Rehearsal Planner

Who can be called when, the daily call and the calendar. Enter everyone's conflicts once, and Rehearsal Planner tells you which scenes can be worked at any time, calls the right people for each one, and prints the call, the calendar and each person's schedule.

1. Getting started
2. Conflicts
3. Collecting conflicts with a form
4. Who can I call?
5. The calendar
6. Meetings, dress rehearsals and performances
7. Planning a rehearsal
8. Warnings
9. The daily call
10. Schedules and calendar files
11. Coverage
12. Dark
13. Your files and sharing
14. Keyboard shortcuts

Getting started

1. Choose Open a show folder, and pick the folder your show lives in. If it already has a breakdown from Worklight Breakdown, the scenes are ready.
2. In Production, under The show, add the show's dates. Under Cast and staff, say who plays each character, and add staff such as the director.
3. Choose Conflicts in the toolbar, and enter each person's conflicts, or collect them with a company form.
4. Set up rehearsals, above the month, fills in the days you usually meet. Click any date to add one more, or to mark a day off.
5. Click a rehearsal to plan it. Click a scene to add it, and its people are called for you.
6. Print call on a rehearsal, dress rehearsal or performance saves that call as a PDF, ready to post or email. Print calendar does the same for the month.

Conflicts

Conflicts, in the toolbar, lists everyone in the company with their conflicts.

• A conflict can be one day, several days in a row, or every week, all day or for part of a day. Leave out the times for all day.
• Can't come means impossible. Would rather not means you can ask.
• A conflict that runs past midnight is entered as two.
• A weekly conflict with no end date, such as a Tuesday class, counts until tech (or opening, if there's no tech date), since the company clears those for the run. Give it an end date to have it count longer. A conflict on a date still counts on a show night, so you'll hear about an actor who has written down a performance.
• Notes on conflicts are for you. They never print on a call, schedule or calendar, but anyone with the show's folder can read them, so keep them general.

Collecting conflicts with a form

One form asks each person for their phone, email and conflicts together. Worklight doesn't connect to Google; you make the form and bring the answers back as a file.

1. Add the show's dates in Production, under The show, so the form can give them.
2. In Conflicts or Contacts, click Make a company form.
3. In Google Forms, make a form with six questions: Your name, Phone and Email (each a Short answer), then Times you can't come, Times you'd rather not come and Anything else? (each a Paragraph).
4. Click Copy the description, and paste it into the form's description, at the top. It gives the show's dates and examples of how to write a conflict.
5. Send the form. When answers are in, download the responses from Google Forms as a CSV file.
6. In Conflicts or Contacts, click Import form responses and choose the file. Check each person, then click Import. Phone and email go into Contacts.

How answers are read

• Actors write one conflict per line, such as Jan 14, 6 to 8 PM, Feb 1 to 3, Tuesdays, 7 to 8:30 PM or Weekends. A date with no time means all day. Words in brackets, or after a comma, become the conflict's note.
• The review shows each line beside how it was read. A time with no AM or PM is read from the rehearsal hours, and the review says so.
• Anything the app can't read clearly, such as "most Fridays", is skipped, never guessed at, and listed after the import for you to add by hand. So are dates outside the show.

Importing again

• You can import again as answers come in. Someone's newest response replaces their earlier one.
• A line that's the same changes nothing, so edits you made by hand stay; a line that's gone takes its conflict off. Conflicts you typed yourself are left alone.

Who can I call?

The app's best trick. Who can I call?, a tab at the top of the page, answers for any date and time: choose a date, a start and an end. The arrows beside the date move one day at a time, keeping the same hours.

People

• First comes anyone not there the whole time, in order of arrival, with when they're there and why. Then anyone who'd rather not, marked "Ask first". Then everyone else, in one line.
• Staff appear only when they have a conflict then, under Staff with a conflict.
• A person counts as free only if they're free for the whole time.

Scenes

• Scenes are grouped by when everyone needed is there: From 7:00 PM, From 8:30 PM and so on, with Can't be worked then last, in red.
• Each scene names who it's waiting for. An amber "ask" tag means someone would rather not.
• Click a scene to open out its French scenes. A scene that doesn't work as a whole may still have a part that does.
• Only the actors in a scene decide when it can be worked. Characters not cast yet are named and don't hold a scene up.
• Pages count every page a scene touches, so two scenes can share a page.

With no breakdown, People still works, but there are no scenes to list. Breakdown is where the scenes come from.

The calendar

A show opens on the calendar. The buttons above the month run in the order you'll use them.

Setting up

1. Choose Set up rehearsals. Give the days of the week you meet, the times and the place.
2. Choose Fill the calendar. It fills the days from first rehearsal to tech.
3. Remove or change what doesn't fit. Set up adds only days that are empty, so you can run it again.

Set up rehearsals also has the break reminder, if you want one: a warning when work runs longer than you set without a Break.

Changing days

• Click any date's number to add a rehearsal, a production meeting, a dress rehearsal or a performance, or to mark a day off, such as a holiday. A day can hold several, in time order.
• On a rehearsal, the Day menu copies it or moves it to another date, clears it or deletes it. Meetings, dress rehearsals and performances have the same menu, named for what they are.
• Clear this rehearsal takes out the blocks and keeps the date, times and place, to replan a day from scratch.
• Clear calendar takes out every block and keeps everything on the calendar, or takes out everything. It first saves a copy in the show's folder, named with today's date. To go back to one, rename it rehearsals.json.
• Everything can be undone.

Meetings, dress rehearsals and performances

The calendar is the whole production's: rehearsals, production meetings, dress rehearsals and performances, so everything on a day is in one place. On the month, a meeting has a dashed outline and says Production team, a dress rehearsal has a heavy outline and its call, and a performance is filled in black, with its curtain and call.

Adding them

• Click a date's number and choose Add a production meeting, Add a dress rehearsal or Add a performance. It opens straight away, so you can set its times.
• A performance on the opening date is named Opening. Others are named Performance, or Matinee if the curtain is before 5 PM. The first dress rehearsal is named First dress. Change any name you like.
• Set up performances, above the month, adds the whole run at once: give the dates (filled in from opening and closing, in Production), the place, the days with evening performances and with matinees, and each one's curtain, call and crew call (leave the crew call empty if staff and crew come in with the cast). Give a running time, and each one's Down about is filled in too. It lists what it will add first. A performance already on the calendar on the same date at the same curtain is left alone, so you can run it again.

Opening one

• Click it on the calendar. A production meeting has its times and place. A dress rehearsal or performance has its name, Call (when the cast is called), Crew call (when staff and crew are, if earlier or later), Curtain, Down about (when it ends, if you know) and place. The × beside Crew call or Down about empties it.
• Called shows who it calls. A production meeting calls the production team: the staff ticked Gets reports in Worklight Stage Manager, in Production under Contacts. Add anyone else to one meeting with + Add a guest, such as someone from the scene shop. A dress rehearsal or performance calls the whole company, cast and staff.
• A dress rehearsal can also hold blocks, for a fight call or notes, planned as on a rehearsal. A block calls just its own people.
• Someone called who has a conflict then gets a warning, as on a rehearsal. At a dress rehearsal or performance, each person counts from their own call, and with no Down about, until the end of the day. Meetings call no actors, so they never change Who can I call?
• Line notes, reports, sign-in sheets and meeting notes are kept in Worklight Stage Manager.

A show begun in Stage Manager

If a show's production meetings, dress rehearsals and performances were added in Stage Manager before the calendar had them, the first time Rehearsal Planner opens the show it brings them onto the calendar and says what it added. A rehearsal with the same name as a dress rehearsal on the same date becomes that dress rehearsal, with its blocks. Nothing is removed, and Stage Manager's notes stay where they are. Stage Manager kept only call times, so add the curtain times as you open each one. Undo takes it all back.

Planning a rehearsal

Click a rehearsal on the calendar. Its blocks are on the left, in time order; the scenes you could add are on the right.

• The arrows beside the date go to the previous or next entry on the calendar (a rehearsal, meeting, dress rehearsal or performance), skipping days off. ‹ Calendar goes back to the month.
• With a rehearsal open, choose Stage Manager from the app's name in the black band, and it opens on that rehearsal, ready for its line notes and report.
• Scenes on the right are sorted for the time in hand, as in Who can I call?: a block you've selected, an open stretch, or the next open time.
• Click a scene to add it. A new block starts in the first open time and runs an hour, or what's left. Select it to change its times.
• To work two scenes together, select a block, choose Add scene, then click the scene. The arrow beside a scene opens out its French scenes, to call just part of it.
• Under the scenes, Run: adds a whole act, or Whole play.
• + Free block is for anything else, like Music or Fight call. + Break adds a break.
• Each block can have a note, which prints on the call.

Who's called

• Everyone in the scene is called, from the breakdown. You can add or take off anyone.
• Who's called is saved with the block, so a change to the breakdown never quietly changes a call you've sent. If the breakdown changes later, the block says so ("Breakdown now has Theo in this scene"), and only you can update it.
• Blocks can overlap, for two rooms at once. Someone called in both gets a warning.

Warnings

• A red outline means someone called can't come, or a time doesn't work. A dashed outline is worth a look, such as a Would rather not.
• Warnings show on the block, on the day in the calendar, and in one list under Warnings, above the month. They also cover someone called twice at once, a block outside its rehearsal's times, and anyone called to a production meeting, dress rehearsal or performance who has a conflict then.
• Warnings never stop you. That's fine hides one you've checked; it comes back if the conflict or the call changes.

The daily call

• Print call, on a rehearsal, saves it as a one-sheet PDF: the plan in time order, with pages and notes, then everyone called, with the time to arrive. A very long day runs onto a second sheet.
• On a dress rehearsal or performance, the call gives its name, call, curtain, Down about and place, says the whole company is called, and lists any blocks such as a fight call. Then come two lists, Cast and Staff and crew, each with the time to arrive: their own call, or earlier for anyone in a block before it.
• A show's Crew call, beside its Call, is when staff and crew are due. Leave it empty and they share the cast's call. Their schedules, calendar files and conflict warnings follow it too.
• Production meetings have no call of their own. Their time and place reach the production team on their schedules.
• Copy as text, beside Print call, puts the same call on your clipboard, to paste into an email or group chat. Worklight never sends anything itself.
• Conflicts and warnings never appear on a call. If the day has open warnings, you're asked before printing or copying.
• A day with no blocks can still go out, with its date, times and place, and "Called: to be announced".

Schedules and calendar files

The calendar

Print calendar, above the month, prints a month to a sheet, sideways, with times, work and days off, and each dress rehearsal and performance with its call. Production meetings are left off, since the calendar is for the callboard. It has no names; the daily call is the place for them.

Each person's schedule

1. Choose Print schedules, above the month.
2. Choose one person, or Everyone.
3. Choose Print schedule for a PDF, or Calendar file to load into Google or Apple Calendar.

• Everyone gets what calls them, by date, with past dates included: their rehearsal blocks, every dress rehearsal and performance (with its call, curtain and Down about), and any block in a dress rehearsal they're called to, such as a fight call. Conflicts never appear.
• Production meetings go only to the production team (the staff ticked Gets reports in Worklight Stage Manager) and to that meeting's guests.
• For Everyone, the PDFs go into a Schedules folder inside the show's folder, one per person with calls. Earlier files of the same name are replaced.
• One person's PDF and calendar file start in that Schedules folder too, and you can save them anywhere else.
• For Everyone, the calendar file holds the company's whole schedule in one file, with who's called: rehearsals, dress rehearsals and performances, but not the production meetings.
• In a calendar file, a dress rehearsal or performance runs from that person's call to its Down about. With no Down about entered, it runs to midnight, and says the end isn't known yet.

Coverage

Coverage, a tab at the top of the page, lists every scene with how much work it's had and has still planned, so nothing is missed before tech.

• Scene work is time on the scene itself: So far (before today) and Still planned (today and later). A bar beside it lets you scan the list without reading numbers.
• When one block works on two scenes, its time is shared between them by pages, so planned times say "about".
• Runs, any block taking in a whole act or more, read-throughs included, are counted on their own, since every scene is in them.
• A scene with no scene work yet has a dashed outline. A scene with only some of its French scenes called says which ones are missing. The arrow opens out its French scenes.
• It shows what's planned, not what happened. If a day ran differently, change that day.

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. The calendar is in rehearsals.json. Conflicts, dates and staff are in production.json, which every Worklight app shares. Nothing goes to any server.
• Rehearsal Planner reads breakdown.json and never changes it. If the breakdown changes, the scenes update when you come back to this tab.
• Stage Manager reads rehearsals.json to name each day and fill in its report.
• To change shows, click the show's title in the toolbar.
• 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

On a Mac, use ⌘ in place of Ctrl.