Blocker by Digital Stage Manager

Blocker is a tool designed for Stage Managers, Directors, Choreographers, Event Managers, and anyone else who needs to organize movement with music.

One of the responsibilities of a Stage Manager is to take blocking notes during rehearsals and stagings to keep track of scenery, props, and actors. Blocker was designed to help the Stage Manager create blocking notes and to also allow them to view movement within a scene in real time.

The Stage Manager can use a variety of shapes, even images, to represent elements on stage (actors, props, set pieces). They can choose to set the movement with music, having the elements move to a certain point on the stage at a certain moment in the song, or with a timer, having the elements move to a certain point on the stage at a specific minute or second.

Once the Stage Manager is satisfied with their scene they can generate paperwork which produces a PDF document. The document will print a new page for every recorded movement. For example, if a scene contains one actor that moves to five different points the PDF document will print five pages. Page one will have the actor at it’s first point, then the second page the actor will be at it’s second point, etc…

The great thing about Blocker is it is not limited to Stage Managers. Choreographers and Directors can create entire scenes and see the traffic before stepping foot into a rehearsal. New actors or dancers to a production can be handed an iPad with Blocker installed and study their scenes to prepare to go on stage. Event planners can use Blocker to design and plan events, such as weddings, allowing them to create organized traffic.

In short, Blocker can benefit anyone who needs a tool to record organized movement… blocking.