Shakedown

We designed ‘Tis Your Cue to work not only for Shakespeare’s plays, but to produce cue scripts for any script, past, present or future, by any author. Now you can quickly apply the power of cue scripts to any production process, but first you’ll need to update your script to match an input format that we are calling “Shakedown”.

‘Tis Your Cue produces cue scripts by doing what actors and scribes did for centuries, differentiating between character names, speeches and stage directions in a block of text; but it requires your help to do so. This is how Shakedown highlights the different elements of theatrical text for ‘Tis Your Cue:

• Title of the Play is on its own line and preceded be “T:”, as:

T: Twelfth Night

• New Scenes are on their own line and preceded by “NS:” as:

NS: Act 1 Scene 1

• Speech begins with the speaking character’s name on it’s own line above the speech, in all caps and preceded by “+”, as:

+ORSINO
If music be the food of love, play on,

• Stage Directions are on their own line and preceded by “SD:” as:

SD: Music. Enter +ORSINO Duke of Illyria, +CURIO, and other lords.

‘Tis Your Cue utilizes Shakedown to ensure that each actor knows not only when they are cued to speak, but also when to enter, exit, or perform some other piece of stage business. The primary tool here is the character tag, e.g. +ROMEO; ‘Tis Your Cue knows to assign all speeches and stage directions with this tag to Romeo’s part.  

When formatting in Shakedown, you are making these assignments, including some that might not be explicit in the original. For instance, if the original stage direction says simply “they fight”, you can assign this stage direction by tagging the characters explicitly: “+ROMEO and +TYBALT fight” to ensure that this direction shows up in Romeo and Tybalt’s cue scripts. Similarly, whereas Shakespeare’s entrance stage directions usually tell us explicitly who is entering (e.g. “Enter Romeo and Friar Lawrence”), exit stage directions are usually marked with the single word “exit” after a character speaks their last line in a scene, or “exeunt” to indicate that everyone exits at the end of the scene. If you want your cue scripts to indicate when each character exits you will have to tag them, for instance replacing “Exeunt.” with “Exeunt +ROMEO, +JULIET, and +FRIAR LAWRENCE.”

Shakedown also replaces general identities with specific ones, for instance, replacing “Enter witches” with “Enter +WITCH 1, +WITCH 2, +WITCH 3”. This is true for shared lines as well, so that:

“Witches: Fair is foul and foul is fair,
Hover through the fog and filthy air.”

must be converted to:

“+WITCH 1, +WITCH 2, +WITCH 3
Fair is foul and foul is fair,
Hover through the fog and filthy air.”

Sometimes this will mean choosing for yourself which characters are indicated when the original is not explicit. After Duncan’s murder is discovered and Macbeth invites his fellow lords to “briefly put on manly readiness/ And meet in the hall together”, the response “Well contented” is given to “All”. But who is this “All”? In order for ‘Tis Your Cue to distribute this line to your cue scripts you will need to tag the characters you believe should speak it. Lady Macbeth and the Porter are in this scene; would they join in this line? Would Macbeth say it, even though he is the one making the proposal? Like every director or group of actors that have ever produced this play, you will need to decide.

Ultimately formatting in Shakedown just means using a few simple tags to be explicit as to who is speaking or performing each action. Be especially careful to make sure that speakers are cued again if their speech is interrupted by a stage direction, as when Orsino’s speech is interrupted by Valentine’s entrance in the example below.

Once you’ve finished formatting your script in Shakedown, just save it as a .txt file and choose the “Upload Your Script” option on tisyourcue.com

Here is act one, scene one of Twelfth Night, formatted in Shakedown:

T: Twelfth Night

NS: Act 1 Scene 1

SD: Music. Enter +ORSINO Duke of Illyria, +CURIO, and other lords.

+ORSINO
If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! It had a dying fall.
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour. Enough, no more!
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, naught enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price
Even in a minute. So full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

+CURIO
Will you go hunt, my lord?

+ORSINO
What, Curio?

+CURIO
The hart.

+ORSINO
Why, so I do, the noblest that I have.
O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purged the air of pestilence.
That instant was I turned into a hart,
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E'er since pursue me.

SD: Enter +VALENTINE.

+ORSINO
How now! What news from her?

+VALENTINE
So please my lord, I might not be admitted,
But from her handmaid do return this answer:
The element itself, till seven years' heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view,
But like a cloistress she will veiled walk,
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine; all this to season
A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting, in her sad remembrance.

+ORSINO
O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame
To pay this debt of love but to a brother –
How will she love, when the rich golden shaft
Hath killed the flock of all affections else
That live in her; when liver, brain, and heart,
These sovereign thrones, are all supplied and filled –
Her sweet perfections – with one self king!
Away before me to sweet beds of flowers!
Love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.

SD: Exuent +ORSINO, +CURIO, +VALENTINE, and other lords.