The rehearsal stage -- schedule and the Living Promptbook -- part of the school theatre network

Rehearsal: when it happens, and the one script everyone is actually holding

Rehearsal is two problems, not one. First: when is everyone called, and what dates does the whole production hang off -- first read-through, rehearsal start, tech week. Second: once the company is in the room, is the script in front of every actor the current one, or a version from two notes sessions ago. schooltheatre.network does not solve either problem itself -- it maps both to the real, built product that does: theatre.software's season board for the dates, and playscripts.digital's Living Promptbook for the script that stays current on every device.

Book a conversation What is live vs. in development

Read this before the feature list

Two different claims. Never one claim.

Sync engine in production is a different claim than In development . This page never states one when it means the other.

The Living Promptbook is not one thing with one status. The sync SUBSTRATE underneath it -- Hocuspocus and Yjs, the conflict-free replicated data type (CRDT) that merges a cut, a blocking note, or a cue change from every device without a central referee -- is production-ready today. It is the same engine already running the platform's own yearbook editor in daily school use, not a prototype built for this page.

The promptbook UI SURFACE -- the director's workspace, the per-role actor reader, the blocking view, the stage manager's cue list, and per-role accessibility settings -- is designed and in active development. It is what gets built on top of the substrate, not the substrate itself.

This page states both, every time, and never collapses them into one merged claim that the promptbook surface itself has shipped. It has not shipped. The engine underneath it has.

First: when

The rehearsal-window dates live on the season board, not a new calendar

Before a company is ever in the room, a production already has a shape: first read-through, rehearsal start, tech week, opening night, strike. schooltheatre.network does not stand up a second calendar for rehearsal alone -- those dates are milestones on the same season board named on the network map's season stage, built and run on theatre.software, in early access today. A department running a one-act, a full-length play, and a spring musical in the same year sees all three rehearsal windows at once instead of three separate folders.

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.

Then: what happens in the room

The Living Promptbook, in full

This is the same promptbook stage named on the network map, expanded to its full six features and the four-step workflow that gets a director's script onto every cast member's device. Every claim below is the one playscripts.digital makes about itself -- nothing here is strengthened for this page.

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.

How it works

From one director’s script to every device in the room

The promptbook is designed around a simple premise: the director annotates once, and every device in the company sees the result.

Step 1 · Director

Upload or link your script

Bring a script in from playscript.software, a Fountain file, or a plain PDF. The director’s workspace lays out the full text with scene-by-scene navigation, so you can move through French scenes and act breaks without thumbing pages. Assign characters, mark your cuts, rough in blocking, and drop rehearsal notes as you prep — the work you do at the kitchen table the week before is the same script the company opens at first read-through.

Step 2 · Cast member

Cast members get a link, not a file

Each role gets a link the actor opens on their own device — phone, tablet, school Chromebook, laptop. No install, no app store, no account for an actor to create and then forget the password to. They land straight on their character, highlighted, with every current director’s note and approved cut already in place: the same script the director is working from, minus the parts that are not theirs to carry.

Step 3 · Director

Every change propagates in seconds

Cut a page at a note session, re-stage an entrance, add a line note after a run — the change is on every connected device within seconds, not sitting in an email the cast reads (or does not) before the next call. The company is never rehearsing three different versions at once. There is one script, it is the current one, and everyone in the room is holding it.

Step 4 · Stage manager

Stage manager runs the show from the same system

The stage manager’s book lives in the same place as everyone else’s script — blocking, cues, and line notes in a single promptbook instead of a binder, a cue sheet, and a group chat that disagree with each other. Through tech, the SM calls each standby and GO with one tap while the director tracks timing from their own view. When an actor goes up on a line, whoever is on book is already on the right page — no scramble to work out which version is in front of them.

Features

What the Living Promptbook does

Every feature is described honestly: Sync engine in production means the underlying system is running in real schools today. In development means the promptbook surface for this feature is being built. Actor voice notes are additionally consent-gated: a guardian must approve before any audio is stored or transmitted for a minor cast member.

Live script sync

The director marks a cut, tightens a blocking note, or flips two speeches in the running order — and every cast member’s device catches up within seconds. No group-chat thread, no resent PDFs, no “which version are you using?” five minutes before a run. When an actor loses signal in the wings and rejoins, their script reconciles cleanly instead of stomping on the change that landed while they were dark — and that reconciliation is the genuinely hard part. It is already solved: sync runs on Hocuspocus + Yjs, a conflict-free replicated data type (CRDT) that merges edits from every device without a central referee deciding whose change wins. It is the same engine that runs our own yearbook editor in daily school use, not a prototype stood up for a demo.

Sync engine in production

Per-role script reader

Each actor opens a link on their own device and lands on their track — their lines highlighted, the cue line before each one in view, and every approved cut and director’s note already applied. Running a scene off-book? One tap hides their own lines so they can test themselves and catch where they have been paraphrasing. There is no “what page are we on”: the reader is always the rehearsal-current script, so nobody quietly memorises a speech that got cut on Tuesday. An understudy or cover can open the same track to study a role without another photocopied stack of sides.

In development

Actor voice notes

Actors can leave a short voice note on any line — their own reading to learn against, a director’s correction on a piece of pacing, a proper noun they keep mangling. A director can pin an audio note to a cue instead of shouting it across the house mid-run. For minor cast members this is consent-gated: a guardian must give explicit approval before any audio is stored or transmitted, and nothing is recorded without that consent on record. If a guardian declines, the actor simply works without the feature and nothing else about their promptbook changes. Recordings stay inside our own systems and are never shared outside the production.

In development · consent-gated for minor cast members

Stage manager cue list

A working cue sheet for LX, sound, fly, deck, video, and any custom cue type the show needs — sequenced in script order with a standby, then a GO, for each. During a cue-to-cue the stage manager jumps cue to cue without scrolling through three separate PDFs; on a run they call the show from their own device while the director watches the same timing from theirs. It is built into the promptbook, not a separate cue-calling app to alt-tab into when a warning is thirty seconds out.

In development

Blocking notation

Sketch blocking straight onto a plain overhead of the set, scene by scene — entrances and exits, crosses, end positions, spike marks. The instant it is set, that staging syncs to every actor’s reader for the scene, so no one burns the top of rehearsal copying the director’s pencil marks into their own script. When a cross gets re-staged on Thursday, the old version does not live on in six different photocopies: there is one drawing of the scene, and it is the current one.

In development

Per-role accessibility

Any role’s pages can switch to large-print or high-contrast on that student’s own device — an 18-point layout for the actor who needs it, without reprinting the script or making the accommodation obvious to the rest of the company. A read-aloud option, for actors who take a script in faster by ear than by eye, is on the roadmap. The settings ride with the actor’s device profile rather than one printed copy, so the accommodation follows the student from the rehearsal room to the wings on opening night.

In development

Get started

Tell us where your production is in the rehearsal process

There is no pricing commitment and no signup on this page. A conversation shows the current, honest state of the season board and the promptbook, and connects you to whichever sibling product your program needs first.

To book: email [email protected].

FAQ

Common questions

Is the rehearsal schedule part of the Living Promptbook?

No, and this page keeps them separate on purpose. The rehearsal-window dates -- first read-through, rehearsal start, tech week, opening night, strike -- are milestones on theatre.software's season board, in early access. The Living Promptbook is a different product: the synced script, blocking, cue list, and voice notes a company uses once it is in the room. They are built by different products for a reason -- a program can use the season board without the promptbook, or the promptbook without the season board.

Does this page show which students are called to a given rehearsal?

No. This page describes program data only -- dates, features, and workflow steps -- never a public student roster. A per-student call schedule, like a cast member's own script, is staff- and guardian-facing data inside the underlying product, not something published on this page.

Does this replace the printed script?

It can, but it does not have to. Many directors will run digital scripts during rehearsal blocks and still hand printed sides to cast for tech week or the run. The tool is built to fit whatever your programme needs — not to force a workflow.

What happens if the network drops during tech week or a show?

Two honest answers. First, the sync layer is built for exactly this: a device that loses signal keeps working on its own copy and reconciles cleanly when it reconnects, because the CRDT merges what changed on both sides instead of picking a winner. Second, we do not pretend a school’s wifi is guaranteed — for tech week and the run, most stage managers will keep a printed promptbook and printed sides as a paper backup. The tool is designed to sit alongside paper, not to strand you if a router in the booth gives out mid-show. As for load, this is the same collaborative engine that already carries whole schools editing a yearbook at once; one production’s cast is well inside what it handles.

What does “consent-gated for minor cast members” mean?

Before a minor cast member can record a voice note inside the app, a parent or guardian must give explicit written approval. No audio is stored or transmitted until that record is on file. If a guardian does not approve, the actor simply cannot use the recording feature — every other part of the promptbook works without it.

Who owns the scripts and the student data?

The school does. Your scripts, your blocking, your notes, and your cast list belong to your production — we are the tool you keep them in, not the owner of what you put there. Student information is handled under the same privacy posture as the rest of the Stanley Studios suite: minimal data, never sold, never used to train models, and voice recordings by minors kept behind guardian consent. When we open early access we will put the specifics in writing, so your district can read the terms before committing to anything.

Can cast members with disabilities use it?

That is a design goal, described honestly. Today: any role’s pages can be set to large-print or high-contrast on that student’s own device, without reprinting the script or making the accommodation visible to the rest of the company, and the setting follows their profile from the rehearsal room to the wings. On the roadmap: a read-aloud option for actors who take a script in by ear, and continued work toward screen-reader-friendly markup so the reader is navigable without a mouse. We would rather tell you what is in place now and what is still in build than claim a clean bill on accessibility we have not earned.

Does it work on school Chromebooks?

Yes. The promptbook runs in any modern browser with no installation and no app store. Chromebooks, Android phones, iPhones, iPads, and laptops all work. Cast members who only have a school Chromebook will see their part the same as cast members on anything else.

How is the sync engine already in production if the promptbook interface is still being built?

The Hocuspocus + Yjs CRDT engine is the same real-time system that already runs our own yearbook editor — it is in daily production use by real schools. The promptbook-specific interface (the actor reader, blocking view, cue list) is what is being built on top of that substrate. We say so plainly because we think it matters to know exactly what is real today and what is coming.

When will it be available?

The promptbook surface is in active development as of July 2026. The best way to stay current is to book a demo — we show you exactly where things stand and can discuss what timeline works for your production season.

Is there a connection to freeschoolplays.com and playscript.software?

Yes. Scripts written in playscript.software can be brought directly into the promptbook without file conversion. Productions using plays from the Free School Plays library get attribution pre-populated automatically. The three tools are separate products but built on the same substrate so they pass data cleanly when a production moves from writing to rehearsal to ticketing.

Will there be a cost?

We have not announced pricing. The promptbook is part of the Playscripts Digital early-access programme. Book a demo and we will be straight with you about where the product and the business model are headed.