Stop retyping line notes at midnight

The script does the
filing before you do.

Upload the PDF and Line Notes reads the text layer page by page. It sorts dialogue from character cues, stage directions, and page numbers, then works down each page: a cue in the character column sets the speaker, and the dialogue underneath is assigned to whoever plays that part in your cast list. Recast a role and it re-tags the whole script.

None of it is locked. Drag a zone, resize it, draw one the extractor missed, or select every zone on a page and nudge them together when the scan sits crooked. Anything you fix by hand stays fixed. Budget about twenty minutes for a full-length script, once, for the whole company.

Four facts, one click,
eyes back on the stage.

Set the note type in the sidebar and it stays set, so a run of the same kind of note costs a click each. Click the line, confirm the cast member Line Notes has already picked, add a word of context if you want one. The note carries its type, its actor, its page, and the session it came from. That fourth fact is what lets the report sort itself by actor when the run ends.

From “places” to
“thanks, everyone.”

What an evening looks like once the script is in.

1. 17:00

   Open tonight’s script

   Last night’s zones, speaker tags, bookmarks, and cast colors are where you left them. There is nothing to re-import and nothing to set up again.

2. 19:30

   Start the run

   Start Run takes a session title and your page count, then opens the session. Everything you log from here belongs to it and to nothing else.

3. 22:14

   Click, type, look up

   Line dropped on page four. Click it, confirm the actor, add three words, Enter. Your ASM sees the note land on their own screen a second later.

4. 23:08

   Hand out the notes

   End the run and the report builds itself: duration, page count, note count, then every note grouped under the actor it belongs to. Print it, save it as a PDF, or open each actor’s notes in your mail client, addressed and written.

A judgement-free
record of the work.

A line note records somebody’s worst thirty seconds of the evening, written down while they are still on stage. Line Notes says what happened to the line: skipped, paraphrased, called for. It stops there. No rating, no grade, nothing that follows an actor into the next production.

Only the people you gave the code to

A production is a closed room. The script, the cast list and every note are visible to whoever joined with your seven-character code. There is no public link and no way in from outside.

Each actor gets their own notes

Sent one at a time, an actor’s email carries their notes and nobody else’s. The printed report covers the whole company, because sometimes that is the document you need. Which of the two goes on the callboard is your call.

It counts, it does not score

Reports adds up notes per run, per page and per actor, and says when the same line has gone wrong in three separate runs. Those are counts, not marks out of ten. The flag is there so you can have one conversation in person instead of sending the same note a fourth time.

Nothing outlives the show

A cast member is a name, a color and an email address; nobody signs up for anything to receive their notes. Delete the production and the script, the notes and every report go with it. We do not sell your data or train models on your scripts.

One price, however
many people you invite.

Software sold to theatres usually charges by the seat, so bringing in your ASM, your director, and your assistant costs three times what working alone costs. Not here. One subscription covers every production you own and every person you hand a join code to. The bill reads the same with four people in the room or forty.

Asked at every load-in.

What machine does it run on?

Whatever is already in the booth. Line Notes runs in a browser, so a Windows laptop, a house Mac mini, a school Chromebook, or a borrowed tablet all work the same way. Nothing to install, no license per machine. The interface is dark because booths are.

How do my ASMs and my director get in?

Every production has a seven-character join code. Send it to whoever needs access and they are in. There is no per-seat license, no invitation queue, and no extra charge per person.

How do the notes actually reach the cast?

The report opens on screen, already split by actor. Print it or save it as a PDF for the callboard, or take the actors one at a time: Line Notes writes each person’s notes into your own mail client, addressed and ready to send, with a copy button for anything longer than a mail link can carry. Line Notes does not send mail on your behalf, and we would rather say so here than let you find out at 23:30.

My script is a photocopy. Will it work?

Only if the PDF has a selectable text layer. Run a scanned script through OCR first, which Adobe Acrobat does in about a minute, and upload that. Failing that, you can draw the line zones yourself in the Script Editor and everything downstream behaves normally.

Why not just use a shared doc?

Because a doc holds sentences and this holds records. Every note here is pinned to a line, an actor, a type, and a session, which is why the report can group itself by cast member. A shared doc puts that sorting back on you, after a five-hour call, in the dark.

What happens if the wifi drops?

Line Notes needs a live connection: the script renders and the notes sync over the network, and there is no offline mode. If your booth signal is unreliable, tether to a phone. The app moves text, not video, so very little bandwidth does the job.

Does it track cues or blocking?

No, and that is on purpose. Line Notes does line notes. Prompt-book platforms will sell you blocking charts and cue sheets with a notes field bolted to the side; this is the other way round.

Can the cast see each other’s notes?

Not unless you give them the join code. The room is closed to the people you let in, and each actor’s email carries their notes and nobody else’s. More on what a note is allowed to mean.

How do I cancel?

Open your account page and press Manage billing & cancel. That is the whole procedure. You keep the rest of the period you paid for. Cards and invoices are on the same screen.