How to mark up a script for acting without burying the scene

Use four marks consistently

Choose a small visual vocabulary and use it across the script. Consistency matters more than elaborate colour coding.

• Underline confirmed facts that affect the immediate scene.
• Circle the meaningful cue phrase before an entrance or response.
• Draw a vertical line where the thought or tactic changes.
• Box revised words, cuts or new stage directions.

Do not write the finished performance onto the page

Notes such as angry, pause and louder may describe one successful run but quickly become instructions you obey without listening. Write the playable reason instead: corner them, make them laugh or stop them leaving.

Leave enough white space for discoveries from the director and scene partner.

Keep the digital rehearsal copy clean

Import the original PDF into Action and review the detected scenes, roles and transcript. Use the app for navigation and spoken rehearsal while keeping the marked document as your acting map.

If you need only your material, the script extractor can create separate line and scene reports without rewriting the source.

A two-page audition markup pass

On the first page, underline the circumstance and relationship facts. Circle the cue before your first line. Mark the turn where new information changes the action. On the second page, box any cut or revised line and identify the final change in the relationship.

Then close the notes and run the scene. If a mark does not help an actual rehearsal decision, remove it.