Playwright.software · write · submit · perform · earn a ticket share · early access
The stage-play writing platform for playwrights — the people who write plays for the stage. Not a theater. Not a script marketplace. The tool you write the play in.
Every production starts with a script someone wrote. Playwright.software is built for that person: a stage-play editor that understands the page geometry, compound numbering, and Musical mode that stage plays actually require; a submission path to a free-to-perform catalog that gets your work in front of schools without a query letter or a royalty barrier; and a ticket-share model so when a school sells tickets to your show through the platform, you earn a percentage of what they collect. The editor is in active development. The submission and ticket-share pipeline is designed and built in the codebase; it is not yet publicly enabled. Early access is open -- book a conversation.
The production that starts with your script
The traditional path for a playwright who wants their work performed in schools runs through a licensing house: a query letter, a submission window, a decision that may take months, and if accepted, a royalty arrangement that prices out many small programs from the start. The schools that can afford the rights get a production. The ones that cannot do not. The playwright earns a royalty on the productions that happen and nothing from the ones that never start.
The free-to-perform model inverts that. The catalog is the distribution. Any school can perform any script in the catalog at zero cost -- no query, no fee. More productions happen because the barrier to starting one is removed. Your name is in the program on every one of them. When a school also sells tickets through the platform, you earn a share of what they collect. The school pays nothing extra for the free-to-perform right. You earn only from the ticketing leg.
The submission and ticket-share pipeline is designed and built in the codebase. It is not yet publicly enabled -- honest-off, in active development. The editor is the starting point. Everything else follows from the work.
How it works
Each stage is described as it is built today. The editor is in active development. The submission, performance, and ticket-share stages are designed and built in the codebase; they are not yet publicly enabled.
Step 1 · Write
The full stage-play editor: nine element types, compound page numbering, Musical mode, real-time collaboration via Yjs, revision tracking with per-author colors, versioning, and a monologue library for reference. Export at any time as PDF, Fountain, FTX (our open Fountain-based format), or FDX. The script stays yours throughout. No submission decision is required while you are writing.
Step 2 · Submit to Free School Plays
When the script is ready, submit it to the Free School Plays catalog. The path shows an IP declaration, a content-review queue, and the full license terms in plain English before you confirm. Non-exclusive: you keep the copyright and may license the same work through any other channel. Revocable: you can withdraw a submitted script at any time. Attribution -- your name and 'Free School Plays' on any program -- is required. That is the complete obligation.
Step 3 · Schools perform at zero cost
Any school can perform a Free School Plays script with no royalty, no per-performance fee, and no query letter. The catalog is the distribution mechanism: your script reaches every school on the platform without you having to solicit individual productions. Your name stays in the program on every production -- which is how you build a reputation in school theatre, one production at a time.
Step 4 · Earn a ticket share
Any production can sell tickets through School Box Office. When a production of your script sells tickets through the platform, you are eligible to receive a choosable share of what the school collects. The model is a percentage of ticket revenue -- not a royalty and not a flat fee. The school pays nothing extra: the free-to-perform right is unchanged, and you earn only from the ticketing leg. The ticket-share model is designed and built in the codebase; the charge rail and payout interface are honest-off -- not yet publicly enabled.
The platform
Every surface is labelled honestly: Built means the underlying engine is production-ready. In development means the surface, wire-up, or charge rail is in active build. We do not claim otherwise.
The editor is built for stage plays as a first-class form. Element types cover every structural element a stage play uses: title page, scene heading, character, dialogue, stage direction, transition, action, song cue, and lyric -- nine types in all. An element-cycle keyboard shortcut advances through the writing sequence without lifting hands from the keys. Autocomplete draws from the script's own character list. Compound act-scene-page numbering (I-1, II-4-85) is generated automatically from the document structure -- the professional standard no other editor produces automatically. Musical mode adds first-class song cue and lyric elements for libretto work. Five school-drama forms -- one-act, ten-minute, readers theatre, monologue, ensemble -- exist as distinct authoring profiles, not as templates. A monologue library provides reference works organized by age range, length, and genre. Runs browser-native on Chromebook, Android, and desktop. No install, no app store. The editor is built and in active development.
Editor built -- active development
Every script is a Yjs CRDT document shared in real time over the Hocuspocus sync server. Two writers can edit the same script simultaneously; per-author undo is independent. Revision colors mark each change by author so a pass at revision is readable at a glance: what was added, what was removed, and by whose hand. Versioning records the document at each save so any prior state is recoverable. No file to email. No version-lock. An unlimited number of co-authors can work on a script. Live collaboration and revision tracking are built and production-ready.
Yjs collaboration built -- revision colors built
Free School Plays is the catalog of scripts any school can perform at zero royalty and zero per-performance fee. No query letter. No submission fee. Attribution is required: your name and 'Free School Plays' on the program -- that is the complete obligation. The submission path shows an IP declaration, a content review queue, and the license terms in plain English before you confirm. The license is non-exclusive: you keep your copyright, may also license the same work through any other channel, and can withdraw a submitted script at any time. The submission engine and content-discipline gate are designed and built in the codebase. The public-facing submission interface is not yet enabled -- honest-off, in active development.
Submission engine built -- public interface honest-off
Once a script is written, it needs to survive contact with the production. The rehearsal view presents the script in a clean reading format for the rehearsal room: larger type, clear scene navigation, fewer visual interruptions. The promptbook is the director-authoritative version: blocking notes, cue marks, and production annotations layered on the text without altering the author's original. Changes the director makes to the promptbook do not modify the author's document. The rehearsal view and the promptbook are built in the platform and in active development.
Rehearsal view built -- promptbook built
Any production can sell tickets through School Box Office, the platform's no-skim box-office engine. When a production of a Free School Plays script sells tickets through the platform, the submitting author is eligible to receive a choosable share of the ticket revenue. The share is a percentage of what the school collects -- not a royalty and not a flat fee. The school's free-to-perform right is unchanged: the school pays nothing extra, and you earn only from the ticketing leg. The School Box Office engine and the no-skim split are built and production-ready. The charge rail that moves money is honest-off -- present in the platform, not enabled for live transactions today. Author payouts follow the charge-rail enablement.
Box-office engine built -- charge rail honest-off
Who it is for
You have a script you believe in and no path to production. The query-letter circuit is slow, selective, and designed for writers with a track record. The free-to-perform catalog is a different model: submit the script, pass the content review, and it is available to every school on the platform. Your first production may happen faster than the first rejection letter from a licensing house arrives. Non-exclusive, so you lose nothing by trying.
You have works on multiple channels -- some commercially licensed, some not. The free-to-perform catalog is an additional distribution path for works you want produced widely. The ticket-share model means a high-volume school-circuit play earns from each ticketed production, compounding over a catalog of works rather than a single royalty arrangement. Non-exclusive: works in the catalog stay available for commercial licensing simultaneously.
You write original material for your own students and for other programs like yours. The five school-drama forms -- one-act, ten-minute, readers theatre, monologue, ensemble -- exist as distinct authoring profiles in the editor, not as templates. Submitting your own scripts to the catalog gets them in front of programs that face the same constraints yours does: limited budgets, mixed-ability casts, short rehearsal windows.
Your work, your rights
Everything you write in the editor stays yours. You hold the copyright to your script. Submitting to Free School Plays grants a limited, non-exclusive, revocable license: the platform may present your script in the catalog, show it to schools, and prepare the formats that schools need to perform it. That is the complete scope of the license -- never a transfer of ownership, never an exclusive arrangement, never a barrier to placing the same work elsewhere.
The license is revocable. You can withdraw a submitted script from the catalog at any time. Withdrawal is effective, not ceremonial. The submission path discloses the full terms in plain English before you confirm -- no buried clauses, no surprise obligations.
Student playwrights and minors
Student playwrights are often minors. The platform handles that seriously. A minor playwright's account requires guardian consent before the account is activated. Work created in the editor stays private to the writer's account -- it is never visible to other users -- until the writer explicitly chooses to submit it to the catalog. The submission path for a minor account includes an additional guardian-consent step before any script is published.
No behavioral tracking. No third-party analytics. Student writing does not leave the platform for external services. Grammar checking runs on LanguageTool hosted in-network when provisioned -- honest-off until then. Content moderation is applied on all submitted scripts to protect the catalog and the students who use it.
What is built and what is coming -- an honest account
Built and in active development: the stage-play editor (nine element types, compound numbering, Musical mode, school-drama forms, collaboration via Yjs, revision tracking, versioning, rehearsal view, promptbook, monologue library, export to PDF, Fountain, FTX, and FDX); the Free School Plays catalog engine and content-discipline gate; the School Box Office engine and the no-skim split engine.
Honest-off -- designed and built, not yet publicly enabled: the public-facing submission interface for Free School Plays; the ticket-share payout to authors; the charge rail that moves money through School Box Office. These surfaces exist in the codebase. They are not enabled for live transactions today.
No pricing is displayed. No live checkout is present. No subscription commitment is asked. The CTA is 'book a conversation' -- we show you what is built and discuss what early access means for your writing practice.
The ecosystem
The professional stage-play editor -- the same engine, positioned for the tool's features rather than the writer's journey.
The catalog schools browse. Every script is free to perform. Schools discover your work here.
The ticketing platform where school productions sell tickets. The ticket-share path runs through this engine.
The complete school theatre programme platform -- season planning, rights tracking, box office, playbill, and more.
Early access
The editor is in active development and approaching early access. Book a conversation to see the current state of the editor, discuss your writing practice, and get early-access priority when the submission interface opens.
Common questions
No. playwright.software is a writing platform for stage playwrights -- the people who write plays. The name shares an overlap with an unrelated product in the software development space; this platform has nothing to do with that product, software development, or QA tooling. If you are here to write stage plays, submit them to a performance catalog, and earn from productions, you are in the right place.
The platform is built for any playwright who writes for stage production: debut writers working on their first ten-minute play, experienced writers with multiple produced works, drama educators writing original material for their students, and student playwrights in high school and higher education programs. The free-to-perform model is particularly useful for writers who want their work produced without the barriers of a traditional licensing query.
A Free School Plays license lets any school read, rehearse, print, and perform the script with no royalty, no per-performance fee, and no query letter. Attribution is required -- the author's name and 'Free School Plays' on any program or promotional material. That is the complete obligation. There is no charge to perform a Free School Plays script.
Any school production can sell tickets through the School Box Office platform. When a production of a Free School Plays script sells tickets through the platform, the submitting author is eligible to receive a choosable share of the ticket revenue -- a percentage of what the school collects, not a royalty and not a flat fee. The school's free-to-perform right is unchanged; you earn only from the ticketing leg. The ticket-share model is designed and built in the codebase. The charge rail and author payout interface are honest-off -- not yet enabled for live transactions today.
Yes. You hold the copyright to your script throughout. Submitting to Free School Plays grants a limited, non-exclusive, revocable license: the platform may present your script in the catalog, show it to schools, and prepare the formats schools need to perform it -- nothing more. The license is non-exclusive: you may also license the same work through any other channel. It is revocable: you can withdraw a submitted script at any time. Submission is never a transfer of ownership.
Not yet. The submission engine, content review queue, and license presentation are designed and built in the codebase, but the public-facing submission interface is not yet enabled. The editor is in active development and approaching early access. Book a conversation to see the current state and get early-access priority.
Most existing writing tools are screenplay engines with stage-play support added later. This editor is built from the stage format outward. The page geometry is correct for stage plays: dialogue runs full-width, stage directions indent -- the opposite of a screenplay. Compound act-scene-page numbering (I-1, II-4-85) is generated automatically from the document structure. Musical mode adds first-class song cue and lyric elements for libretto work. Five school-drama forms -- one-act, ten-minute, readers theatre, monologue, ensemble -- exist as distinct authoring profiles, not as templates.
Yes. The document is a Yjs CRDT shared in real time. Two writers can edit the same script simultaneously; per-author undo is independent. Revision colors mark each change by author. Versioning records the document at each save so any prior state is recoverable. There is no file to send. Co-authorship is a first-class workflow in the editor.
PDF, Fountain (the plain-text industry standard), FTX (Fountain Theatre Extension -- our open published superset of Fountain, adding the tokens stage plays need), and FDX (the widely used screenplay XML exchange format that professional writing tools open). Export is available at any time. Nothing is locked to the platform.
Yes. The Free School Plays license is non-exclusive. Submitting a script to the catalog does not prevent you from also placing the same work with any other licensing channel. The two arrangements are not in conflict. The only commitment on the Free School Plays side is the attribution requirement on productions through that catalog.
Every script submitted to Free School Plays goes through a content review queue before it is published to the catalog. The review checks the IP declaration, a subject-lane gate (the catalog is safe-subject at launch; scripts in sensitive subject lanes are held pending a jurisdiction gate, not silently dropped), and a content-discipline pass. The writer is notified of the outcome. A script that does not pass review is not published; the writer receives a reason.