Scene Partner - the one App you need to get offbook fast! Media Kit www.scenepartnerapp.com
NEW! Scene Partner v. 1.5 Released on July 29, 2011 Now built for the ipad jkevin.smith@mytheaterapps.com 203-803-4292 www.scenepartnerapps.com
Scene Partner Background mytheaterapps.com, LLC
Scene Partner - the one App you need to get offbook fast! What it is: A powerful new actor s app that helps you learn lines quickly and easily, whether you use voice recording or the printed page. Bring your own script into the App using the Scene Partner website. Uses advanced text to speech (TTS) technology to play back your lines, your cues, or whole scenes. You can even record your own voice and the voices of your fellow actors, and merge them with the TTS playback! Includes two of Shakespeare's greatest plays pre-loaded, King Lear and As You Like It. Try them out for free! When you re ready to memorize your part, you have a powerful new Partner that has just what you need, just when you need it. Save time and move on to the fun part! Who it s for: Scene Partner is a great tool whether you are an Actor, a Theater Company or a Writer. Create an Actor account if you will be using Scene Partner to get offbook. Create a Theater account if you will be uploading scripts to the Scene Partner website for use by actors that are cast in a show or sides for actors to use in auditions. Create a Writer account if you would like to upload your original scripts to your Private Library on the Scene Partner website or add your original scripts to the Public Library.
How it Works: Uses the most advanced text to speech (TTS) engine available Hear your lines using high quality voices from Acapela, the leader in text to speech solutions Integrates your voice recording with Scene Partner s TTS voices Take old fashioned voice recording to the next level by combining your voice (and the voices of your fellow cast members) with the TTS voices during audio playback Provides multiple playback and recording options Listen to Just Me, Just My Cues, Me and My Cues, or Full Scene to learn lines your way Divides your script into Acts, Scenes and Characters automatically Using accurate, targeted playback, learn your scenes during your commute, your breaks or anytime you have a few spare minutes Customizes your script based on your needs Create your own French Scenes or break them down into beats to focus your work Highlights your lines in yellow or your choice of 9 colors Catch those important moments of inspiration for playback later Edits your script s text Real time revisions let you keep up with director or author s changes on the fly Works with most electronic file formats Multiple ways to get your script into Scene Partner including plain text, Word, rtf, html and PDF (accessible format), using our online conversion utility at www.scenepartnerapp.com Keeps your content safe With secure accounts on our website and private libraries stored on our servers, your script will never get into the wrong hands
Who we are: The potential of the iphone as a tool for volunteers and professionals in theater, film and TV is beginning to be realized with the launch of Scene Partner, a revolutionary new app that helps actors get offbook fast! A product of mytheaterapps.com LLC, Scene Partner is the first in a line of productivity and community building mobile applications that will help dramatic artists in ways that we have never imagined. Bio: Contact: J. Kevin Smith, is the founder of mytheaterapps.com and the creator of Scene Partner. Kevin is an actor with 35 years of experience on the stage and holds a Masters in Arts Administration from Teachers College at Columbia University. Before starting mytheaterapps.com, he spent his business career as a Senior Marketing Executive with firms on the leading edge of revolutionary technologies. Kevin has been responsible for launching and managing a wide variety of innovative new products in partnership with firms as diverse as Paramount Pictures, Adobe Systems and Apple Computer. To contact Kevin, please email jkevin.smith@mytheaterapps.com or call 203-803-4292.
Scene Partner Online Buzz mytheaterapps.com, LLC
Scene Partner was chosen by Apple as a New and Noteworthy app and featured on the App Store Home Page! mytheaterapps.com, LLC
Tweeted about by major theatrical institutions The Public Theater in New York, home of Shakespeare in the Park, and The American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards mytheaterapps.com, LLC
Trended on Twitter when actor Tom Cruise tweeted it to his 1.3 million followers mytheaterapps.com, LLC
Featured on Tom Cruise s website The review called Scene Partner A great intersection between technology and creativity and ingenious appsafari, a prominent iphone App Review site said: Scene Partner can step in to take the place of just about anyone who would be helping you learn your lines
Scene Partner Press Coverage mytheaterapps.com, LLC
Scene Partner turns the iphone into a tool to help actors memorize their lines. The Wall Street Journal
a merger of 35 years of acting and 25 years of tech product management and direct marketing Fairfield County Business Journal
mytheaterapps.com, LLC It will be liberating for actors. Norwalk Citizen
Scene Partner has already received national attention Connecticut Post
With Scene Partner, actors can download scripts and use their iphones to cue lines, listen to an entire play, take rehearsal notes and more.
Help is here it's a tool all actors can use. Norwalk man creates app to help actors learn lines By DAVID A. ROSENBERG Hour Correspondent Sunday, August 21, 2011 Congratulations! Your audition was successful and you've been cast as Claudius (or Gertrude) in a community theater production of "Hamlet." Now, how do you learn your lines? First, you duly highlight your speeches in yellow or green or whatever. That's the easy part. Then, you have to learn the words. If you're doing "Hamlet" in its entirety, Claudius has 550 lines, while Gertrude has 157. The beginning is easy, since you'll have no trouble with your opening: "Though yet of Hamlet, our dear brother's death / The memory be green," says Claudius, the hypocrite who murdered his own brother. "Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted color off," says Gertrude, Hamlet's mom. The ending is a cinch, too. (Spoiler alert: They both die.) Ah, but in between, what with all that iambic pentameter, all those cues, all that blocking (movement). What to do?
Help is here, in the person of Norwalk's J. Kevin Smith, who designed Scene Partner, an app to help get you off book (that is, rehearse without a script). Compatible with the ipad, iphone or ipod Touch, it's a tool all actors can use. The company began in November 2009 when Smith started researching iphones. "I started thinking what it could do for actors who record their lines and walk around with devices that let them memorize," said Smith. "I wondered if I could create an app, a new tool that would help them memorize in a better and more interesting way." Enter Scene Partner. From research and contacts, working with companies as far flung as Utah and France, as well as in Norwalk, Smith developed a virtual corporation of which he's basically the sole member. The result is an idea that combines his years of both acting and marketing. "The app takes a play's text and turns it into speech, using text-to-speech (TTS) software," said Smith. You may listen to just your lines, or just your cues, or your cues and lines together or the whole play." The voices you hear reading the lines are computer-generated, purposely toneless to avoid any hint of interpretation. You may also record speeches in your own voice, edit, put in director's notes, merge your fellow actors' voices with the TTS ones, even have highlighting done for you. The app comes with two pre-downloaded Shakespeare plays plus several voices. Downloading plays in the public domain is no problem. For royalty based works, downloading for personal use is permitted.
"You can upload any script into your private library by scanning," explained Smith. "Then your device will see that copy and process that script. Who the characters are, what the dialogue is, where the stage directions are those will appear. The app will read it using its text-to-speech device software." Scene Partner also works for playwrights who want to hear what they've written and for theaters who want to maintain a library. Yet it's primarily geared for actors. "This is not intended as a performance tool," said Smith. "It's really a tool in the toolbox of actors to help them be better at creating their own performances." Scene Partner, which has won several design awards, offers two versions. One is free; the $4.99 version allows changes, updates and additions. It currently reaches more than 3,000 users. The market is vast: According to the National Endowment for the Arts, 2 million actors appeared in plays nationwide in 2008. If you want to be one of those, try your hand when Long Wharf Theater holds auditions for all available non-musical roles on Aug. 31. Use Scene Partner to prepare one classical and one contemporary monologue, not to exceed three minutes in combined length. Don't forget to take a current resume and headshot with you to the audition. See you on stage!
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