Theatre.software · plan · write · license · box office · playbill · early access
The operating platform for a theatre program — the company that puts on the show. Not just a box office, and not the editor: the whole season, end to end.
A ticket tool starts on opening night. A theatre program starts months earlier -- the season you are choosing, the rights you have to clear, the cast you have to fill, the seats you have to sell, and the program you have to print. Theatre.software carries all of it on one account: a season board that tracks every title's rights and royalty, the stage-play editor and cast-fit, the free-to-perform catalog, a box office that never oversells, and a playbill builder. The engines are built and tested. The live payment rail is honest-off -- no card is charged today. Early access is open -- book a conversation.
The whole program, not one night
The tools a director is usually handed each solve one slice: a ticketing site for opening night, a spreadsheet for the season, a document for the program, an email thread for the rights. None of them know about the others. The rights deadline lives in one place, the seat map in another, the cast list in a third, and the person holding it all together is the director, at eleven at night, before tech week.
Theatre.software is built the other way around -- from the production, not from the ticket. The season board knows which titles are cleared and which have a royalty deadline. The editor and cast-fit know whether your program can fill the show. The box office knows the house it is seating. The playbill knows the credits it has to place. One account, one season, from the first title you consider to the last bow you take.
The engines behind each stage are built and tested. The live payment rail is honest-off -- present in the codebase, not enabled for a live charge today. No school has run a live season on theatre.software yet, and the page will never pretend otherwise.
How it works
Each stage is described as it is built today. The engines are production-ready; the theatre-specific surfaces and the live payment rail are in active build and honest-off. Nothing on this page charges money.
Stage 1 · Plan the season
Open the season board. Add the shows you are considering, track each title's rights status and its royalty, and watch the licensing deadlines. Cast-fit tells you which titles your program can actually fill. Program data only -- headcounts, never a roster. Nothing here charges money.
Stage 2 · Write and cast
Write an original book in the stage-play editor, or bring a licensed script into the workspace. Co-write in real time, keep every version, work the promptbook, and rehearse from the reading view. The editor is built and in active development.
Stage 3 · Lock the rights
Perform a FreeSchoolPlays title at zero royalty -- the playbill places the required credit for you -- or track a licensing-house title's rights and royalty in the season board so nothing lapses. The catalog ingest engine is built; the royalty compute is honest-off.
Stage 4 · Open the box office
Set up the ticketed event, the seat map, and the season pass. The engines price at exact cents, never oversell a house, fail closed on a double-booked seat, and scan each ticket once at the door. The live payment rail is honest-off -- no card is charged today.
Stage 5 · Print the program
Compose the playbill from the show workspace -- cast, crew, scenes, the director's note, and sponsor slots. For a FreeSchoolPlays title the credit line is machine-placed and non-removable. One platform carried you from the season plan to the final bow.
The platform
Every area is labelled by what actually exists today. Built means the engine ships now. Early access and Engine built -- surface in active build mean the engine exists but the theatre-specific surface, or the live payment rail, is honest-off. No card is charged today. We do not claim otherwise.
Early access
Plan the season before auditions open, and keep it planned as the year moves. Add a title to the season board and it becomes a production record: rights status (pending, confirmed, expired, returned), the royalty and licensing deadline when a title comes from a licensing house, the key dates from first read-through to strike, and the staff assigned to run it -- director, choreographer, music director, technical director. One-acts, full-length plays, and musicals sit side by side in the same season view, so a department running three shows in one year sees all three at once instead of three separate folders. Notes and file attachments -- the script, the director's concept, a rehearsal photo -- live on the production record itself, not in a separate email thread. Built for the director planning the whole year and the department chair who needs one place to see whether every show in the season is on track.
Engine built -- surface in active build
Set up a ticketed event or a reserved-seating map once, and it is ready for every performance in the run -- built on the same school-commerce engine created for school picture-day sales, not a third-party integration bolted on. The reserved-seating builder lets you draw the house once, general admission and reserved seats can run in the same event, and the door list becomes a QR code that any device can scan. A real-time dashboard shows ticket and seat status as it moves, so the front-of-house volunteer at the door on opening night is looking at the same numbers as the director checking from home. Payment processing itself is honest-off today -- no card is charged, and an unpaid order is not admitted at the door -- but every other piece of the flow, from the seat map to the scan, is functional and demoable now. Built for the front-of-house volunteer running the door and the director who wants one system instead of a reconciled spreadsheet after the show closes.
Engine built -- surface in active build
A playbill starts as a blank document for most programs, re-typed from scratch for every show. Here it starts as a button: the cast and crew list, the scene and musical-number breakdown, and the attribution block pull directly from the season and production record, so nobody re-types a name that is already on file. The director adds the note and the show's own sponsor slots and acknowledgements, and the program is ready to export to a print-ready PDF at the bleed margins your print shop expects, or publish as an online edition that a family opens on a phone during intermission -- no app download, no separate account. Any student photo used in the program passes through the same consent gate as the rest of the platform; an unconsented photo does not go in the program. Built for the director who used to lose a Sunday night to program layout, and the booster volunteer who used to chase the cast list down by email.
Early access
Most costume closets run on a clipboard and most prop shelves run on memory -- an actual catalog changes both. Every item gets an entry: category, description, condition, and where it lives on the shelf or rack. When a show goes into tech, the costume crew checks pieces out to a specific cast member for that production, and checks them back in after strike, so the record shows who has the crown right now, not just who had it in October. Condition notes and a repair log travel with the item itself, so a torn hem gets fixed before the next show needs the same costume, not discovered again on a fitting night. Search runs across the whole catalog, not just the current show, so the wardrobe supervisor finds the 1920s vest already in storage before the department buys a second one. Built for the costume crew lead tracking dozens of pieces across a season, and the props master who is tired of being the only person who knows where anything is.
Early access
The booster organization and the director work from the same account, but a volunteer coordinating concessions does not need to see the season's rights status, and a director does not need to run the sign-up sheet. Each event -- build crew, costume crew, concessions, front of house -- gets its own volunteer sign-up sheet, and hours are tracked per production and across the season, so a parent's volunteer commitment is visible without a phone call to confirm it. Fundraising campaigns can track a goal and progress toward it; the payment side of a campaign is honest-off until a school turns it on, so today the tool is a goal tracker, not a checkout. Family communications -- announcements to cast families about a rehearsal change or a call time -- go out from the same account, so the booster chair is not forwarding every email from the director by hand. Built for the booster chair currently running the program's second job out of a personal email inbox and a paper sign-up sheet at the concession stand.
Early access
A one-act festival round or a drama honor-society induction produces a result once, and a program's memory of it fades within a year unless someone keeps their own spreadsheet. The competition log is that spreadsheet, built in: event name, date, level (regional, state, national, or the district-to-state ladder a one-act festival runs), and result, entered once per event and kept for as long as the program exists. Per-student history rolls up qualifying roles, adjudication scores, and notes across every event a student has competed in, not just the most recent one, so a scholarship letter or a program brochure can cite an actual multi-year record instead of a director's memory. The honor-society point tracking here is the program's own record of its own chapter's points -- kept separately from the honor society's own system, not a replacement for it. Built for the director building a program history that outlasts any one season, and the student assembling a record for a college application or an audition reel.
Early access
A theatre class meets on the school schedule; a summer camp meets on its own calendar; both are theatre program work, and both live in the same account as the productions. Enrollment and roster management work the same way whether the roster is a period class or a week of camp, and attendance is tracked per session so a teacher is not keeping a separate paper roll book. Curriculum pacing tracks what a class has covered and what comes next, linked to the lesson plan, so a substitute or a co-teacher can see where the class actually is. Camp adds what a class does not need -- a daily schedule, an emergency contact on file, and a pick-up confirmation, so a parent picking up a child from a week-long camp is checked against who is allowed to take them. Because the student record is shared with the production modules, a student's class history and their production history are the same record, not two systems that never talk to each other. Built for the teacher-director running a class period and a summer camp on top of directing the fall show, using one login instead of three.
Engine built -- surface in active build
A show generates photographs from the first rehearsal to closing night, and most programs end up with them scattered across a director's phone, a parent volunteer's camera roll, and a group text. Here they are organized by production from the start -- rehearsal, tech, opening night, cast portraits -- in galleries scoped to the show they belong to. Every photo passes through the same consent gate the rest of the platform uses: an unconsented student's image stays private, and that is not a setting an administrator can switch off. When a school already uses the shared platform for picture day, the photo infrastructure -- storage, consent records, and access control -- is the same infrastructure, not a second upload workflow with its own rules. A director or booster can download an image for the program, the lobby display, or a social post, scoped to what consent actually allows. Built for the parent volunteer who is currently the unofficial archive of the whole season on a personal phone, and the director who needs a photo for the program without a group text asking who has it.
What one account covers
| Program area | A box-office-only tool | Theatre.software |
|---|---|---|
| Box office & ticketing | Yes | Yes -- built in |
| Season planning & rights tracking | Not offered | Yes |
| Playbill & program builder | Not offered | Yes -- auto-populated from production records |
| Costume & prop inventory | Not offered | Yes |
| Boosters & volunteer coordination | Not offered | Yes -- with a separate booster role view |
| Competition & festival records | Not offered | Yes |
| Classes & camp enrollment | Not offered | Yes |
| Production photography (consent-gated) | Not offered | Yes -- shared with school photo platform |
| Program ad slots with school revenue share | Not offered | Yes |
| Minor-on-camera streaming consent gate | Typically not offered | Yes -- built-in, fail-closed |
| One account for director, boosters, and box office | No -- separate systems | Yes |
| No behavioral tracking or ad pixels on school event pages | Varies by vendor | Yes -- zero third-party ad pixels |
Who it is for
You are choosing a season, clearing rights on a deadline, casting a show, seating a house, and printing a program -- often all in the same week. The season board keeps the rights and royalty deadlines in one view, cast-fit tells you which titles your students can fill, and the box office and playbill are waiting when the show is up. One account instead of five disconnected tools.
You teach the class and direct the show, and the free-to-perform catalog matters to your budget. Perform a FreeSchoolPlays title at zero royalty -- the playbill places the required credit for you -- or write your own in the editor and track a licensed title's rights on the board. The five school-drama forms in the editor were built for the room you actually teach in.
You run the front of house and keep the program funded. The box office seats a reserved house and never oversells it, the season pass admits a holder to a set of shows, and the playbill carries slots for local-sponsor ads. The season board's royalty projection means the licensing bill is not a year-end surprise. Money is honest-off today -- the engines are built; the live rail is not enabled yet.
About this platform
Theatre.software is in early access. The platform is built on shared school-software infrastructure -- the design engine, the commerce layer, the consent system, and the yearbook and journalism tools are already built as part of the shared platform. The theatre-specific modules (season tracker, inventory, booster tools, competition log, classes and camps) are in active build. They are functional and demoable but are not yet available to sign up for or pay for online.
We are not describing what we plan to eventually build. The box office, the playbill builder, the consent infrastructure, and the photo platform already exist. The work is assembling the theatre-facing surfaces on top of that foundation. When a module is marked "early access" on this page, it means exactly that.
If you run a school theatre program and you would like to see a walkthrough of what is built today, book a conversation -- email [email protected]. We will show you the software, not a slide deck.
No pricing is displayed. No checkout is present. No subscription is asked for. This is a commercial product for a school program, described plainly as one. The next step is a conversation, not a purchase.
The theatre ecosystem
The professional stage-play editor -- the writing tool itself, positioned around its features. The same editor powers the write-and-cast stage here.
The writer’s platform -- for the person who writes a play, submits it, and earns a ticket share when it is performed. theatre.software is the company that puts on the show; this is the writer of it.
The free-to-perform catalog. Any school can perform a title at zero royalty; attribution is the whole obligation, and the playbill places the credit for you.
The K–12 school platform behind the shared account, permission, and privacy the theatre program runs on.
Early access
The engines are built and tested; the theatre-specific surfaces and the live payment rail are in active build. Book a conversation to see the current state, walk the five stages, and get early-access priority. There is nothing to buy today -- just a conversation.
Common questions
They defend different subjects. playscript.software is the editor -- the stage-play writing tool itself. playwright.software is the writer's platform -- the person who writes a play, submits it, gets it performed, and earns a ticket share. theatre.software is the company's operating platform: the whole production, from the season plan and the rights, through casting and the box office, to the printed playbill. If you run a theatre program rather than write for one, this is your page. The editor and the writer's platform are cross-linked; theatre.software does not replace them.
Not yet. The box-office engines are built and tested -- the ticketed event, the exact-cents pricing, the capacity that never oversells, the reserved-seating map, the season pass, and the QR door scan that admits each ticket once. What is honest-off is the live payment rail: no card is charged today, and an unpaid order is not admitted at the door. Live checkout is founder-gated. Book a conversation to see the current state and get early-access priority.
No. The season board tracks a royalty and a licensing bill so they do not surprise you, but it never charges anyone. The box office can price and seat a house, but the live payment rail is honest-off. There is no pricing on this page, no checkout, and no subscription. The next step is a conversation, not a purchase.
Every title in the season carries a rights status -- pending, confirmed, expired, or returned -- and, for a licensing-house title, a royalty and a set of deadlines. The season board rolls those up so you can see, in one view, which shows are cleared to perform and which have a deadline coming due. It tracks the numbers a director needs to stay ahead of the licensing bill. It does not grant rights and it does not pay them; it tracks the ones you hold.
A FreeSchoolPlays title can be read, rehearsed, and performed by any school at zero royalty and zero per-performance fee. The only obligation is attribution -- the author's name and 'FreeSchoolPlays' on the program -- and the playbill builder places that credit for you so it cannot be left off a free-to-perform title. There is no catch and no charge to perform one. Titles from a licensing house are separate: you hold those rights through the house, and the season board tracks them.
Both are fail-closed by construction. A ticket tier has a finite capacity, and an order that would push the sold count past that capacity is rejected whole -- nothing is sold and nothing is charged. On a reserved-seating map, an order is admitted only when every requested seat exists and is free; if any seat is already taken, or requested twice in the same order, the whole order is rejected. Two families can never end up holding the same seat.
The tracking surfaces hold program data only -- seasons, titles, dates, and cast and crew headcounts. A headcount is a number, not a list of children. No student roster and no child's name lives on the season board or the rights tracker. Where a production photograph involves a student, it is consent-gated and never public by default, and the consent gate is not something an administrator can switch off.
No. The five stages -- season, script and casting, licensing, box office, and playbill -- share one account, but each stands on its own. A program that only wants the season board and the playbill can use those and leave the box office for later. Use what your program needs now; the rest is there when it becomes useful.
The platform is in early access. The engines described here are built and tested; the theatre-specific surfaces and the live payment rail are in active build and honest-off. There is no sign-up or online payment yet. Book a conversation -- email [email protected] -- to see the current state and get early-access priority.