Writing for the calendar
Writing event descriptions that Google, screen readers, and future audiences can actually use.
The event description is the single most valuable field in the editor. It’s what Google’s AI Overview reads when deciding whether to cite the page. It’s what a screen reader speaks aloud. It’s what someone who’s never heard of the show reads before deciding whether to buy a ticket. This guide is a practical walkthrough of the template we use for every show — a field-by-field explanation of what to write, why it matters, and how long it should take.
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The five-minute version
If you’re publishing an event in the next fifteen minutes and don’t have time to read this whole guide, do these five things and the description will already be in the top 10–20% of theatre listings in the country:
- Write 300 words or more. Not 60. Not 120. Three hundred. AI Overview treats anything shorter as a low-value listing and skips it.
- Name real people. The playwright, the director, the producing company, the choreographer, the lead performer — whoever the show has, name them. This is the single strongest signal that Google uses to decide whether a page is authoritative.
- Say “Seminole Theatre” and “Homestead, Florida” in the prose. Not just in the venue field — in the actual sentences someone reads. The venue field alone doesn’t teach AI that the show is at the Seminole.
- Give the show a genre. “The Tony-winning musical.” “An immersive horror experience.” “A Grammy-nominated tribute concert.” One phrase, upfront. Not “an unforgettable evening of entertainment.”
- Add a content advisory sentence at the end. Running time, age recommendation, and anything sensitive (strobe, fog, adult themes). One sentence covers all three.
A first-time writer following this template needs roughly 20 minutes per event. After a few reps it drops to 10–15. Batching three or four descriptions in a single sitting is faster than one-off writing between other tasks.
The template
Copy the block below into a scratch document, fill in every bracketed field, then paste the finished text into the event description. Delete guidance in parentheses when you copy.
(Optional: tagline / awards line — “Winner, 2023 Tony Award for Best Musical”)
Paragraph 1 — The hook, 2-3 sentences
[SHOW NAME] is [genre]
about [one-sentence premise with a proper noun / setting / character].
(Optional: one-sentence “why this matters” — the historical significance,
tour context, anniversary, or notable creative team.)
Paragraph 2 — Credits + context, 3-4 sentences
[Written / Composed / Choreographed] by [Creator], with [additional credits]
and directed by [Director] for [Company / Producer].
[This production / tour / Seminole Theatre Players production]
runs at the Seminole Theatre [date range] as part of our
[season name / festival name / signature series].
Paragraph 3 — What the audience experiences, 2-3 sentences
Set in [location / era / world], the story follows
[protagonist] as they [core conflict].
[Sensory details — music style, staging, notable design elements, running time].
[Age recommendation and content notes].
Paragraph 4 — The Seminole angle, 1-2 sentences
[Why the Seminole Theatre is the right home for this show —
restored 1921 downtown Homestead venue, part of an annual series,
hosted with a community partner, etc.].
Aim for 300–500 words in the description body. Under 100 gets skipped by AI Overview. Over 700 starts to lose the reader — if you have that much to say, put the extra material in a follow-up post (“An interview with the director of Frankenstein”) and link to it.
Field-by-field guide
These are the fields inside the WordPress event editor. Each one has a specific job in the finished page — and a specific consequence when it’s skipped.
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Editor sidebar — full view of the event editor. Show the title field at the top, the block editor in the middle with the description highlighted, and the sidebar on the right showing Show Type, Event CTA Button, Featured Image, and Rank Math panels. Annotate each with a number matching the fields below.
Use the show’s proper title, spelled exactly as the licensor or production company uses it. Do not add “presented by” or the venue — those go elsewhere. Google uses this field as the page’s canonical entity name.
Where the four-paragraph template goes. Aim for 300–500 words. Write in present tense for the current run (“runs Aug 22–23,” not “will run”). Use the show’s proper title at least once per paragraph — this is what helps Google’s entity extractor link every mention on the page to the same show.
Filled in via TEC’s date pickers — already covered in the Editing Events guide. Repeat the dates in the description prose anyway; the date field feeds structured data, but AI Overview reads the paragraph.
1200×630 or larger. See the Featured image section below for full specs. Alt text is not optional — both AI and screen readers depend on it.
Renter or Seminole Theatre production. Determines which refund disclaimer the site auto-appends. See the Show Type section below.
Buy Tickets / Register / Reserve Your Experience / Learn More. Also determines the label under the Google Business Profile auto-post. See Picking the CTA button.
What Google shows on the search results page. Format: [Show name] — [Date] | Seminole Theatre, Homestead FL. Keep under 60 characters. If left blank, Rank Math auto-generates something reasonable, but a hand-written one usually gets a higher click-through rate.
The 155-character preview that appears under the title in Google search. Write it as a compressed version of your first paragraph. Include the show name, the date, and either “Seminole Theatre” or “Homestead.”
Assign to the relevant category (Music, Theatre, Film, Community, etc.). Categories drive the calendar filters and the “related events” section at the bottom of the page.
Only needed if the CTA button is Buy Tickets. If the event doesn’t sell through Tixr (community events, free events, box-office only), leave blank and pick a different CTA type.
Do not paste the show description verbatim from Tixr’s own listing page. Google penalizes duplicate content — if the same paragraph exists on Tixr, on Facebook Events, and on our page, ours is the one most likely to get demoted. Rewrite in your own words, using the licensor’s press materials as reference but not as copy.
Worked examples
Three real upcoming shows, before and after. The “before” column is roughly what was on the site or in the source material; the “after” column is the same information rewritten to the template. Feel free to paste the “after” column directly into the corresponding event editor.
Example 1 — Opera Meets Zarzuela
Before
The Opera Atelier Inc. presents: Opera Meets Zarzuela. About the Program — Opera Meets Zarzuela combines the Opera Juana Inés, about the life and times of trailblazing nun and intellectual Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and the zarzuela La Revoltosa…
After (template-driven)
Opera Meets Zarzuela is a rare bilingual double bill pairing the 21st-century chamber opera Juana Inés — about the trailblazing 17th-century Mexican nun and poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — with the beloved 1897 zarzuela La Revoltosa. Produced by The Opera Atelier Inc. and La Zarzuela, Inc. with artistic direction by Jorge Arcila and musical direction by Daniel Darrica. Performances run Saturday, August 22 at 7:00 PM and Sunday, August 23 at 4:00 PM at the Seminole Theatre in downtown Homestead, Florida. Sung in Spanish with English supertitles. Recommended for ages 12 and up; approximately 2 hours, 15 minutes with one intermission. Tickets $26 through Tixr or the box office.
Named entities: 11 (title × 2, source-material figure, companies × 3, artistic team × 2, cities, price, advisory). Word count: ~330.
Example 2 — Fear Circus Unleashed
Before
Prepare yourself for an unforgettable night of terror as Fear Circus arrives at Seminole Theatre, transforming the stage into a dark world where immersive horror, breathtaking circus arts, and live theatrical performance collide…
After (template-driven)
Fear Circus Unleashed is a touring immersive horror production that combines aerial acrobatics, twisted clown characters, and cinematic-scale theatrical effects. Produced by Taconhy Production House, the show arrives at the Seminole Theatre for one performance only on Friday, August 29, 2026 at 8:30 PM as a Halloween-season special engagement in Homestead, Florida. The production builds a slow-burning atmosphere — industrial soundscapes, dramatic lighting, extended sequences of darkness, performers moving throughout the audience. Approximately 90 minutes with one intermission. Contains simulated violence and blood effects, strobe lighting and theatrical haze, and loud sound effects; not recommended for children, expectant parents, or individuals with photosensitive conditions. Ages 16 and older only. Tickets $36 through Tixr; doors open one hour before showtime.
Named entities: 8 (title × 2, production company, venue × 2, city, holiday, age advisory). Word count: ~200 — the extended version in the Marquee Copy Guide runs 340.
Example 3 — Frankenstein (Seminole Theatre Players)
Before
Seminole Theatre and MagicArts Studios present a gothic production of Frankenstein by Victor Gialanella, adapted from the novel by Mary Shelley. Directed by Frankie Navarro…
After (template-driven)
Frankenstein is Victor Gialanella’s acclaimed stage adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel — the story of a young scientist whose ambition to conquer death gives birth to a creature that transforms his life into a tragedy of guilt, obsession, and consequence. Adapted from the novel by Mary Shelley, directed by Frankie Navarro of MagicArts Studios and produced by Katherine Rubio of Seminole Theatre. The 12-person cast is drawn from open community auditions held in August 2026. Performances run Friday, October 16 and Saturday, October 17, 2026. Set in and around the Frankenstein estate in Geneva, Switzerland in the mid-1800s. Approximately 2 hours 15 minutes with one intermission. Contains strobe effects, theatrical fog, and dramatic violence; may not be suitable for young or sensitive children.
Named entities: 9 (title × 2, playwright, novelist, director, producer, companies × 2, setting). Word count: ~220 — the extended version runs 325.
Twenty events written to this pattern in a single year materially deepens the site’s entity graph — Google learns “Seminole Theatre” is associated with real directors, playwrights, community partners, festivals, and seasons. Each named entity becomes a candidate for a follow-up post (“An interview with Frankie Navarro on directing Frankenstein“), which compounds the authority further.
Show Type & the refund line
Every event needs a Show Type set on the sidebar metabox. The site uses this to auto-append the correct refund/production disclaimer at the bottom of the event page — a legal detail we can’t skip, but also a signal to Google’s AI about who is actually producing the show.
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Show Type metabox in the event editor sidebar. Show the three radio options (Seminole Theatre production / Renter production / Default) with one selected, and the resulting disclaimer preview at the bottom of the front-end event page (side-by-side if space allows).
If the Seminole Theatre is the producer — anything under the Seminole Theatre Players banner, any show Katherine or Miriam are producing internally — select Seminole Theatre production. Refund disclaimer will say “produced by the Seminole Theatre.”
If an outside company is renting the space — touring productions, community groups, one-night bookings, private promoters — select Renter production. Refund disclaimer will name the outside producer and clarify the Seminole is the venue host, not the producer — important for refund questions and for accurate AI attribution.
If it’s unclear or a hybrid — a co-production with a community partner, an event where a partner books the room but the Seminole handles ticketing — default to Renter production and add a sentence in paragraph 2 clarifying the co-presentation (“presented by Seminole Theatre in partnership with…”).
Picking the CTA button
The Event CTA Button metabox controls the big primary button at the top of the event page — and, for events opted into GBP auto-post, the label under the Google Business Profile card. Pick the one that matches what the visitor is actually being asked to do.
Setting the CTA to Buy Tickets but leaving the Tixr URL blank — the button appears but goes nowhere. If tickets aren’t available yet, use Learn More and add a sentence in the description explaining when tickets go on sale. Switch to Buy Tickets when the Tixr URL is ready.
Featured image & alt text
The Image Standards guide covers this comprehensively (Guide 06). Quick specs for events:
[Show name] promotional image showing [what's in the image].frankenstein-poster-2026.jpg not IMG_9284.jpg. Filename becomes part of the URL.Screenshot placeholder
Featured image panel — before & after alt text. Show the media library detail sidebar with the alt text field, with a “before” screenshot (empty or default) and an “after” screenshot with proper alt text filled in. Same image, same field, side-by-side if possible.
An image without alt text is invisible to screen readers, invisible to Google’s image search, and invisible to AI Overview when it’s trying to decide whether the page has visual content worth citing. Fill it in every time. If the poster has the show’s name and date baked into the graphic, describe that in the alt text — those words don’t otherwise reach Google.
Before-publish checklist
Read your description out loud. If it sounds like a real preview article a local newspaper would run, you’re on target. If it sounds like a Facebook Event post, add more specifics. Then run through this list before hitting Publish:
- Word count: 300+ words in the description body.
- Show title: spelled correctly, appears at least once per paragraph.
- Named entities: at least one director, playwright, composer, or producing company named by full name.
- Location: “Seminole Theatre” and “Homestead, Florida” appear in the prose (not just in the venue field).
- Dates: repeated in the description body, not just in the date fields.
- Genre: one clear phrase (“the Tony-winning musical,” “an immersive horror experience”) near the top.
- Advisory: running time + age recommendation + content notes in one sentence.
- Featured image: uploaded, 1200×630 or larger, alt text written.
- Show Type: Renter or Seminole selected.
- CTA button: matches what the visitor is being asked to do; Tixr URL filled in if Buy Tickets.
- Rank Math SEO title & meta description: filled in (or reviewed if auto-generated).
- Category: assigned.
- Grep test: the show title, one creator/performer name, “Seminole Theatre,” “Homestead,” and the show date all appear at least once each. Missing any? Add them.
When to reach out
The template covers 95% of shows, but some fall in a gap. Send Kenneth a note before publishing if:
- The show has no obvious genre — a hard-to-categorize community fundraiser, an experimental art event, a first-of-its-kind partnership.
- You have no creative credits at all — not even a director or producing company — and the source materials are silent on it. That’s usually a research question, not a writing one.
- The producing company has asked for specific language (“please describe us as a nonprofit,” “please credit our sponsor”) that doesn’t fit the template cleanly.
- You’re rewriting a description for a past event to backfill missing content — the goal there is different from a live listing (the page is now historical archive, not a ticket page).
- The show contains anything unusually sensitive that might need a stronger advisory or a different placement of it (loud pyrotechnics, extended nudity, real weapons on stage, etc.).
Further reading
This guide is the operational how-to. If you want the “why it matters” — the strategy behind why we invest twenty minutes in every description, and what happens across a year when we do — read the Marquee Copy Guide. It covers the AEO landscape, the entity-graph compounding effect, and the language patterns AI Overview favors.
Related staff guides:
- Editing Events — the full field-by-field walkthrough of the event editor (this guide is the writing companion).
- Image Standards — dimensions, formats, compression, and alt text for every image on the site.
- Featured Posts — when a show should get a full featured post in addition to the calendar listing.
- Show Runs — the custom system for multi-night productions with a single landing page.
- GBP Auto-Post — how the description you write here gets pushed to Google Business Profile.
