What is an Act?
Intermissions divide your show into acts. A show with zero intermissions has one act. A show with one intermission has two acts (Act 1 = everything before, Act 2 = everything after). Two intermissions gives you three acts, and so on.
What an Act Restriction Does
Restricting a routine to an act tells the optimizer: this routine may move freely within its current act, but it may not cross an intermission boundary.
This is less rigid than a full lock (which pins to an exact position) but more controlled than a free-floating routine.
Example: You have a show with one intermission. "Opening Number" is in Act 1 and "Grand Finale" is in Act 2. If you act-restrict both, the optimizer can still move them around within their respective halves to improve quick changes — it just can't flip them to the other side.
Applying an Act Restriction
Click the gear icon on a routine card to open its settings. In the Restrict To… row, choose Act. A horizontal-arrows indicator appears on the card to show the routine is now act-restricted. To remove it, open settings again and choose No Restriction.
The Act option only appears when your show actually has at least one intermission — without an intermission there's only one act, so there's nothing to restrict to.
Groups and Act Restrictions
Groups can also be act-restricted as a unit — the entire group block stays within its current act. This is managed from the group's controls. Note that group features (including act restriction) require all routines in the group to be adjacent to each other. Run an optimization pass first if your group members are scattered.