The words behind the work

Stage directionsThe text nobody says out loud.

Everything in a script that isn't dialogue — usually set in italics or [square brackets]. They tell you who enters and exits, where people move, and sometimes how a line is delivered. Read them as information about the world, not orders you must obey literally. A direction like [coldly] is a clue to the intention underneath the line, not a result to paste on top of it.

NORA. [busy opening the parcels] Yes, it is!

In WroteIn every reading-room scene, stage directions are set apart from the spoken lines so the dialogue stays clean.

CueThe words you come in on.

The last line or action right before you speak. Knowing your cue is what lets a scene feel like a conversation instead of two people waiting for their turn. When you rehearse off-book, you're really learning your cues as much as your lines.

SidesThe pages you get for an audition.

A short excerpt — often one or two scenes — pulled from a larger script for a casting session. You rarely audition with the whole play; you audition with sides. Learning to make a full, specific choice from just a few pages is its own skill.

Verse & proseWhy classical text breaks into lines.

Older plays often move between prose (ordinary sentences that fill the width of the page) and verse (lines of a set rhythm, usually iambic pentameter). The line breaks in verse aren't decoration — they carry breath and emphasis. Honor the shape of the line, but play the thought that runs across it.

In WroteVerse works in the catalogue keep their original line breaks, so you can see the rhythm the writer built.

BeatA single unit of intention.

A beat is one thought, one impulse, one attempt to get what you want — and it ends the moment that changes. A speech isn't one long feeling; it's a chain of beats, each with its own small aim. Finding where the beats change is how you find the shape of a scene: this is where she's pleading, this is where she gives up, this is where she decides. Actors also use "beat" to mean a tiny pause — a held moment — but the deeper meaning is this unit of action.

"It is perfectly true, Torvald." — one beat of calm honesty — before the speech turns to accusation.

In WroteEvery monologue in Wrote is marked into beats on a timeline, so you can see exactly where the intention shifts. That’s the ruler running down the side of the speech.

ObjectiveWhat your character wants, right now.

The thing your character is trying to get from the other person in this scene — stated as an active verb you can actually play: to win her back, to make him confess, to be forgiven. "To be sad" is a mood; "to make you feel what I feel" is an objective. Choose something specific and difficult, and the scene has somewhere to go.

In WroteEach monologue’s study card names its objective, so you have a strong starting choice to argue with.

TacticHow you go after the objective.

If the objective is what you want, the tactic is how you try to get it — and it changes beat by beat. You might charm, then threaten, then beg, all in service of the same goal. When a tactic stops working, the character reaches for a new one. That's usually where a new beat begins.

Given circumstancesThe facts the text hands you.

Everything true before the scene starts: who these people are to each other, where they are, what time it is, what just happened, what's at stake. You don't invent these — you mine them from the text. The more precisely you know the circumstances, the less you have to "act," because the situation is already doing the work.

In WroteThe study card for each speech lays out the given circumstances — speaking to, what just happened, and the stakes — so you’re never guessing.

The turnThe moment the speech pivots.

The point where a speech stops being one thing and becomes another — where a character realizes something, changes their mind, or crosses a line they can't uncross. Find the turn and you've found the spine of the piece; everything before it is building, everything after is consequence.

In WroteWrote marks the turn on the beat ruler, so the pivot of the speech is visible at a glance.

SubtextWhat's underneath the line.

The meaning running beneath the words — what the character actually means, wants, or is hiding, as opposed to what they literally say. People rarely say exactly what they feel; the gap between the said and the meant is where most of the acting lives. "I'm fine" almost never means fine.

StakesWhat happens if you fail.

The cost of not getting what you want in the scene. High stakes make a scene urgent; low stakes make it forgettable. Ask what this character stands to lose — love, safety, dignity, a future — and let that pressure sit under every line.

Monologue vs. soliloquyTalking to someone, or thinking aloud.

A monologue is a long speech delivered to another character. A soliloquy is spoken alone — the character thinking aloud, letting the audience hear a private mind. The difference changes everything about how you play it: a monologue needs a target; a soliloquy needs a genuine question you're working out in real time.

Off-bookLines memorized, script down.

When you know the lines well enough to work without the page in your hand. Being off-book isn't the finish line — it's the starting line, the point where you can finally stop reading and start acting.

In WroteWrote’s Practice room has an off-book mode that hides the text a line at a time, so you can test your memory without a scene partner.

Cold readReading something you've just been handed.

Performing material with little or no time to prepare — a common audition test. The skill is making fast, clear, committed choices and staying available to your reader, rather than burying your face in the page.

Self-tapeYour audition, recorded and sent.

A recording of your audition that you film yourself and submit, instead of appearing in person. Most first-round auditions now happen this way. Good light, clean sound, a simple background, and a reader off-camera go a long way.

SlateIntroducing yourself on camera.

The few seconds at the top of a self-tape where you say your name (and sometimes your height, representation, or the role). It's the casting director's first impression — a moment to be warmly yourself before you become the character.

BlockingWhere and how you move.

The planned movement of a scene — where you stand, when you cross, who you touch. In an audition you usually keep blocking minimal; on stage or set it's worked out in rehearsal. Movement should come from intention, not restlessness.