Play Format Guide: Stage Directions, Dialogue & Layout

Search for standard play format and you’ll find a dozen guides confidently describing the correct layout. Compare them and you’ll find they disagree - about where character names sit, whether stage directions are indented, whether dialogue is blocked or flush left.

They’re not wrong. They’re describing different conventions, all of which are in current use, and none of which is universal.

This is the first thing to understand about formatting a play, and it’s the opposite of the situation in screenwriting. A screenplay has one near-universal standard, enforced by software and by readers who notice deviations instantly. A playscript has a convention with regional variants and a hierarchy of overrides.

So the useful skill isn’t memorising one layout. It’s knowing which authority applies to the document in front of you. This guide covers the mechanics - where everything goes on the page. The Dramatists Guild publishes reference formats, and the wider craft is in our complete playwright’s guide.

What is standard play format?

Standard play format is a set of layout conventions covering title page, character list, act and scene headings, character names, dialogue and stage directions - used so that a script reads cleanly and signals professional competence. There is no single governing body enforcing one version, and conventions differ meaningfully between the US and UK and between publishers.

What follows is the most widely used US convention, with variants flagged where they matter.

The hierarchy of authority

When two sources conflict, this is the order that settles it.

Rank 1 is not a formality. Theatres and competitions receive far more scripts than they can read, and a stated requirement - anonymised title page, PDF only, no more than 40 pages - is frequently used as a first-pass filter. A script that ignores it may not be read at all, however good it is.

The practical rule: never format for submission until you have read that specific call. Format your working draft however you like; produce the submission version to order.

What format is actually for

One principle resolves most edge cases you’ll hit.

Format’s job is to be invisible. A literary manager reads hundreds of scripts a year. Every moment they spend noticing your layout is a moment not spent reading your play, and the noticing is never neutral - it registers as unfamiliarity with the form.

That gives you a test for any formatting decision: does this draw attention to itself? If yes, and it isn’t doing genuine work for the reader, don’t do it. It’s why unusual fonts, decorative title pages, coloured text and elaborate scene headings all cost you something and return nothing.

The corollary is that the conventions aren’t sacred. They’re a shared set of expectations that let a reader stop seeing the document and start seeing the play.

The elements, one by one

Title page

Its own page, no page number. Centred or upper-left, depending on convention:

• Title, in caps or title case

• By [author name]

• Contact details - email at minimum, lower left or lower right

• Draft date or version, if you track them

Anonymise on request. Many competitions read blind. When a call asks for no identifying information, that includes the header on every page, the file name, and the document properties - which writers routinely forget.

Character list

A separate page after the title page, sometimes headed Characters, Dramatis Personae, or Cast of Characters.

List each character with a brief identifier - age or age range, relationship, occupation. One line each. Order by significance or by order of appearance; both are accepted.

Below the list, two short blocks:

• Setting - where the play takes place

• Time - when

Both should be brief. A director will interpret them; a paragraph of atmospheric description here is doing the wrong job in the wrong place.

Note cast size prominently if it’s small. For a theatre reading with a budget in mind, 3M, 2F or Five actors, doubling possible near the top of the page is genuinely useful information.

Act and scene headings

Centred, on their own line, usually in caps or bold:

ACT ONE

Scene 1

Some writers start each scene on a new page; some run them continuously. Both are fine for submission. Rehearsal drafts almost always break scenes onto new pages, for reasons covered below.

Character names

The most variable element in the whole format, and the one most guides present as settled.

The three conventions in current use:

• Centred, all caps, above the dialogue. Most common in US submission drafts. Visually closest to a screenplay, which is why it reads as familiar to American readers.

• Left-aligned, all caps, above the dialogue. Common in published US play texts and increasingly in submissions.

• Left-aligned, caps, followed by a colon, dialogue running on the same line. Standard in much UK practice and in many published editions.

All three are legitimate. Pick one and never vary it. Inconsistency is the only version of this that reads as an error.

Dialogue

Flush left, full margin width, single-spaced within a speech. This is the clearest departure from screenplay format, where dialogue sits in a narrow indented column - if you’re arriving from screen, our spec script formatting guide covers what you’re leaving behind.

Blank line between speeches. No indentation on the first line. Punctuate normally.

Verse plays retain their line breaks and capitalisation; do not reflow verse as prose.

Stage directions

How they’re typed - which is all this section covers. What they should say, how much to specify, and whether to block the play on the page at all is a separate and genuinely contested craft question, handled in Writing Stage Directions That Directors Actually Want to Follow.

The mechanics:

• Italics. Near-universal, and the single most consistent element across all conventions.

• Indented from the left margin, typically half an inch to an inch, so they’re distinguishable from dialogue at a glance.

• Parentheses for short directions embedded within a speech: (She doesn’t look up.)

• No parentheses required for standalone directions between speeches, though some house styles use them throughout.

• Character names in caps within directions, in most US conventions - MARTHA crosses to the window. UK practice often does not.

• Present tense, third person. Always.

Entrances and exits get their own line, standard phrasing: ENTER MARTHA / MARTHA exits. Whichever you choose, be consistent.

Page numbers and headers

Top right or bottom centre, starting at 1 on the first page of the play - not on the title page.

Some conventions number by act and scene together (1-14 for act one, page fourteen). This is a rehearsal convenience and unnecessary in a submission draft unless requested.

Headers carrying the title and author on every page are common and helpful, and must be removed for blind submissions.

Font and margins

12-point, serif, single-spaced. Times New Roman is the safe default; Courier is accepted and is more common in the US than the UK.

One-inch margins all round, sometimes wider on the left to allow binding.

Do not use these to control page count. Every reader recognises margin manipulation immediately, and a 90-page play squeezed into 75 reads worse and fools nobody.

US and UK conventions

The differences are real and worth knowing if you submit internationally.

Neither is wrong in the other territory, and readers on both sides encounter both regularly. If you have no signal, use your own region’s convention - it’s the one you’ll be most consistent in.

Submission draft versus rehearsal draft

Most format guides describe only the first. They’re different documents.

The submission draft is a reading document. It exists to be read quickly and cleanly by someone deciding whether to spend more time on it. Clean, conventional, minimal, PDF.

The rehearsal draft is a working document for a room full of people who need to find things fast and mark them up. It differs in specific ways:

• Scenes start on new pages, so scenes can be rehearsed and reordered independently

• Line numbering down the margin, so notes can be given precisely

• Wider margins, for annotation

• Version and date in the header, because multiple drafts circulate simultaneously and confusing two is genuinely costly

• Sometimes a page-per-scene index at the front

Producing a rehearsal draft when a theatre asked for a submission draft looks like carelessness. The reverse - arriving at a table read with a submission PDF - creates a room full of people counting lines by hand. The Table Read for Playwrights covers what the room actually needs.

Special cases

Simultaneous dialogue. Two columns side by side, or a bracket linking the speeches, or a marked convention explained in a note at the front. All three are used. Whichever you pick, explain it once on the character page - a reader who has to work out your system mid-scene has stopped reading the play.

Interruptions. An em dash at the point of cut-off. A trailing ellipsis indicates fading out, not being cut off; the distinction is standard and readers rely on it.

Overlapping speech. A slash mark at the point where the next speaker begins, with a note explaining it. Common in contemporary British writing.

Non-verbal beats. A stage direction, not an empty line. (Silence.) and (Pause.) are conventionally different lengths, and directors read them that way.

Songs and lyrics. Set off from dialogue, usually indented and often italicised, with the song title in the direction that introduces it. If you’re writing a musical, the book and lyric conventions have their own requirements - Musical Book Writing: Structuring Story Around Songs covers the structural side.

What not to do

Formatting to disguise length. Margins, font size and spacing manipulation are all obvious to a reader who handles scripts daily.

Inconsistency. Switching character-name style at page 40 is the most common formatting error in unsolicited scripts and the most damaging, because it reads as inattention rather than as a choice.

Decorative title pages. Images, unusual fonts, colour. It reads as compensation.

Camera language. Close on Martha has no meaning on stage. It happens more often than you’d expect in scripts by writers crossing over from screen.

Ignoring the call. Restated because it matters most: a stated requirement outranks every convention in this article.

Submitting a Word file when the call says PDF. Formatting shifts between machines, fonts substitute, and pagination moves. PDF unless told otherwise.

Formatting that holds still

The practical problem with play formatting isn’t learning it. It’s that general-purpose word processors don’t hold it - character names drift out of style, indentation on stage directions resets when a scene moves, and every restructure means re-checking a document you’d already fixed.

Skrib is built to keep it steady. The Draft holds stage formatting in place through revision: character names, directions and scene breaks stay consistent when you move a scene rather than re-flowing to whatever the surrounding text is doing. The Board sits beside it as a canvas for structure and research, so blocking out the play and writing it happen in the same window. The Library keeps every version searchable, which is what you need when a rehearsal draft and a submission draft are both in circulation.

Export is clean to .docx and .pdf for submissions and readings, and to .fdx or .fountain if a script moves toward screen. You can start free.

Frequently asked questions

Is there one standard format for a stage play? No. Unlike screenwriting, which has a near-universal convention, playscript formatting varies between the US and UK and between publishers. What settles a conflict is the hierarchy: a specific submission call outranks a publisher’s house style, which outranks regional convention, which outranks general practice.

How do you format stage directions in a play? Italicised, indented from the left margin, present tense and third person. Short directions inside a speech go in parentheses; standalone directions between speeches usually don’t need them. Most US conventions capitalise character names within directions and most UK practice does not.

Should dialogue be indented in a play script? No. Play dialogue runs flush left at full margin width, which is the clearest difference from screenplay format, where dialogue sits in a narrow indented column. Only stage directions are indented.

What font should a play be written in? 12-point serif, single-spaced, with one-inch margins. Times New Roman is the safe default everywhere; Courier is accepted and more common in the US. Adjusting font or margins to change page count is immediately recognisable to anyone who reads scripts regularly.

Should I send a Word file or a PDF? PDF, unless the submission call says otherwise. Word files re-paginate on other machines and substitute fonts, so a carefully formatted script can arrive looking broken.

What’s the difference between a submission draft and a rehearsal draft? A submission draft is a clean reading document. A rehearsal draft is a working document for a room - scenes starting on new pages, line numbering in the margin, wider margins for notes, and version dates in the header, because several drafts often circulate at once.