The scene
Trifles is set in the kitchen of an empty farmhouse. In Glaspell's text the men and two women come in from the cold through the outer door at the rear. On Spikemark's invented plan, that door is up center, the stove is stage right, the big table is center and the rocker is down left. Everyone starts offstage.
Audience at the bottom, so stage right is on the left of the plan.
- Up right, UR. sink, front room door
- Up center, UC. outer door
- Up left, UL. cupboard, small table
- Right, R. stove
- Center, C. big table
- Left, L. stair door
- Down right, DR. bread shelf
- Down center, DC
- Down left, DL. rocker, corner chair
- 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)
Taking the blocking
- Read the scene first. Read the lines before rehearsal so you know who is on stage and roughly what happens.
- Learn the ground plan. Find the doors, the furniture and the audience on the plan, and note which area each piece stands in.
- Mark starting positions. Write where every actor starts, or that they are off.
- Write each note on its line. As the director gives a note, write the initials, the movement tokens and the areas beside the line where it happens.
- Number the notes. Number each note so it can be found and changed later.
- Check it back. At the end of the scene, read your blocking back against the plan to make sure every actor is where the notes put them.
| Note | What the director says | Shorthand | Actor ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Sheriff enters up center through the outer door and crosses stage right to the stove. | SH ENT UC, X R | R (right) |
| 2 | On "This feels good. Come up...", the County Attorney enters up center through the outer door and crosses stage right to the stove. | CA ENT UC, X R | R (right) |
| 3 | Mr Hale enters up center through the outer door and crosses down center. | HA ENT UC, X DC | DC (down center) |
| 4 | Mrs Peters enters up center through the outer door. | MP ENT UC | UC (up center) |
| 5 | Mrs Hale enters up center through the outer door. | MH ENT UC | UC (up center) |
| 6 | On "Now, Mr Hale, before we...", the Sheriff crosses to center to the big table. | SH X C | C (center) |
Put the actor for "The Sheriff enters up center through the outer door and crosses stage right to the stove." in L instead of R and the grader says: "You put him left (L); the note said right (R). Stage right is the actor's right, which is the left side of the plan as you look at it."
Two actors can end in the same area; that is fine. Notice the entrances: the Sheriff enters up center and crosses stage right in one note, so his line has two moves and ends in R.
Common mistakes
- Writing where the actor started instead of where they ended.
- Missing an entrance because the actor had no line.
- Writing a cross to a piece of furniture without its area.
- Letting an actor cross while still sitting: a rise has to come first.
The whole scene is in practice by script, free for every Trifles scene, and a new scene comes each day in the daily blocking drill.
Sources
Checked on 27 September 2026. Stage management notation and calling have no single governing standard; what is written here is common practice in our own words. Where your teacher, stage manager or company does it differently, follow them.
- Susan Glaspell, Plays, Project Gutenberg ebook 10623. Trifles (first performed 1916), the kitchen description and the lines used in the drills; opened 27 September 2026.
- Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House, translated by R. Farquharson Sharp, Project Gutenberg ebook 2542. The Act I room description and opening scene; opened 27 September 2026.
- Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series, translated by Julius West, Project Gutenberg ebook 7986. The Proposal and The Bear; opened 27 September 2026.
- Spikemark's grader. The four part blocking grade and the cue timing grade described on this page are the rules the drills apply; every example on this page is computed by them.