Printable prompt book pages and cue sheet
The paperwork around the drills, in Spikemark's own layout: the key that explains your shorthand, blank stage grids, a cue sheet and a run sheet. The sample page below shows how cues and blocking sit beside the script. What goes where is in building a prompt book.
Your notation key: Cross X, Enter ENT, Exit EXIT, Sit SIT, Rise RISE, Kneel KNEEL, Turn TURN, Counter CTR
Stage managers do not all write blocking the same way, so set the tokens you use. Areas are always written as area codes (DL or DSL both work), and you start each line with the actor's initials.
Blocking key legend
Tape this inside the front cover of the prompt book so anyone reading your blocking can decode it.
| Write | Means |
|---|---|
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 |
DL, DSL | Stage areas, from the actor's point of view facing the audience: UR, URC, UC, ULC, UL, R, RC, C, LC, L, DR, DRC, DC, DLC, DL |
MH | The actor's initials start every line of blocking |
Area grid
Audience at the bottom, so stage right is on the left of the plan.
- Up right, UR
- Up center, UC
- Up left, UL
- Right, R
- Center, C
- Left, L
- Down right, DR
- Down center, DC
- Down left, DL
Cue sheet with your own cues
One line per cue: department, number, script page, the line or action it goes on, and what happens. Export it as CSV for a spreadsheet, or import one; a cue already on the sheet is not added twice.
No saved cue sheet yet.
Run sheet
The running order for a performance: what happens backstage, when, and who does it. Print it blank and fill it in.
| Time | Page | What happens | Who | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Sample prompt book page
Cues on the left with their warning (W), standby (SB) and go, the script in the middle, and the blocking on the right in the starter key, numbered in the order it was given.
Trifles, Out of the cold
| Cues | Script | Blocking |
|---|---|---|
| W LX 1 | 1 COUNTY ATTORNEY This feels good. Come up to the fire, ladies. | 1 SH ENT UC, X R2 CA ENT UC, X R3 HA ENT UC, X DC |
| SB LX 1 | 2 MRS PETERS I'm not... cold. | 4 MP ENT UC5 MH ENT UC |
| 3 SHERIFF Now, Mr Hale, before we move things about, you explain to Mr Henderson just what you saw when you came here yesterday morning. | 6 SH X C | |
| GO LX 1 (start)W SQ 1 | 4 COUNTY ATTORNEY By the way, has anything been moved? Are things just as you left them yesterday? | 7 CA TURN |
| SB SQ 1 | 5 SHERIFF It's just the same. When it dropped below zero last night I thought I'd better send Frank out this morning to make a fire for us. | |
| GO SQ 1 (start) | 6 COUNTY ATTORNEY Somebody should have been left here yesterday. | |
| 7 COUNTY ATTORNEY Well, Mr Hale, tell just what happened when you came here yesterday morning. | 8 CA X DR | |
| W LX 2 | 8 MR HALE Harry and I had started to town with a load of potatoes. | |
| SB LX 2W SQ 2 | 9 MR HALE I didn't hear or see anything; I knocked at the door, and still it was all quiet inside. | |
| GO LX 2 (end)SB SQ 2 | 10 MR HALE I opened the door... this door... and there in that rocker... sat Mrs Wright. | 9 HA X DL |
| 11 COUNTY ATTORNEY What... was she doing? | 10 MH CTR UR | |
| GO SQ 2 (start) | 12 MR HALE She was rockin' back and forth. She had her apron in her hand and was kind of... pleating it. | 11 MP TURN |