PCStage has the ability to display the script on-screen, but if scripts for plays are available electronically, I've never seen one. This page details how I go about getting an on-screen script. The process takes about a dozen hours for a typical length script, and it helps for a proof readthrough if there is another person available.
My on-screen scripts look like this:
Page 4
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The way that the script gets from a plain text document to the pretty-printed version shown above is through "mark-up". One could just mark up the script using plain HTML commands, but it is tedious to do so, and so I have developed a trivial markup lingo, and an AWK script to process a marked up script to an HTML version that can be directly viewed within PCStage. It can also be imported into Word set layout to two columns and it prints nicely two script pages to one sheet.
The marked-up source for the above snippet looks like this:
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#4 O'Reilly They're heading straight over the cliff. Daphne (without feeling) I can't look. {Blackout} [Daphne and O'Reilly exit. Mrs Reece enters, carrying her Fashion Show notes] Mrs_Reece Sorry. I'm afraid we've had a little hitch back here. What was supposed to have happened... {The Lights come up full} /Ah, hey presto. Well, most of you will know that we've been doing then little... |
By comparing the two versions, you can work out what has happened, but here is the syntax used for marking up
| Round brackets (), is present in the script as notes from the author generally for the benefit of the actor | Text is made green and italicized |
| Square brackets [], place around authors general instructions, usually stage directions | Text is made blue and italicized |
| Curly brackets {}, place around text that is important to the PCStage operator. Note that these brackets can nest. | Text is made red and bold |
| Blank line which indicates that the next line will start with an actor's speech, unless some other override takes effect | First word (the actor's name) is made bold. Note that if the name is two or more words, do a global replace to add underscores. |
| Line starts with a slash | Don't bold the first word, the text is a continuation of a previous speech |
| Line starts with a open angle bracket < | Copy the line verbatim, it is assumed to be an HTML command. |
| #n where n is a page number | Printed as "Page n" in gray |
Brackets are allowed to nest, so you can have something like [moves down C and {a gunshot is heard}].
The first step is to scan the script, and OCR it to plain text. That's it, plain text, so all formatting is lost, and just the text remains. Once you've OCR'd it actually go through and read the script with another person holding the original to check for howlers, misplaced columns and any other gremlin that can befall the black magic that is OCR.
From this point on you have a text file, and need to edit it with a text file editor, as opposed to word or something similar. I use a programming editor, Zeusedit, which I use as a Brief clone, but it is not free, and if you've not used a similar editor before then you may find Notepad quicker...
Then run the text file through the AWK conversion script called scripter.awk (right click and save-as to download). The result of this will be an HTML file which can be loaded (or reloaded) into PCStage.
To process the file do the following command at a command prompt:
awk -f scripter.awk script.txt > script.htm
You can get AWK for a most platforms, perhaps a good place to start would be the GNU AWK page, or google. If you feel the need to spend money then I recommend you take your wallet to MKS Software.
The process is now iterative, find what needs to be changed in the script, edit the markup, save it, rerun the AWK thing, and reload in PCStage.
Finally, a quick tip - when the director changes a line, rather than deleting
words you can bad words remove the words you no longer want
by using the <strike></nostrike> construct, which is useful if you
ever do the show again some time in the future, all the original text is still
there.