In simple terms, a French Scene Breakdown shows the entrances and exits of actors at a glance. This quick reference document helps simplify scheduling and makes visualizing the flow of the show easy. This is helpful for both Stage Managers and Directors alike, and is usually created by the SM.
Before going into the step by step, it’s important to understand exactly what a French Scene is.
What is a French Scene?
A French Scene is the segment of action that happens between any entrances and exits. A new French Scene begins any time an actor enters or exits the stage. This method of separating the play into smaller pieces originates from 17th century France.
More history included down below for those who are interested. Now that we know what a French scene is, lets look at what the Breakdown is and how they are used.
What Is a French Scene Breakdown?
The French Scene Breakdown is a tool to visualize who is on stage when in a play. Think about an index in a textbook, which lists key terms and the pages they are used on. In this case, Character names take place of the key terms and pages are represented visually instead of in a list.
Over time designers and playwrights have moved to the convention of using physical set changes and lighting shifts to delineate a new scene. These “Book Scenes” are normally written into the script.
French Scenes split these up further, labeled with the original act/scene number and an added letter for each new French Scene. These breakdowns help easily visualize which segments of the script include certain characters.
Why are French Scene Breakdowns Helpful?
French Scene Breakdowns help the SM team and Director quickly find portions of the script based on which actors are on stage. Most helpful in scheduling rehearsals, the time saved by an SM creating the call for the next day is huge.
When the director asks to work on “The scene with Jim and Bob in the dinner” you can glance at the breakdown and know where the scene with just those two characters falls in the script. Then including page numbers is easy.
The reverse is also true, Where a director says “Let’s work pages 13-19 with the second half of the day tomorrow” you can see who is on stage for those pages in quickly add them to the call.
I have written a lot more on the Stage Management process and all of the documents that an SM needs. If you would like to learn more, visit my What Does An SM Do page to learn more.
How to make a French scene breakdown
Making a French Scene Breakdown is fairly easy, but a bit time consuming up front. Because it saves a lot of time later, it is almost always work creating. Here are the steps I take when creating one for my prompt book:
1- Read the Script
Before you begin creating any documents for a show, read the script one time all the way for enjoyment and understanding. Because I have a very technical brain as many stage managers do, I typically read the script a second time to start developing an understanding of the characters and their relationships with each other. After the second read-through is when I begin reading the script to create documents. Once you have read the script, I recommend focussing on one document at a time the first few times you create a prompt book. This means you are able to put your full effort into each document to figure out what works for you.
2- Set Up Your Excel Sheet
Once you are ready to begin working on your Breakdown the first set is to set up your excellent sheet. You can also use google sheets for this, either one will give the same result. I start out with the Character names in the first column, the actor names in the next column, and the scene labels along the top. I also include musical numbers in the top bar so I can see those when creating schedules.
Add some color to differentiate the header and sidebar to both visually separate them and to match other related documents for the production. Highlighting every other column helps visually follow the document and is a pain to add later, so do this now. I also lock the first column to move along with the screen. This Keeps your character names visible at all times as you scroll through the document. To do this, navigate to the “View” tab and select “Freeze First Column”. This example is from the musical DOGFIGHT. I have added random actor names to give you some context.
4- Decide on Scene Labelling
The next decision to make is how you will label your French Scenes. One clarification: a “Book Scene” is a scene laid out in the script, what you typically imagine as a scene. These will typically be labeled as “Act I, Scene 1” “Act II, Scene 2”. I label French Scenes with the book scene number, followed by a letter. For example Act I, Scene 1 would be split into French Scenes labeled 1a, 1b, and 1c. Another option is to use a decimal and numbers after the book scene number (labeling as 1.1,1.2, 1.3, etc.) but I find this more confusing. Whichever works best for you is fine though as long as you can easily navigate them!
5- Start Adding Entrances and Exits
Begin going through the script from the beginning searching for anytime someone enters or exits. When you find an entrance or exit, begin a new column and fill in the page number, the book scene number, the charachter(s) who enter or exit, and extend marks for any character who remains on stage. I wait to add the internal French Scene labels until after a second pass to limit making large changes. Use “en” to mark an entrance, “ex” for exit, and “x” for staying on stage. I also Highlight Yellow the entire time someone is on stage for easy visualization. Feel free to use any marks you find clearest since this will be your own document!
6- Formatting for clarity
Once you have gone through the script once, it is good practice to go through again and double check you have gotten every entrance and exit. In this second pass I include French Scene labels which you picked earlier, as well as musical numbers. Once I have completed that, I double check that everything is clearly labeled and readable. The French Scene Breakdown should convey exactly who is on stage in whatever way is clearest for your production. Some situations will call for a different setup than I have laid out here. Don’t be afraid to adjust this layout to fit your production!
A quick note: Because this document is meant to save you time, it should be easy to scan and understand once you have set it up. I typically don’t print this out, but if you must, remember to be mindful of your color choices. Don’t use colors that will make this a challenge to read if printed in black and white. In general be careful of background and text colors that won’t show well.
French Scene Breakdown Template
If you want to use the template I have created, Click Here to download the Excel file I’ve created.
The History of the French Scene
The term dates back to the 17th century in France, where theaters were limited and their owners charged heavily to rent the space. Instead of paying, they began performing in non-traditional venues like regular houses which limited their ability to use traditional scenery. French playwrights began writing scripts where entrances and exits marked the beginning of a new scene, rather than a shift in physical location. These became known as French Scenes. This video from Study.com gives a good description of the history, though you need an account to watch the second half of the video.
