A few years ago, I started volunteering as the lighting director for my niece's high school drama productions. It didn't take long to discover that the software world had largely ignored schools and community theater.
Most lighting packages are built for productions with full technical teams and matching budgets. In schools and community theaters, budgets are tight, and one person wears many hats. Finding experienced volunteers is its own challenge — and even when you do, the learning curve alone can eat up weeks before a single scene has been touched.
Lighting is only part of the picture. No live band? That's a separate audio package. Want video backdrops? Another program. On show night, a lone operator ends up juggling multiple applications, following a script in their lap, and trying not to miss a cue. It's an enormous ask of someone who showed up to help.
I searched for a comprehensive solution that fits how schools and community theaters actually operate. It didn't exist — or if it did, the price tag and training requirements put it out of reach.
So I started asking a different question: if you could build the ideal system from scratch — unconstrained by how it had always been done — what would it look like? I partnered with AI to help answer that. Not just to write code, but to think through the problem differently. To challenge assumptions. To imagine an interface designed around a drama teacher's workflow instead of a lighting engineer's.
CueDirector is the result. The first show control software designed specifically for non-technical users: drama teachers, parent volunteers, students, and less experienced tech directors. Everything starts with the script. Load it as a PDF, select the line where a cue belongs, and click to build your show. The interface is visual and approachable, and just a few clicks to make things happen.
But don't mistake simplicity for compromise. CueDirector brings together lighting, audio, video, and camera control in a single interface — the kind of integration that used to require a rack of gear and a crew to run it. Now it fits on one screen, operated by one person, pressing a single button to advance the show and make the magic happen.
Theater has always been built on people who always give more than their job description requires. CueDirector is built for them — the drama teacher pulling a double shift as tech director, the parent volunteer learning DMX on a Tuesday night, the student running their first show. They bring the passion to the story. CueDirector was created to handle the rest.