Blocking notation and cue calling practice
A director gives a note. You choose who moves, put them on the ground plan and write the shorthand, and Cuedrill marks the actor, the area, the move and the notation. Then call a scene: warn, standby and go on the right words.
One note, start to finish
From "Out of the cold", the opening of Trifles. Choose who moves, put them on the plan, write the shorthand, and have it marked.
"The Sheriff enters up center through the outer door and crosses stage right to the stove."
Offstage: the County Attorney (CA), the Sheriff (SH), Mr Hale (HA), Mrs Peters (MP), Mrs Hale (MH)
Six ways to practise
- Daily blocking drillOne scene a day, new at your midnight, free. Every note marked in four parts.
- Practice by script14 scenes and 137 notes. Untimed, or a note every 20, 15 or 10 seconds.
- Calling drill56 cues on three levels, warn, standby and go timed from each spoken line.
- Projection for a classA big plan on the screen, answers revealed on your cue, a printed key.
- Prompt book pagesKey legend, area grids, a cue sheet with CSV and a run sheet to print.
- ProgressTotals by part, cues called clean, an export and a certificate of practice.
The scripts
- Trifles by Susan Glaspell (Project Gutenberg ebook 10623): 5 scenes.
- A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, translated by R. Farquharson Sharp (Project Gutenberg ebook 2542): 3 scenes.
- The Proposal by Anton Chekhov, translated by Julius West (Project Gutenberg ebook 7986): 3 scenes.
- The Bear by Anton Chekhov, translated by Julius West (Project Gutenberg ebook 7986): 3 scenes.
Every scene comes from a public domain script on Project Gutenberg, cited by its ebook number. The staging, the ground plans and the cues are invented for practice.
Private by design
Any name you type, for a certificate, a class or a cue sheet, stays in this browser. Nothing is uploaded. There is no account and no server behind the drills; the voice is your browser's own. Cuedrill is a practice tool, not a substitute for a stage management course or for the conventions of your own production.
Frequently asked questions
What is Cuedrill?
A practice tool for stage management students and teachers. A director's blocking note is read aloud, you put the actor on a ground plan and write the shorthand, and the drill marks the actor, the area, the move and the notation. A second drill reads a scene while you call warn, standby and go.
Is it free?
The daily blocking drill, every Trifles scene untimed, the notation key, the guides, the blank prompt book pages, one saved cue sheet and your totals are free forever with no account. Premium adds the other scripts, the calling drill, timed runs, projection, the history and the certificate.
Where do the scenes come from?
14 scenes from 4 public domain plays on Project Gutenberg: Trifles by Susan Glaspell (ebook 10623), A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen in R. Farquharson Sharp's translation (ebook 2542), and The Proposal and The Bear by Anton Chekhov in Julius West's translation (ebook 7986). The staging, ground plans and cues are invented for practice: 137 blocking notes and 56 cues.
Is my data uploaded?
No. Any name you type, for a certificate, a class or a cue sheet, stays in this browser. Nothing is uploaded. Progress, cue sheets and your key live in this browser; export them as files to keep a copy.