A playbill is an invitation the whole street can read. It puts a night on the calendar, a place on the map and a list of names in front of the players, and one of those names is usually the reason they came.
A4, with an A3 export for the wall: the venue, who presents the show, a title in the largest type on the sheet, a subtitle, a picture, the cast or the fight card as part and performer, the dates and times, the prices and a line of small print. An empty picture box prints a drawing of its own, so the bill reads as a bill before you have an image.
Theatre playbill is the letterpress bill of a 1928 première, a dozen typefaces stacked and centred, for the first American staging of The King in Yellow. Travelling players is a hand-coloured woodcut bill for a company in an inn yard, with the master’s note inked at the foot. Arena fight night is a fluorescent screen print on black for an orbital fight card. Gig poster is a two-colour risograph for a band whose last song nobody records.
The ticket that got a character through the door is a Ticket, and the leaflet handed out in the foyer is an Event Leaflet.