Spikemark
Prompt desk practice

Blocking notation and cue calling practice

A director gives a note. You choose who moves, put them on the ground plan and write it down in shorthand. Spikemark marks the actor, the area, the move and the notation, and names every miss. Then call a scene: warn, standby and go on the right words.

Start the daily blocking drillHow blocking notation works

One note, start to finish

"The Sheriff enters up center through the outer door and crosses stage right to the stove."

Written in the starter key: SH ENT UC, X R

From "Out of the cold", the opening of Trifles. The Sheriff comes in by the outer door up center and crosses to the stove, stage right.

Where the note leaves the Sheriff

Audience at the bottom, so stage right is on the left of the plan.

  • outer door (UC)
  • sink (UR)
  • front room door (UR)
  • cupboard (UL)
  • small table (UL)
  • stove (R)
  • stair door (L)
  • big table (C)
  • rocker (DL)
  • corner chair (DL)
  • bread shelf (DR)
Free dailyBlocking drillOne scene a day, new at your midnight. Every note marked in four parts.By scriptPractice and timed runs14 scenes and 137 notes. Untimed, or a note every 20, 15 or 10 seconds.CallingWarn, standby, go56 cues on three levels, timed from each spoken line.For a classProjection modeA big plan on the screen, answers revealed on your cue, a printed key.PrintablesPrompt book pagesKey legend, area grids, cue sheet with CSV and run sheet.Your recordProgressTotals by part, cues called clean, export and a certificate of practice.

The scripts

Every scene comes from a public domain script on Project Gutenberg, cited by its ebook number. The staging, the ground plans and the cues are invented for practice.

Private by design

Any name you type, for a certificate, a class or a cue sheet, stays in this browser. Nothing is uploaded. There is no account and no server behind the drills; the voice is your browser's own. Spikemark is a practice tool, not a substitute for a stage management course or for the conventions of your own production.

Frequently asked questions

What is Spikemark?

A practice tool for stage management students and teachers. A director's blocking note is read aloud, you put the actor on a ground plan and write the shorthand, and the drill marks the actor, the area, the move and the notation. A second drill reads a scene while you call warn, standby and go.

Is it free?

Yes. Everything on the site is free, with no account.

Where do the scenes come from?

14 scenes from 4 public domain plays on Project Gutenberg: Trifles by Susan Glaspell (ebook 10623), A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen in R. Farquharson Sharp's translation (ebook 2542), and The Proposal and The Bear by Anton Chekhov in Julius West's translation (ebook 7986). The staging, ground plans and cues are invented for practice: 137 blocking notes and 56 cues.

Is my data uploaded?

No. Any name you type, for a certificate, a class or a cue sheet, stays in this browser. Nothing is uploaded. Progress, cue sheets and your key live in this browser; export them as files to keep a copy.