Downstage is a plain-text format for stage plays with a few small tools around it. You write one .ds file, and the same file can be checked for mistakes, rendered to PDF, turned into HTML, and edited with writing-aware assistance in supported editors.

If Fountain feels too screenwriting-shaped and a word processor keeps nudging you into layout work, Downstage gives you a plain-text workflow built for plays.

You do not need the whole spec before you begin. Start with a tiny script, then keep the docs open for the parts you actually need.

A typical workflow is simple: write in plain text, preview when you want feedback, and export when you want pages.

The rest of this page is the language reference. Use it when you need to look up how a specific feature is written, not as the only way to understand what Downstage is.

A Downstage document has an optional title page and then the play body. The body can contain a character list, acts, scenes, prose sections, dialogue, songs, comments, and page breaks.

Title-page metadata lives at the top of the file as Key: Value pairs. Any key name is accepted. Indented lines continue the previous value.

The title page ends when the file hits a heading, a page break, or a non-indented line that is not a metadata pair.

The character list is a dedicated section. Entries can include descriptions, aliases, and optional subgroup headings.

If you do not need acts or scenes, skip them. Downstage does not force a structure you are not using.

Dialogue starts with a character name on its own line, followed by an optional parenthetical and one or more speech lines.

Character names are uppercase and may contain spaces, punctuation like periods and apostrophes, digits, and slashes for alias-aware names.

To mark simultaneous speech, add ^ to the end of the second character cue. The first cue stays normal.

The ^ must be the last character on the line, preceded by a space, and only the second cue gets the marker. Forced character cues also work, as in @narrator ^. If there is no previous dialogue block to pair with, the cue is treated as normal dialogue.

Stage directions can stand on their own or live inside dialogue.

Indent dialogue lines by two or more spaces to preserve line breaks as verse.

Prose and verse can be mixed inside the same speech block.

Songs wrap a block of theatrical content between SONG and SONG END.

Numbering and titles are optional. The contents can include dialogue, verse, and stage directions.

Inline formatting works in dialogue, verse, and stage directions.

These elements affect the working file and rendered pages differently.

When the parser would otherwise classify a line incorrectly, force it.

This excerpt shows how the pieces fit together in a real script.

For the exhaustive reference, read the full spec.

Downstage is inspired by Fountain, which showed the value of a readable plaintext format for scripts, and by the archived TheatreScript specification, which explored theatre-native structure directly.

This project builds on those ideas with a more complete toolchain for stage writing: rendering, validation, and editor support around the same readable source format.

Downstage was created by Jake Scaltreto, a software developer and playwright who wanted a better way to write plays than fighting a word processor.