London. But he had to carefully balance his many audiences - including the Queen (Elizabeth,) followed by her nephew, James, the 'Scottish King.' And all this right in the middle of the social, medical, religious, and political upheavals of the day. The bubonic plague was like 'Covid +++' just for starters, and it kept coming back - for centuries.

But before I could visualise, and 'draw' the plays, I had to get to know each character - as well as the 12 (+) layers of meaning that Shakespeare applies to the big issues of the day.

I had to explore each play like a musical composition, with 12 sections in the virtual 'orchestra' of players for each play - including you, the audience (you get 'taken into confidence' from early on in each play.)

But once you understand at least some of that complexity, you are well on your way to enjoying and celebrating the writing, the staging, the internal rivalries, the productions, of Shakespeare's plays.

It is also enables you to explore and share ideas, graphics, and revenues, within broader issues, like:

• power and entitlement, • appearances and reality; • the ‘guard-rails’ of established institutions,
• peaceful transitions between rulers, • facts / false prophets / fake news / and so much more.