Show dictionary · Production Management
Cue-to-Cue (Q2Q)
Also: Q2Q · cue to cue
A cue-to-cue (Q2Q) is a technical rehearsal that runs only the moments around cues: the show jumps from one cue sequence to the next, skipping dialogue and content in between, so the technical team can build and time every transition efficiently.
In practice
The stage manager drives a Q2Q: "hold please, jumping to the top of scene four" is its native language. Performers deliver the lines that trigger cues and skip the rest, which is disorienting for them and exactly right for the departments programming the show.
Corporate production borrowed the term and the technique: a corporate Q2Q walks speaker entrances, video rolls, and lighting looks with stand-ins reading cue lines. It is the highest-value rehearsal per minute a technical team gets, and the run-of-show document is its script.
How you’ll hear it
"Q2Q at 2 PM: we jump from the walk-in look straight to the award reveal, then the band intro."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.