Breakdown

Who's onstage, French scene by French scene. Go through the script, mark who's there, and print the French scene chart. The scene matrix, the doubling check, quick-change warnings and the prop and costume lists all build on the same marks.

1. Getting started
2. The marks
3. Marking French scenes
4. Drafting from a script
5. Cast and doubling
6. Quick changes and costumes
7. Props
8. Who's on a page?
9. Arranging French scenes
10. What prints
11. Show folders
12. Dark
13. Your files and sharing
14. Keyboard shortcuts

Getting started

1. Choose New show, and make a folder for it. Every show lives in its own folder.
2. If you wrote the play in Worklight Writer and its script is in the folder, Breakdown offers to read it. Choose Draft from the script, and it fills in the characters, scenes, French scenes and who's onstage in each. Check every French scene against the script, especially characters who are onstage but don't speak. See Drafting from a script.
3. Otherwise, open Production. Under The show, enter the title and the edition's first and last pages. Under Cast and staff, add the characters, using the names the script uses.
4. Add the first French scene and mark who's there.
5. Each new French scene starts as a copy of the last, so type its page and mark only who came or went.
6. Choose Print to save any chart or list as a PDF, ready to print or email.

The marks

Each square says how a character is in a French scene. The marks differ by shape, never by color alone, so they survive a photocopier.

• Click an empty square to mark it. Clicking a marked square selects it; click it again to step through the marks, then back to empty.
• Selecting a square first means adding a prop or costume change can't change its mark by accident.

Marking French scenes

A French scene is one stretch of the play with the same people onstage. It runs until the next one starts.

Pages

• Pages are the numbers printed in your edition, not a count from the cover. A revision page such as 34A works too.
• In a Writer script, the header I – 1 – 34 is page 34. You can type it either way.
• A count below the grid shows the page you've reached against the edition's last page.

Adding French scenes

• New French scene (N) copies the marks of the one selected and starts on the same page. Type its page and mark who came or went.
• New scene (S) starts a column with nobody marked, for when the stage resets. Type the page, press Enter for the Scene box, and Enter again to go back to the grid.
• New French scenes go right after the one selected, so select the one before where you want it.
• Rows run in order of appearance, so they can shift as you mark.

"As" labels

When a character plays a part, as in KEVIN AS HUSBAND, mark the character and add "as Husband" to the square (A). Kevin is still the one onstage. Labels never affect the doubling check.

A chorus or ensemble

• A group can share one row. In Production, under Cast and staff, use + Actor to add each person.
• Split into rows gives each of them their own row, such as CHORUS 1 and CHORUS 2, with the marks copied, for when they stop moving together.

Drafting from a script

If your show's folder holds a script from Worklight Writer, Breakdown can draft the breakdown for you to check.

1. Open the folder with New show or Open a show folder.
2. Choose Draft from the script, or Start blank to mark it yourself.
3. Check every French scene against the script, and correct what's wrong.

• The draft fills in the title, characters, acts, scenes, French scenes, marks, "as" labels and pages. Props, costume changes and actors are left for you.
• Who speaks is certain. Who else is onstage is worked out from the stage directions, so silent characters are worth a careful look.
• It runs once, when you start, so it never overwrites your corrections, and it never changes your script. If the script changes later, update the breakdown by hand.
• It works in your browser by rules, not AI. Your script goes nowhere.

Cast and doubling

• In Production, under Cast and staff, type who plays each character in the Played by box. Use the same name on two characters to double them.
• Worklight checks every French scene. A red outline means one actor's two characters are both there.
• A dashed outline means worth a look: an offstage voice or a brief passing-through, which can sometimes work.
• The Doubling button, at the bottom right, lists them all, and clicking one takes you to that French scene. It only flags; your marks stay as you left them.
• Actors' names print under their characters on the chart and the matrix.

Quick changes and costumes

Worklight measures the script between an actor's last appearance as one character and their first as the next. An offstage voice doesn't count as an appearance.

• Back to back is a quick change, flagged red in the corner of the square. One French scene between, or under 2 pages, is tight, flagged amber.
• There are no running times here, so a flag is a prompt to look, not a verdict.
• The Quick changes button lists them all by actor. That's fine hides one you've checked and takes it off the printed list; Bring back undoes it.

Costume changes

• For a costume change within one character, click the square and type it in the Costume change box ("into the red dress"). The square shows a C, with the note on hover.
• The same check runs from the character's last appearance. A costume change isn't copied into the next French scene.

Props

Props belong to the playwright's scenes and to characters, so Stage Manager can build its preset and run sheet from them.

• Click a character's square, type in Add a prop and press Enter. It goes with that character in that scene, and the square shows a P. Hover to see the props.
• Props, in the toolbar, opens the list for the whole show: one row for each use, with scene, character (or Set onstage), page and note.
• Names you've used are offered as you type, so one prop stays one prop. Page starts at the scene's first page, and you can change it.
• A prop whose scene has been renamed in the grid says "not in the grid", and prints last.

Who's on a page?

Who's on a page?, at the bottom right, or P, lists everyone in any French scene that touches a page, with their largest part on it. A French scene that ends partway down the page still counts, so both count on a page where one gives way to the next.

Arranging French scenes

• Click a French scene's number at the top of the grid, then use Arrange to move it earlier or later, move it to the end, clear it or delete it.
• Clear this French scene empties its marks and keeps the column.
• Everything can be undone.

What prints

Print, in the toolbar, saves a PDF wherever you choose, starting in the show's folder.

• French scene chart: a column for every French scene, with act and scene bands, the start pages and a key to the marks.
• Scene matrix: a column for each of the playwright's scenes, showing each character's largest part in it. For rehearsal planning.
• Quick changes: a list for wardrobe, actor by actor, in script order.
• Props by scene, for the crew, and Props by character, with each actor named, then what's set onstage.
• Costume changes: every change by character, with the actor named, by scene and page.

How it prints

• Everything prints on letter paper, sideways, in black and white, so it survives a photocopier.
• A long show runs to several sheets, breaking at the end of an act or scene where it can, with the names repeated on each.
• An "as" label too long for its square moves to a numbered note below the chart.
• The lists use the play's scenes and characters, so French scene numbers don't appear on them.

Show folders

• To change shows, click the show's title in the toolbar. It offers New show and Open another show folder, and offers to save first.
• New show never starts over a show already in the folder; it offers to open that show instead.
• A folder with a Writer script and no show is ready to break down. Breakdown adds its own files beside the script.
• The start screen offers to reopen the last show by name. Chrome may ask permission again in a new visit.

Dark

Dark gives the app a dim backstage look, for working at night or in a darkened theatre.

1. Click the palette button, beside the ? in the black band.
2. Choose Dark. Choose Paper & Ink to go back.

• One choice covers Breakdown, Rehearsal Planner and Stage Manager, and is remembered in this browser.
• Dark changes only the screen. Everything you print is black on white as always.

Your files and sharing

• Your show stays in its folder as production.json and breakdown.json. Nothing goes to any server, and no script text is ever kept in Breakdown's files.
• The cast, characters and the show's details are in production.json, which every Worklight app shares. Stage Manager and Rehearsal Planner read your breakdown from breakdown.json.
• To share, keep the folder in a cloud service you already use, such as Google Drive or Dropbox. Worklight only sees a folder; your service does the syncing.
• One person edits at a time. If a file changes while you have it open, Worklight warns you before saving.
• Unsaved work is backed up in this browser until you save.

Keyboard shortcuts

They work in the grid, when you're not typing in a box.

On a Mac, use ⌘ in place of Ctrl.