For our edition we plan only to annotate "tough language." We liked the way that both Richard III and Measure for Measure did this in the editions that we are going to read. This tough language could be classified as definitions to words that may be misunderstood (or not understood), difficult metaphors or symbols, or cultural references that would be over the heads of our main audience, high schoolers (which we just changed by the way). We feel that by doing this we will encompass the "average Joe" audience as well, but it gives us a more concrete audience to work with while we are thinking about our edition.
For our example we chose the dagger scene from Act II Scene I. Once again, the "tough language" is what we would annotate here. Phrases like "heat-oppressed brain," words like "Alarumed" or "knell," and cultural references to "Tarquin" or "Hecate" would be annotations in our edition.
The point is to clarify the tough language for the high schoolers. Obviously we could provide more in depth readings of the play for them through footnotes that could perhaps enhance their reading of the play, kind of like the annotations in our edition of As You Like It. But we feel that high schoolers would be too easily influenced by these "authoritative" readings and adopt those opinions as their own without much, if any, push back. We would rather simply make the play accessible to them by defining and describing language that would otherwise be over their head and then let them develop their critical thinking skills on their own through their own interpretation.
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