Stage play Format & Windows Vista

[CB]

I see it has been a while since there were any stage play format chats. I find this all very stressful! (hard enough to write the play!!) Is there anything that is recommended for use with Windows Vista? I am thinkng of hiring someone to get me started, in NY city, if anyone can refer to a typist who does formatting for stage plays!
Thanks!

[Team 2012]

I don't think anything is recommended for use with Vista, is there? Everybody I know chucked it an retro-ed to XP.

I think you'd be better off searching for a program than a paid typist...hard to revise typed pages.

Doesn't Celtyx have play templates? And it's very cross-platform and free.

[Doug B]

Like 2012, I do my heavy writing on an XP system. I use Celtx and Page2Stage and the BBC templates for MS Word depending on the project (all are free). I have Vista Business on my laptop and wish I didn't. A lot of my older software won't load or run or if it does, it gives me all these "do you really want to do this" messages.

My guess is that the BBC templates for Word would work on Vista. They have templates for stage plays as well as movies and TV and radio. Best of all, they are free.

Doug

[endless rewrite]

I use Final Draft and used to use the BBC format. I find FD easier to navigate, the downside is that a lot of actors and theatre people don't have it and when you send it in a RTF the layout and page count changes which makes things difficult.

[odocoileus]

I see it has been a while since there were any stage play format chats. I find this all very stressful! (hard enough to write the play!!) Is there anything that is recommended for use with Windows Vista? I am thinkng of hiring someone to get me started, in NY city, if anyone can refer to a typist who does formatting for stage plays!
Thanks!

I was surprised to find that Celtx gave me fairly good American stageplay formatting. Finding out how display the US stageplay format can be a little tricky, though.

Starting from the Welcome to Celtx splash screen > Sample Projects > [scroll down] Importance of Being Earnest (the stageplay sample) > [click to open] the editing window.

You'll see the play, Earnest, displayed in the editing window in International style stageplay format. When you're writing/editing/formatting, it will stay in Inter play format. But you can display it US stageplay format by clicking a few more buttons.

Find the typesetting tab at the bottom left of the editing window, second tab from the left. Click it.

Then go up to the taskbar at the top of the editing window. The format options icon is second from the left. Click it.

A format options window opens up. Select US letter paper for the paper size, and American for the format. (There are additional options, but no need to worry about them now.)

Now the play will display in US stageplay format. It will print out in US stageplay format as well.

You'll still have to write and edit in the Inter format, but you can see what it looks like by using the typeset function at any time. Some people find the Euro format easier to read and use.

This sounds more complicated than it is. Once you do it, you'll find it easy.

I actually like this stageplay formatting better than the one on Moviemagic, and you can't beat the price.

ETA

It looks like the Typeset feature won't work if you're off line. A drawback, sure, but it's still a good application.

[Coco82]

I've been looking for a place to ask this, but what is the difference between play format screenplay? Are they that big? I've read a couple books on screenwriting & wondering if having one on stage plays is also good to have.

[odocoileus]

This is the common US stage play format:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/stageus.pdf

http://www.pitchastory.com/pdf/formatforastageplay.pdf

http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/howtoformatastageplay

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/en/project/scr4

No need to buy a book just to learn format. The online info is plenty good enough. On the other hand, a good book or two won't hurt and might help your overall skills as a playwright.

But there's a lot of good free info online:

http://www.vcu.edu/arts/playwriting/seminar.html

http://www.playwriting101.com/