The cue that lives nowhere
A plain-text notation for technical cues in scripts
Over the last fifteen years, I have worked with small companies in various roles. Directing, composing, and sometimes both in the same production. Because I have always been drawn to the technical side, I have spent a lot of time in the booth: for my own shows and helping out on others.
Often with complex setups. Projections, sound, lights, and live music all running in unison.
This position gave me the chance to experience the complexity of “staging” from different perspectives.
A director marks something in the script. A note, an intention, a moment that needs to land in a specific way. Then, somewhere between that mark and the console, the translation happens. And translation costs time. It demands precision. When working fast in the middle of a tech rehearsal, that cost adds up.
Every script I encountered, for the stage or the screen, had the same gap. The creative intention, sometimes just an idea still forming, and the technical execution somewhere else. Two separate worlds that had to be reconciled.
I am convinced that this disconnect manifests wherever there is a script and a need to annotate the technical layer alongside it: opera, musicals, live events, film, video.
I have been writing my scripts in Fountain for years. And when I felt the need to solve, or at least simplify, the transition from creative idea to technical reality, the plain-text philosophy behind Fountain (and Markdown) felt like the most natural choice. A set of essential rules for writing technical cues directly into the script: right where the idea takes life.
That is what Secuens is built for.
Every production is a collective effort. Those who direct, compose, shape the light, dress the stage, or move within it, and everyone else holding the show together. Secuens only makes sense if that team chooses to adopt it. Without them, it doesn’t exist.
If you work in any kind of production and want to contribute, read the spec, open an issue, and start a conversation.
The Secuens Specification is open. Version 0.9.1, public draft.
Throwing something into the water. Watching what moves.