We perform under stage lights. We build with the work lights on.

Worklight is a set of free tools for the people who make theatre. It runs in your browser, and your work stays on your own computer.

What are you working on?

Writing a scriptWriter Charting who's onstageBreakdown Planning rehearsalsRehearsal Planner Marking the cuesPrompt Book Running the showStage Manager

Each opens in its own tab, with a sample show inside if you're just looking. Not sure which? See how they fit together

Made for stage managers

Plenty of software is made for spreadsheets, slide decks and quarterly reports. That's not us.

Worklight is here to help you draft the play, keep the book, and get everyone to places on time.

The tools

Follow a script from first draft to final call.

Every show's paperwork follows the script through its life. Worklight has a tool for each stop along the way. Each one hands its work to the next.

  1. Written Writer
  2. Broken down Breakdown
  3. Rehearsed Rehearsal Planner Prompt Book
  4. Run Stage Manager
  5. Studied Sides Cue scripts, line study, the classroom. on the drawing board
For playwrights, screenwriters and musical writers

Worklight Writer

Screenplays, stage plays and musicals, formatted correctly as you type.

  • Press Enter and the next likely element is waiting
  • Pages that print to the standard, every time
  • Your script is a file you own, on your computer

On paperA manuscript in standard format, as a PDF

Open Writer
A stage play page in Worklight Writer
For directors, designers, dramaturgs and stage managers

Worklight Breakdown

Who's onstage, French scene by French scene, and every chart and list that follows from it.

  • Starts from your Writer script or a published one
  • French scene charts, ready for the callboard
  • Checks doubling, flags quick changes, lists props

On paperThe French scene chart · scene matrix · quick-change, prop and costume lists

Open Breakdown
A French scene chart from Worklight Breakdown, for a sample show
For directors and stage managers

Worklight Rehearsal Planner

Who you can call Thursday, and which scenes you can work.

  • Everyone's conflicts beside your French scene chart
  • A rehearsal calendar that flags clashes as you plan
  • A daily call for the board, or to paste in an email

On paperThe daily call · the month for the callboard · a schedule for each person

Open Rehearsal Planner
Who can I call? in Worklight Rehearsal Planner, for a sample show
For stage managers, and anyone who keeps a book

Worklight Prompt Book

Every cue, in the book. Your photocopied script, ready for the booth.

  • Any photocopy of the script, set in clean pages
  • Cues and standbys pencilled in the margin
  • The book and each department's cue sheet, printed
  • Call the show from it, the next cue glowing amber

On paperThe book · each department's cue sheet · the calling sheet

Open Prompt Book
Cues in the margin of a script page in Worklight Prompt Book, for a sample show
For stage managers

Worklight Stage Manager

Every dropped line, caught. A sheet for each actor by the end of notes.

  • Line notes in seconds, from the page you're on
  • Rehearsal and performance reports, ready to email
  • Sign-in sheets, meeting notes and prop checklists
  • Works with Prompt Book: its cues on the run sheet

On paperA line-note sheet for each actor · reports · the run sheet

Open Stage Manager
Taking line notes in Worklight Stage Manager, for a sample show

“Sam's out Thursday. What can we still work?”

Pick a day. Worklight checks everyone's conflicts against your French scene chart, and the scenes you can work appear. Nothing up our sleeve.

How does it know?

Tell one tool. The rest already know.

A show lives in one ordinary folder on your computer. Each tool keeps its own file there and reads the others, so the cast list is typed once and nothing is copied from one piece of paperwork to the next.

The Last Lamp
  • production.jsonthe cast, contacts and conflicts
  • The Last Lamp.fountainthe script, if you wrote it here
  • breakdown.jsonwho's onstage, scene by scene
  • rehearsals.jsonthe calendar and every call
  • prompt-book.jsonevery cue, by page
  • stage-manager.jsonline notes and reports

That's the whole system: plain files, in a folder you own. Use one tool or all five.

  1. Writer Breakdown

    Breakdown reads your script and drafts the chart of who's onstage, for you to check. By rules, not AI: your script goes nowhere.

  2. Breakdown Rehearsal Planner

    The chart tells the planner who's in every scene. Add the cast's conflicts, and it knows what you can work on any day.

  3. Rehearsal Planner Stage Manager

    Today's rehearsal is waiting when you open the report: who was called, and what was planned.

  4. Prompt Book Stage Manager

    Cues marked in the book appear on the run sheet as soon as they're saved.

It all ends up on the callboard.

Theatre runs on paper, so every tool prints its paperwork: black and white, on letter paper, built to survive the photocopier.

Worklight never sends anything itself. You print it, post it, or paste it into an email.

No server. No accounts. No bill.

Worklight runs in Chrome or Edge, on a Mac, Windows or Linux computer, or an Android device. There's nothing to install and nothing to sign up for.

Want to read before you try? The Worklight Manual covers every tool.

1

Your files stay yours.

Scripts are saved as ordinary files on your computer, readable with or without Worklight.

2

No accounts, no passwords.

Open the page and start. Nobody else stores your work.

3

Share the way you already do.

Keep production files in the Google Drive, Dropbox or iCloud folder your team already uses.

4

Works from the published script.

Worklight goes by its page numbers, so everyone can follow along, whatever they're holding.

5

Free. really

No subscription, no ads, no trial.

“For years I directed plays and taught playwriting, wishing for better tools. Now I'm building them.”
A drawing of Michael Abbott
hi!

Michael Abbott · director, playwriting teacher, maker of Worklight

Free, always. If you'd like to say thanks, there's a tip jar.

What paperwork do you redo for every show?

Worklight grows out of real rehearsal rooms. Tell me what you'd want it to do, what you use now, and what you can't stand about it. Found a bug? I want to hear about that too.

Write to michael@worklight.me

Places, please.

Open Worklight Writer and start your next play. It takes about two seconds.

Open Worklight Writer

Or open Breakdown, Rehearsal Planner, Prompt Book or Stage Manager.