Libretto vs. Score

[damjamkato]

For the summer show at my school, we are doing "Showtune", which is basically a bunch of Jerry Herman songs stuck together into a hour and a half, 40 song revue.  I've never SM'd a show like this before, and I was wondering what the best way to take down blocking/choreography and create the calling script is.  I could either do it in the libretto, or the score.  I can read music, and am leaning towards using the score.  Please give me any and all advice, or experiences doing a show like this.

Thanks in advance

[sasquatch_223]

I think you should do it with the score, especially if there are any cues with which timing is really important.

[valence]

I like to write my blocking/choreography notes in the libretto--I write out the beats and the choreography in the margins.  There's more room than on the score, and the choreographer often teaches with reference to the beats anyway.

For my calling script I use a combination of the libretto and score.  For songs that are slower/have easier cues/less cues I just write them in the libretto as I would a cue during dialogue.  For songs with finicky timing or cues timed to instrumental parts I photocopy the score, cut out the section I want, and staple it into my script over the libretto.  It's not the most aesthetically pleasing solution, but it works well for me.

[kiwitechgirl]

I work in a pretty similar fashion to Valence - blocking and choreo notes go in the libretto, then I call from score.  I have varying methods of producing my calling script; sometimes I get a script and a piano score and go at them with scissors and glue, sometimes I retype (or scan and OCR) the script, scan the music and insert it as pictures into the typed script, and my latest and greatest method is to get an electronic copy of the script (retype or OCR), and then get the piano score into Sibelius (either by scanning it in - Sibelius does have its own OCR-type engine which will convert scanned pictures of music into actual music! - or by getting it from the MD if it's a rearrange, as my next musical is) and copy and paste from Sibelius into the electronic script.  It's only the latest version of Sibelius that lets you do that, but it's an absolute godsend.  The scanning the music as pictures works, but you do end up with a huge Word (or whatever you're using) file - I think my script for The Producers came in at something like 133mb.  I'd advise using the score if you're comfortable reading music - it just means you can be so much more precise in your calling.