Captions
The words as they're spoken, with each speaker set apart by color and shape, and sounds and songs marked.
Access for live theater
One show. Every way in.
Bookholder puts your show on every audience member's device: captions in sync with the performance, translations, the director's notes, audio description and the program. Each person chooses what to read or hear, and you run it all from one script. No app. No account. No special seats.
Now in closed beta: sign-up is by invitation. Have a code? Sign up your theater. Need one? Request an invite.
The audience view, as it looks from the seats.
What it does
Everything your audience can choose.
Each person picks what works for them, on their own device. You set it up once, in the script.
Translations
Add a language and every line carries its translation. Readers switch with one tap, and a line not yet translated shows the original, marked.
Notes
Director's notes and dramaturgical footnotes appear beside the line they belong to. Readers turn each notes channel on or off.
Audio description
Description can be read on screen or spoken aloud by the device, for blind and low-vision patrons.
The program
Cast, crew and notes, or your printed program as a PDF or image, readable in the virtual lobby and during the show.
Comfortable reading
Text size, colors including high contrast, screen glow, and a layout that scrolls or holds one line. The device remembers each choice.
No special seats
Everyone reads on their own device, so a group sits together. Nobody is moved to an access section.
Sound cues
Sounds and songs are marked in the script, so nothing is lost in the dark.
For the audience
Scan. Join. Choose.
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Scan the code
Point a device's camera at the QR code in your program or on a lobby sign. Prefer typing? Enter the short show code.
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The show appears
The page opens in the device's browser and joins the show at once. Latecomers see the lines they missed.
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Choose how you follow
Pick a language, turn the director's notes on, have notes or description read aloud, and set the text size and colors. Your device remembers.
- No app to install
- No account
- No special seats
- No hardware to borrow
Who sends the lines?
Your team does. You load the script ahead of time, and an operator, usually your stage manager or a captioner, sends each line as it happens from a simple teleprompter, or your show-control system cues it. If the cast goes off script, the operator types the new line. Bookholder doesn't transcribe the stage on its own, so the captions are as precise as your script and your cues.
Who it's for
Built for everyone in the house.
Access shouldn't be a separate performance with its own seating chart. Everyone gets the same show, in the form they need.
Audiences
Deaf and hard-of-hearing patrons, people who speak another language, blind and low-vision patrons, and anyone who loses a line to a cough or a bad seat.
Sit with your group. Nobody is moved to an access section.
Theaters
Captions, translation and audio description at every performance from one setup, with no hardware to buy, charge or hand out.
Your colors and logo on every screen. Run it from a simple teleprompter, or cue it from your show-control system.
Creative teams
Captions follow your script, with each character set apart by color and shape. Type a live line when the cast leaves it.
Translations, director's notes, dramaturgical footnotes and audio description attach to each line in the script editor.
Ready to open your show to every seat?
Create your theater, add a show, and share the code.
Bookholder is in closed beta, so you'll need an invite: ask for one and you can be live this week.
Not ready? Try the live demo, or sign in.