The backstage your theatre committee has been improvising without

Pocket Backstage — amateur theatre, organised

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Run the whole production cycle in one place — plays, committees, auditions, scripts, offer-based casting, rehearsals and the cast announcement — with the actors you work with right there alongside you.

Built for amateur theatre committees, directors, casting teams and the actors who audition with them. No more shared spreadsheets, mystery group chats or lost script attachments.

For production teams

Run the production, end to end

Everything a committee, director or casting lead needs to take a play from "we should do this one" to opening night — without losing track of who agreed to what.

Plays, committees & roles

Create a play and form a per-play committee — coordinator, director, stage manager and more — who can edit it. Executive committee posts get their own accounts, theatre admins can reach every play at their theatre, and finished shows keep their own past-productions record.

Auditions that go further than a form

Share an audition link, collect submissions, and schedule auditions, call-backs, read-throughs and rehearsals. Give your own theatre's actors first look, then re-notify everyone with one toggle. Copied events start as drafts, so nothing goes out until you publish it.

Scripts with AI cast suggestions

Upload a PDF or DOCX script once. Share it with interested actors and let AI read the script to suggest the cast list you'll build — speaking roles, gender, age range and notes.

Offer-based casting

Casting always runs through a play role: shortlist, send an offer with an expiry, and the actor accepts, declines or lets it lapse. Withdraw or re-open a single role without disturbing the rest of the cast, then announce the cast in one click.

Actor directory

Browse the actors you already work with — those who've submitted to your plays or are cast at your theatre — with full profiles, photos and credits, plus a CSV export that's recorded in the audit log.

Email & SMS from inside the app

Write rich emails with links, images and left, centre or right alignment, and send to a shortlist, a cast or the whole membership — recipients in BCC, fellow theatre members copied, sent from the play's own theatre. Anything over the hourly limit waits its turn and goes out automatically. Short notices can go by text message instead.

Membership, minors & consent

Switch on the Members module for a membership register that opens with a count of members by type and status, filters by type, status and interest, self-service details, a searchable directory with interests and contact details private by default, plus mailing-list sync. Family accounts let a parent act for a child, with photos held for approval.

One sign-in for your website

Already have a theatre website? Members can step straight from Pocket Backstage into the members' area of your WordPress site without signing in twice.

Volunteer rota

Set up your standard jobs once — bar, front of house, box office — and shifts are created automatically for every performance. Volunteers sign up from the rota, get a warning if two shifts clash, and receive confirmation and reminder emails. Tweak any shift for a single night.

Private hire bookings

Hiring the theatre out? Record the booking and the hirer's contact details once, add every date, and it reserves the calendar without pretending to be a play. Volunteer shifts can run off a hire just like a performance, and hirer contacts stay with theatre admins.

Notifications & announcements

Cast, crew and committee are kept in the loop automatically — new submissions, role offers and responses, event invitations, cancellations when an event is deleted, and the cast announcement the moment you publish it.

Shared calendar & repeating events

Month and schedule views of every read-through, rehearsal, dress and performance — subscribable in Google, Apple or Outlook, with optional two-way sync. Create a run in one go: pick the weekdays or use your performance dates, and see exactly which dates will be added before you save.

How a play flows

Auditioning→Call backs→Casting→Read through→Rehearsing→Performing→Closed

Every play carries a live status, auto-derived from your events and dates, that both the production team and the actors can see.

For actors & families

A proper stage door for the people you cast

The actors auditioning with your theatre get a polished, low-friction experience — which means better submissions, faster responses and fewer "did you get my email?" moments.

One polished profile

Up to four photos with a primary headshot, plus credits and availability — reused for every audition.

Register interest in a tap

See open auditions, register interest, and track your status for every role — shortlisted, offered or cast — from your stage door.

Events you actually need

Read-throughs, rehearsals and mop-ups arrive as invites with accept/decline, a calendar link in the confirmation email, and your theatre's shared calendar alongside. My volunteering keeps the tasks you've signed up for in the same place.

Scripts at hand

Download the scripts for plays you're interested in or cast in, the moment the production team shares them.

Actors respond to role offers with a deadline, can withdraw interest while they're still in the running, and can install Pocket Backstage to a phone or desktop home screen. Family accounts let a parent or guardian register and respond on behalf of a child actor, with photos of minors held for approval before anyone else sees them.

Built for amateur theatre

Not a generic CRM. Every screen — plays, auditions, committees, offers, scripts — speaks the language your theatre already uses.

One backstage, many shows

Your theatre's members, plays, events and submissions live together. Per-play committees decide who edits what — without locking the rest of the team out.

A paper trail you'll want

Audit logs, offer history, role acceptance, event responses and past productions are kept tidy so next year's committee inherits more than a folder of PDFs.

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