Scriptlighter

Example Play

Tip: Click on the parts of the play for a detailed explanation.

Overview

A play is composed of multiple acts, which are made up of multiple scenes, which are made up of spoken lines and stage directions. Each section of the play has a clear label to make it distinctive. Plays that do not match this format cannot be added to the website. If you try to add a play with formatting mistakes, you will see a message explaining what went wrong, and sometimes a button to fix the mistake for you.

Title

The first line of the play is its title. The title must be a single line.

Subtitle

The second line of the play is an optional subtitle. If your play does not have a subtitle, this line can be left blank or omitted. It must be a single line.

Author Name

The author name must be preceeded by the word "by", and follow directly after the Title or Subtitle. If the author of a play is unknown, use "Unknown Author" as the name.

Roles Section Header

Before any roles are defined, the word ROLES must appear on its own line. Every line after that will describe a role, until the play itself begins. All characters with lines in the play must be listed here, and their names must match the role name for the lines exactly.

Role Name

This is the name of a character in the play, and must be used whenever that character speaks throughout the play. You can indicate if this role is female or male by placing (F) or (M), respectively, at the end of the name.

Role Description

Optional information about the given role. The description can be as long as needed, but it must all be one line. If there is no description, the colon after the role name is optional.

Act Header

Breaks the sections of the play into acts. The act title must be one line, and is optional. If there is no title for the act, the colon is also optional. For plays that only have scenes, the ACT header is not required. For plays that have only one scene, the ACT header can be replaced by the word PLAY.

Act Description

Optional notes about the act, such as setting or background. The act description can be arbitrarily long.

Scene Header

Breaks up an act into sections. The scene title must be one line, and is optional. If there is no title for the scene, the colon is also optional. The SCENE header can be used without an ACT header if the play only has one act. The SCENE header can be omitted for acts that have only one scene.

Scene Description

Optional notes about the scene, such as setting, background, or which characters are already on stage. The scene description can be arbitrarily long, and continues until the first line or stage direction is encountered.

Line

A line in the play is made up of two parts: the role name and the line itself.

• Role Name: The name of the character speaking or carrying out a direction. If more than one character says the line at the same time, their names should all be listed, separated by commas.
• Line: Spoken words and inline directions delivered or carried out by the character. Each line continues until the next line starts. If a line is split by a stage direction, the part after the stage direction will be associated with the same role, unless a new role name is encountered.

Inline Direction

Stage direction that applies to the character who is speaking. It is possible to have an inline direction for a role even if there are no spoken words associated with it.

Stage Direction

A general block of direction meant to apply to the play or multiple characters. A stage direction must be preceeded by a blank line, not have any spaces before its opening brace, and be followed by a line break. It continues until a matching close brace is found, and can include line breaks.

Further Information

If there in any information that you feel is unclear or missing, please contact us so that we can improve it.