Product Reviews

Digital Script Index

PRE-PUBLICATION DRAFT

STAGE DIRECTIONS

COPYRIGHT 1999

AUTHOR: Patrick Finelli, Ph.D.

TITLE: Digital Script Index

DSI (Digital Script Index) is a software product that provides titles and information about thousands of scripts from publishers including Broadway Play Publishing, Dramatists Play Service, Music Theatre International and others.

You load the installation program on the CD-ROM which then sets up a folder on your computer, but the program requires the CD-ROM even after you have installed it. You launch DSI by clicking on the file icon. It works on both Macintosh and Windows PCs. When the program loads, you will be greeted by one of the rotating ads before you can use the DSI index. The first ad I saw was for a stage management book which is one of Digital Theatre’s publications. The next time I ran the program, another ad was displayed from the Educational Theatre Association. After the ad is done you will finally see an image of a book on your screen which opens to reveal an indexed alphabetic list of plays. This is where the fun begins.

When you click on the title of the script, details appear on the right hand page. The script information includes title, credits, type (full length, musical, one act) and category (comedy, melodrama), number of cast members by gender, additional information such as children’s roles, doubling, a description, set requirements, musical numbers, price, royalty information, catalog, ISBN number and publisher. You can print the information you are currently viewing using the Print Listing tab, or print a set of records such as all of the available published scripts of Arthur Miller even if they are with different publishers.

Since the program runs off of the CD-ROM, the time it takes for the computer to search the database is very quick. You always have the prerogative to browse through selected listings. You can perform more complex searches using the "Find Script" tab, which utilizes any keyword found in the index. This is what sets the CD-ROM script index apart from printed resources. You may search for scripts based upon virtually any criteria. Once the search is complete you see arrow buttons at the top of the page that let you scroll through the results. I looked for plays written by Tennessee Williams and found 52. I found only two Neil Simon scripts, "Goodbye Girl" (Music Theatre International) and "Star-Spangled Girl" (Dramatists Play Service), but there were 32 scripts by David Mamet. You can even make your search more precise. I searched for Mamet plays with two males and found ten scripts. Then I searched for plays in the general list that have parts for seven females and got a list of 243. A search for plays with four females and no males turned up 13 total scripts. There are many possibilities for key searches that will help you plan your theatre’s next season. For instance, you can specify a search based on a range, such as cast size or genre. You could search for all scripts that have more than 11 cast members for instance, or all detective comedies with less than six men. You can enter multiple keywords (e.g. Simon comedy 5 men) and it will give you a list of plays that have at least one of those keys listed. You can use this to narrow down your search or to find a selection of plays that meet your theatre’s programming criteria.

There are two boxes called "Type" and "Category" that contain pop-up menus with suggested classifications. However, it gets a little confusing because the categories overlap. A partial listing under the "Category" box includes Absurdist Comedy, Adaptation, Clown and Puppets, Courtroom Farce, Hillbilly Farce, Hyperbolic Potboiler, Narrative Theatre, Outrageous Comedy, Nativity Drama, Plays Based on Jewish Folk Tales, Satire, Vaudeville and inexplicably "Play About D.H. Lawrence" which lists Tennessee Williams’ play "I Rise in Flame Cried the Phoenix." The "Type" box menu contained Anthology, Full length, Holiday Play, One Act, Plays for One Actor, Plays for Young Actors, Short Non-Royalty and Skits. Both boxes list "Anthology" as an option. When I selected "Holiday Drama with Music" under the "Category" box and it identified only one script, "A Carol for Tiny Tim" by "James" Carroll. The playwright told me his actual name is John R. Carroll.  Then I selected "Holiday Musical" under the "Type" box and it yielded 17 scripts from "Babes in Toyland" to "A Winnie-the-Pooh Christmas Tale." The database key search would probably work just as well with one pop-up menu listing all of the possible category criteria in one box.

There are tabs on the edges of the book pages for moving among other selected features. The View Company screen lists all of the publishers with scripts included in the Digital Script Index. This section includes the contact addresses, telephone, fax and other details about the publishers. The "Script Publisher" button takes you to more information about the publisher. There is a help button searchable by keyword. There’s also a tab to learn more about the creators of DSI.

It took a few clicks to discover that I couldn’t exit the program except through the Script Index page where you will find an icon of an open door. Clicking on this button exits the program.

The "Order Forms" program opens directly from the folder that you selected on your PC for installation. The order form screen allows you to create and print a form based upon the information found for that particular script. After you select the script title from the database, the program automatically enters the information for that script and it will either calculate shipping and handling or there will be a Check Costs button which will take you to a screen that helps you figure it out.

The program retails for $49.95 plus $4.95 shipping if you order it through the company. There are discounts for bulk orders of 5 or more. It includes a $10 discount coupon for the next edition, which might come in handy since the online index is updated annually.

System Requirements

Hardware: 16M of RAM; 5M hard drive space, CD-ROM drive

Macintosh System 7.0 or greater
or Windows 95/98
Price: $49.95
 
Digital Theatre
5370 Walton Heath
Las Vegas, Nevada 89142
Phone: 1-800-569-6362
Web: www.theatresoftware.com
Email: digtheatre@aol.com