Every stage below is described in the same depth its own source page uses, and every status label matches what that page says about itself.
Stage 1 · Plan the season and keep every title's rights straight
Every school theatre program starts here: which shows, in what order, and what has to be true before the curtain can legally go up on each one. A season board tracks each title as a production record -- its rights status (pending, confirmed, expired, returned), the royalty and licensing deadline when a script comes from a licensing house, the key dates from first read-through to strike, and the staff assigned to run it: director, choreographer, music director, technical director. A department running a one-act, a full-length play, and a spring musical in the same year sees all three at once instead of three separate folders and an email thread nobody can find again in June. This stage is built and run on theatre.software's season board, in early access today: program data only -- shows, dates, and staff assignments, never a student roster.
- Season calendar with production milestones -- first read-through, auditions, rehearsal start, tech week, opening night, strike
- Rights and licensing status per title -- pending, confirmed, expired, or returned, with the royalty deadline attached
- Staff and role assignments per production -- director, choreographer, music director, technical director
- Multi-show seasons: a one-act, a full-length play, and a musical tracked side by side, not in three separate folders
- Notes and file attachments per show -- scripts, director's concept, rehearsal photos
- Program data only -- shows, dates, and staff assignments; never a student roster
Early access -- theatre.software's season board
Built and run on theatre.software.
Stage 2 · Cast the show: a free monologue library and audition-day tools
Before a season's rights are even cleared, most programs already need audition material, and a photocopied binder of monologues older than the current department chair is not a casting strategy. The FreeSchoolPlays library is browsable by age band, genre, length, gender-flex, and an illustrative forensics-eligibility tag -- never an official NSDA, NCFL, or UIL certification, disclosed everywhere the tag appears -- and every play and monologue in it is free to read, rehearse, and perform at zero royalty and zero per-performance fee. An audition-cut packet generator turns any monologue into a print-ready, audition-day page with a slate block and a machine-placed, non-removable attribution credit, produced in the browser as an ordinary print-to-PDF, never a fabricated export. Practice recording so a student can hear their own reading back is consent-gated: no audio is stored or transmitted for a minor cast member until a guardian has approved it. The catalog itself is live today; the browser interface, the audition-cut tooling, and teacher assignment tie-ins are early access. Where each piece originates, and where a cast's working script goes next for rehearsal, is mapped in full at schooltheatre.network/scripts.
- Free monologue library filtered by age band, genre, length, and gender-flex
- Illustrative forensics-eligibility tags -- never an official NSDA, NCFL, or UIL certification
- Audition-cut packet generator -- a print-ready page with a slate block and non-removable attribution
- Zero royalty and zero per-performance fee on every catalog title, always
- Practice recording of a student's own reading -- consent-gated for minor cast members
- Teacher assignment tie-ins for a class or a department, early access
- Where a script comes from (the catalog or playscript.software) and where it goes next (the Living Promptbook) -- mapped in full at /scripts
Catalog live; browser and audition tools early access
Built and run on monologue.network.
Stage 3 · Rehearse from one script that is always the current one
A show in rehearsal generates a cut here, a re-staged cross there, a line note after a run -- and the version everyone is actually holding drifts within a week unless something keeps it honest. The Living Promptbook syncs a director's cuts, blocking, and notes to every cast member's own device within seconds of a change, so nobody quietly memorizes a speech that got cut on Tuesday. The sync substrate -- Hocuspocus and Yjs, a conflict-free replicated data type -- is the same engine that already runs the platform's own yearbook editor in daily school use; it is production-ready today, not a prototype. The promptbook surface itself -- the per-role reader, blocking notation, the stage manager's cue list, and voice notes on a line -- is designed and in active development. Voice notes from a minor cast member are consent-gated: a guardian must approve before any audio is stored or transmitted, and a student who is not approved simply rehearses without that one feature. Any role's pages can switch to large-print or high-contrast on that student's own device.
- Live script sync -- a cut or a blocking note reaches every cast member's device within seconds
- Per-role script reader -- each actor's own lines, cues, and approved cuts, kept current
- Blocking notation sketched over the set and synced to the scene it belongs to
- Stage manager's cue list -- LX, sound, fly, deck, and custom cues, called from the same system the director watches
- Actor voice notes -- consent-gated: a guardian approves before any audio is stored or transmitted for a minor
- Per-role accessibility -- large-print or high-contrast on a student's own device, without reprinting the script
Sync engine in production; promptbook surface in development
Built and run on playscripts.digital.
Stage 4 · Sell the house without overselling it
Opening night needs a box office, and a program running three shows a year needs the same box office to work for all three without a separate signup each time. A ticketed event carries named ticket tiers at exact-cents prices and a finite capacity that never oversells -- an order that would push the sold count past a tier's limit is rejected whole. Reserved seating is fail-closed on a double booking: an order clears only when every requested seat exists and is free, so two families never end up holding the same seat. A QR code at the door admits each ticket exactly once, will-call and ticket transfer are handled without a separate phone call, and concessions and the settlement report are built for the volunteer running the table, access limited to box-office staff. What is honest-off, on every one of these engines, is the live payment rail: every charge routes through one shared rail that is not provisioned today, so no card is charged and an unpaid order is not admitted at the door.
- Named ticket tiers at exact-cents prices with a finite capacity that never oversells
- Reserved seating that fails closed on any double booking -- two families never hold the same seat
- A QR door scan that admits each ticket exactly once; a second scan of the same ticket is refused
- Will-call, delivery, and ticket transfer handled without a separate phone call
- Concessions point-of-sale and a settlement report, access limited to box-office staff
- The live payment rail is honest-off -- no card is charged, and an unpaid order is not admitted at the door
Ticketing and seating engines built and tested; live payment rail honest-off
Built and run on schoolboxoffice.network.
Stage 5 · Build the playbill from the show's own data
A playbill usually starts as a blank document, re-typed from scratch for every show, by whoever drew the short straw this time. Here it starts as a button: the cast and crew list, the scene and musical-number breakdown, and the attribution block pull directly from the season and production record, so nobody re-types a name that is already on file. A director adds the note and the show's own sponsor slots and acknowledgements, then exports to a print-ready PDF at the bleed margins a print shop expects, or publishes an online edition a family opens on a phone during intermission -- no app download, no separate account. Any student photo used in the program passes through the same consent gate as the rest of the platform: an unconsented photo is not placed, and that is not a setting an administrator can turn off. For a FreeSchoolPlays title, the required attribution credit is machine-placed and cannot be left off.
- Cast and crew list auto-populated from the production record
- Director's note, scene breakdown, musical numbers, and acknowledgements sections
- Program ad slots for local sponsors, with school revenue share
- Print-to-PDF at correct bleed margins, or an online edition opened on a phone -- no app download
- Consent gate on any student photo used in the program -- an unconsented photo is never placed
- Free-to-perform attribution credit is machine-placed and cannot be left off
Early access -- auto-populated from the production record
Built and run on theatre.software.