Have you ever wanted to make your own 半岛体育 program for a local production or event? Whether you鈥檙e building a full professional program for a high school or community theatre show or just making a fun program for an especially theatrical wedding or birthday party, makes creating authentic Broadway-quality 半岛体育 programs easy and fast. Using the steps below, you鈥檒l have your own custom 半岛体育 program built and ready to print in no time flat.
Step 1: Register with PLAYBILLDER
If you haven鈥檛 created an account at PLAYBILLDER.com already, you鈥檒l need to first. We just need your name, email address, and a few other details and you鈥檒l be ready to go.
Pro tip: If you鈥檙e not creating your program for a school or organization, just type 鈥淧ersonal鈥� when asked for School or Organization Name.
Step 2: Create a production
Enter the name of your production or event and the venue where it will be held. If performance dates and times aren鈥檛 solidified yet, don鈥檛 worry; you can fill in or change those fields later.
PLAYBILLDER Express pre-loads your program with songs, character names, and more.
Pro tip: The PLAYBILLDER Express library offers licensor-approved program information for thousands of the most popular shows, saving you from having to enter character names, song lists, and more. If a drop down appears as you鈥檙e typing in your production name, that means your show may be in our PLAYBILLDER Express library. Click the show title in the drop down to pre-load those templates into your program.
Step 3: Cover
After accepting our terms and conditions, you鈥檒l be given the option to create a Save the Date or a Virtual 半岛体育. The Virtual 半岛体育 can live online as a digital program, but is also how you create a printable program. Your online, digital program will match your printed program exactly, making PLAYBILLDER the perfect option for both traditional in-person performances and hybrid or streamed productions!
When you click 鈥淐reate a Virtual 半岛体育,鈥� you鈥檒l be taken to the Program Creation Tool. Take a look at the toolbar. Here you鈥檒l find every section available to you for building your program. As you begin work on the various sections, the lines beneath each section will change color. A gray line means no work has been done. A black line means work has been done, but it鈥檚 not published and ready to print or view online. A green line means the section has been published.
The toolbar lets you navigate to all of PLAYBILLDER's section templates.
Don鈥檛 have a use for a particular section? Skip it! Any non-published section will be absent from the online and printed version of your 半岛体育 program. The only section you have to use is the Cover鈥攜ou're making a Broadway-quality 半岛体育 program, after all. You can also change the order of the sections. Click the yellow 鈥淩e-Order Sections鈥� button and adjust as needed.
To begin customizing your cover, click the yellow 鈥淓dit鈥� button to enter edit mode. Let鈥檚 start with the yellow header. A toolbar allows you to style your text with bold, italics, and underline options; left, center, and right alignment; and a number of fonts鈥攜ou鈥檒l find this familiar toolbar throughout the PLAYBILLDER sections. Broadway 半岛体育 programs generally use this header space for the venue name, though many PLAYBILLDER customers include additional information here, such as performance dates.
Pro tip: If you鈥檙e going for a Broadway-authentic look, change the font to Arial, the text size to 16px, and the alignment to center. Leaving a blank line above the text, type the venue name in all caps with two spaces between each word.
Next is the cover artwork, which is beneath the header. Clicking the pencil icon in the upper left-hand corner of this area will bring up the image upload tool. Once you鈥檝e uploaded an image, use the crop tool if necessary to make the image fit perfectly.
Pro tip: Images should be in JPG format, and less than 10mb.
Step 4: Billing
Think of this section like your program鈥檚 title page. A Broadway program鈥檚 billing page usually begins with the venue name and producers at the top, followed by the show鈥檚 title, writers, cast, and creative team. Your program is fully custom, so you can include as much or as little of that as you wish.
Using our billing page template is pretty similar to using any word processor, such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. The table tool鈥攚hich looks like a grid鈥攊s a great way to create columns of text.
Pro tip: If you鈥檙e unsure what to make your billing page look like, head over to 半岛体育 Vault. If your show has played Broadway, its opening night 半岛体育 program is available to look at online.
Step 5: Songs
The Songs template has the ability to include acts, overtures, scenes, and songs. Most song listings use only acts and songs, but scenes allow you to structure the song list further if desired. You can also hide the act headers if you want to limit the list to only songs.
Pro tip: If after adding all of your songs you鈥檝e got extra white space at the bottom of the page, the Optional Filler Content section at the bottom of the edit screen allows you to add text and images to fill space. Several PLAYBILLDER sections include this option.
A view of how PLAYBILLDER arranges acts, overtures, scenes, and songs in the Songs template.
Step 6: Cast and Crew Lists and Who鈥檚 Whos
The Cast section offers various headings: Cast Members, Production / Creative, Understudies, and Orchestra. These headings are fully customizable; click any of the headings to change their text. Don鈥檛 want to use multiple headings? Any header without content added beneath it will not appear in the finished program.
Creating the cast list is as easy as typing in the character name and the name of the actor playing the role. You can even use the 鈥淎dd in Bulk鈥� option to add an entire ensemble on one line or paragraph. The crew section works similarly, but without the option for multiple headings.
Adding cast and crew members in these sections also automatically generates an accompanying listing on the cast and crew Who鈥檚 Who sections, which is where you can add an actor鈥檚 headshot and bio.
Bios are limited to 375 characters. If more room is required, you can extend a bio and increase the character count to 975, but this reduces the number of bios that will fit on a page. We recommend limiting the use of extended bios as much as possible.
Pro tip: All of the section headers at the very top of each page are customizable by clicking the header while in edit mode.
Step 7: Photos, Ads, and Back Page
There are three sections in PLAYBILLDER meant for including pictures: Photos, Ads, and Back Page. All three use photo upload tools that are similar to the cover and headshot upload tools.
The Photos and Ads sections will allow you to create pages of four 1/4 page photos, two 1/2 page photos, or one full page photo. After creating your first page, you can create additional photo or ad pages by clicking 鈥淎dd a New Photos/Ads Page鈥� on the right.
The Back Page section is exactly like a full page Ad, but it will appear on the program鈥檚 back cover.
Pro tip: Selling ad space in your program helps defray production costs while also getting community business leaders involved and invested in the success of your production. Read more here.
Step 8: Acknowledgments, End Notes, and Optional Content
These sections are the most open ended of PLAYBILLDER鈥檚 templates. If you want to include a director鈥檚 note, special thanks, or any other kind of extra content, these are the sections to use.
Pro tip: You can also use End Notes as your back page. Leave the Back Page section blank, and your End Notes鈥攐r whatever published section you have placed last鈥攚ill become your program鈥檚 back page.
Step 9: Count Your Pages
At the top of the Program Creation Tool, you will see a count of your total printable pages. To make a finished program, your total page count needs to be a multiple of 4. If you鈥檙e having trouble making that happen, photo pages are an easy way to increase your page count.
Remember: Only sections with green lines are being included in this page count.
Pro tip: Our system will automatically add blank autograph pages if you try to submit a print order for a program whose pages are not a multiple of four. If you're okay with those, don't worry about your page count at all!
Step 10: Print!
There are two ways to print your custom 半岛体育 program. The easiest is to use our professional print service. Click the yellow 鈥淧rint Custom 半岛体育s鈥� button and place an order. You鈥檒l receive your programs, professionally printed and bound, at your front door. You can also have 14x22鈥� posters printed of your program鈥檚 cover.
Pro tip: The 半岛体育 Store offers custom-made frames for PLAYBILLDER-created and .
If you鈥檇 like to print your program on your own or using a local printing service, click 鈥淓nable PDF鈥� in the upper right-hand corner of the edit area. For a one-time $70 license fee, you get unlimited downloads of a printable PDF version of your program. No additional payment is required if you generate new PDFs after making edits.
Pro tip: If you pay the PDF license fee and then choose to use our professional printing services, you will receive a $70 credit that can be applied towards the cost of your print job. Many of our customers purchase a PDF license so that they can print proofreading copies prior to submitting print orders, or for more open-ended digital distribution.
Ready to get started? Visit !
Need More Help? PLAYBILLDER support staff is always standing by to help if you need assistance. Call our live help desk, staffed weekdays 9 AM to 3 PM ET, at 212-557-5757 (ext 167), or email [email protected].
