In ‚  Shakespeare, players are theater managers who must recruit actors, craftsmen, jewelers and others in order to assemble everything needed for the play's performance at week's end.

In more detail, the game lasts six days and on each day players recruit one new character " starting with five at the beginning of the game: four identical ones on their individual player board and one that they've drafted " and take 1-5 actions with the characters they have.