Characters

Characters in ScriptMagic represent the roles in your production. They're used for casting assignments, scene tracking, and blocking maps.

Creating characters

Add manually

1. Open the Characters management screen
2. Click Add Character
3. Enter the character name
4. Fill in additional details as needed

Import a list

1. Click Import Characters
2. Paste a list of character names (one per line)
3. Characters are created with default settings, and duplicates are skipped

Imported characters are automatically assigned distinct sticker colors, border colors, and shapes so they're easy to tell apart on blocking maps.

Character properties

Each character has:

• Name — the character or role name (e.g., "Elphaba")
• Custom name / group label (optional) — for ensemble roles like "Ballet Girls" or "Town Ensemble"
• Assigned people — one or more cast members. Ensemble roles can have multiple people assigned.
• Scenes and songs — which scenes and musical numbers the character appears in (see Production Structure)
• Entrance/exit notes — per-scene notes describing how the character enters or exits (e.g., "SR", "SL", "flies in"). These appear in cast sheets and the breakdown report.
• Notes — separate sections for cast notes, director notes, and team notes

Sticker appearance

Every character has a customizable sticker used in blocking maps. You can configure:

• Shape — circle (default), square, triangle, or headshot (uses the actor's photo)
• Fill color — the sticker's background color
• Border color — the sticker's outline color
• Text — initials or a custom abbreviation (auto-derived from the character name if left blank)

Click the sticker preview on a character to open the sticker editor and customize these settings. See Character Stickers for details on how stickers work in the blocking editor.

Assigning people to characters

1. Select a character
2. Open the People section
3. A dialog shows all production members — check or uncheck to assign or remove
4. Filter by name or email to find specific people

Multiple people can be assigned to a single character for ensemble roles. When you assign a character to a person, it also appears on their record in the People management screen.

Assigning scenes and songs

1. Select a character
2. Click Select scenes... or Select songs...
3. Check the scenes or musical numbers the character appears in
4. Filter by name to find specific items

Tip

If a character is assigned to a song that's nested inside a scene, the parent scene is automatically shown as inherited — you don't need to assign both manually.

Deleting characters

Select a character and click the trash button. The character will be unassigned from all people and removed from the production.