Is there one official blocking notation?

No. There is no single standard, and stage managers change the details from show to show. A few symbols are close to universal, such as X for a cross and stage area codes like DL. The rest is whatever your key says, which is why the key goes in the front of the prompt book.

Do I write the blocking in pencil?

Yes. Blocking changes all through rehearsal, so it is written in pencil and erased as moves change. Only the final blocking survives into the running prompt book.

Should the area be from my point of view or the actor's?

The actor's. Stage right is the actor's right when facing the audience, which is the left side of a ground plan drawn with the audience at the bottom of the page.

What does Spikemark grade in my shorthand?

That it starts with the right actor's initials, that every token is in your key, that the moves are the note's moves in the note's order, and that the areas written are the note's areas. Set pieces are optional.

Blocking notation explained, with a starter key, Spikemark

Why blocking is written down

In rehearsal the director shapes each scene: where an actor enters, when they cross to the stove, when they sit. Nobody remembers all of it a week later, so the stage manager records it as it is given. The written blocking is how an actor who missed a rehearsal catches up, how an understudy learns the show, and how the stage manager settles an argument about what was agreed. It has to be quick to write and easy for someone else to read.

The parts of a line of blocking

Each line has three parts, always in this order.

Who moves. The actor's initials or the character's initials, the same ones every time: MH for Mrs Hale, N for Nora.
What they do. A token for each movement: a cross, an entrance, a sit. Two movements in one note are both written, in order, separated by a comma.
Where. A stage area code after any move that travels: DL for down left, UC for up center. A move that happens in place, like sitting or turning, has no area.

Pieces of the set can be added (X DL stove) when they help, but the area is what places the actor. See stage areas and the grid for the area codes.

A starter key

Spikemark's starter key uses the common choices. X for a cross is nearly universal; the other tokens vary, and you can change any of them before a drill.

Token	Movement	Meaning
X	Cross	walk from one area to another
ENT	Enter	come on stage, arriving in an area
EXIT	Exit	leave the stage from an area
SIT	Sit	sit down where you are, on a named piece if one is given
RISE	Rise	stand up from sitting or kneeling
KNEEL	Kneel	kneel where you are
TURN	Turn	turn in place, toward a piece or a person
CTR	Counter	a small balancing cross in answer to another actor's move

Many stage managers draw small symbols instead of words, such as a stick figure in a chair for a sit, or an arrow for the path of a cross drawn on a small ground plan in the margin. The symbols are faster to write by hand; typed tokens are easier to read on screen and to grade, which is why Spikemark uses them.

Worked example: the first 5 notes of "Out of the cold" from Trifles (Project Gutenberg ebook 10623), on a 9 area plan, written in the starter key.

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)

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."

How the drill grades a note

Each note is marked in 4 parts, and each miss is named in a sentence.

Actor. You chose and moved the actor the note was for.
Area. The actor ends in the right stage area on the plan.
Move. Your shorthand has the note's movements, in the note's order.
Shorthand. Your shorthand starts with the initials, uses only tokens in your key, and writes the note's areas.

Common mistakes

Writing the area from the audience's side. DL is the actor's down left, which is the right side of the plan as you look at it.
Leaving out the actor. A line of blocking without initials is useless a week later.
Writing two moves in the wrong order. "Turns and crosses" (TURN, X DL) is not the same as "crosses and turns" (X DL, TURN): one turns before leaving, the other on arrival.
Adding an area to a move that happens in place. A sit happens where the actor already is.
Changing tokens halfway through the show. Pick a key, write it down, and keep to it.

Try it on today's scene in the daily blocking drill, or print your key from the prompt book pages.

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.

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.
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.

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Blocking notation explained, with a starter key