Set up your first production in Proscene
A blank screen to your first call going out, step by step. We'll build a real show, The Pirates of Penzance, and have the whole company confirmed by the end.
If you've stage-managed before, you know the first week is mostly logistics: a cast list, a calendar, a venue, and a hundred small details you'll spend the run keeping straight. The promise of Proscene is that you do this once, and then it works for you every night after. Here's the whole setup, start to finish.
Step oneCreate the production
From your workspace, hit New production. Name the show, set the company it belongs to, and pick your dates, first rehearsal through closing night. Proscene uses these to build the spine of your calendar, so don't worry about being precise yet; you can move anything later.
Add your venues while you're here. Most shows have a couple, a rehearsal studio and the theatre itself. Naming them now means every call you send later just references the right room.
Step twoBring in your company
This is the part people dread and shouldn't. Instead of typing 22 actors by hand, paste your cast list straight from a spreadsheet. Proscene reads the columns and maps them, name, role, email, phone, emergency contact, and you confirm the matches in one pass.
- Paste from Sheets, Excel, or Numbers, or upload a CSV
- Set each person's role: principal, ensemble, crew, design, FOH
- Reuse a company you've built before in one click
Everyone you add gets an invite. They tap one link, and they're in, seeing exactly what their role should see and nothing more.
Step threeBuild the rehearsal calendar
Now the part that earns its keep. Lay out your rehearsal period, block by block, scene by scene. Mark tech week, and as you go, Proscene quietly checks the cast's availability and flags conflicts before they cost you a room.
You don't have to plan the whole period in one sitting. Most stage managers rough in the shape, read-throughs, music calls, blocking weeks, runs, tech, and fill in detail a week at a time. The calendar is the single source everyone reads from, so a change you make here reaches all 22 phones at once.
Step fourSend your first call
Pick a rehearsal, choose who's needed, by scene, by role, or hand-picked, and send. That's it. The call lands on everyone's device, they confirm with a tap, and you watch the room fill up in real time.
No more "did everyone get that?" The night before and the morning of, Proscene nudges anyone who hasn't confirmed, so you're not the human reminder service anymore.
The point isn't the software. It's the hour you get back every night, and the quiet certainty that the whole company knows where to be. Build the show once. Let it carry you to closing.