See the following links for a sample script from a word processor (MS Word)
and a plain text file (.txt):
Sample script in MS Word
Sample script as text file (.txt)
Uses Role on line by itself.
Sample script in MS Word
Sample script as text file (.txt)
Uses Role on same line as dialogue
Contents of a script
A script is composed three types of lines:
- Act/Scene - A line indicating the beginning of a new Act or
Scene. It can also be used to identify other sections of the play like
character descriptions or prop lists.
- Dialogue - Words to be spoken by an actor. These may
include stage directions imbedded within the dialog, typically included within a
set of parentheses.
- Stage directions - Full paragraphs that include no dialogue,
and indicates what is to happen on stage
The following describes how each of these three lines is identified in more
detail.
Act/Scene
On this line of your script, there needs to be a “designator” phrase to the app that a new Act or Scene is about to begin. Currently, the designator is {scene}. Every time you want to distinguish a new act, scene or section of your script, you must type {scene} directly before it.
Dialogue
This is where the box labeled "Roles in the
script" on the Import screen comes in. Any names in
this box will be used to identify that a new character is speaking. Upper or
lower case do not matter. The roles can be entered in any order; MyLines will automatically sort them into alphabetical order. Enter the roles carefully! If a role is not listed exactly as it appears in the script here in this box, it will not be able to have lines highlighted or played back! In the sample script there are only 2
characters in the first act, so the Role box only needs to include the names:
GRETA and PHILLIP.
If more than one character is speaking the same line,
you can indicate this by typing all the character names and separating them by commas. Type a colon : when all characters have been listed. Thus the
following line indicates that Phillip and Greta speak the line at the same time:
- PHILLIP, GRETA: Now isn’t this a touching scene.
All lines up to the next Act/Scene, Stage Directions or Role Name are considered lines for
that role.
MyLines uses a colon : as a Role Separator. The Role Separator is the mark that separates the role name from his/her spoken lines.
Any words in a dialogue that are within a set of parentheses are considered stage
directions. These words will be displayed in italics.
Stage directions that are typed between the role name and the colon will appear in capital letters. If you want them in italics, place them within parentheses after the colon.
Stage Directions
Stage directions are presented to the user in italics and slightly indented from
the dialogue. There are four things that determine which lines are stage
directions:
- Any text before the first Act/Scene or dialogue in the script. - The
copyright information in the sample script.
- Any text after an Act/Scene line and before any dialogue. - See the lines
immediately after the About BLACKOUT line in the sample
script.
- Any paragraph that does not include lower case letters. - See the lines
immediately after the Act I/Prologue line in the sample
script.
- Any paragraph that begins and ends with a set of parentheses and has no
other parentheses within it. - See the last four paragraphs of the sample script.
OTHER FORMATTING
To make italics on the MyLines script, insert <i> at the beginning of the word or phrase, and </i> at the end.
To make bold, insert <b> at the beginning of the word or phrase and </b> at the end.
To make an underline, insert <u> at the beginning of the word or phrase, and </u> at the end.