Since this question is Theater Arts related, I thought I would use this forum. Mods, if it’s the wrong forum please move it.
A few years ago I got involved in community theater, namely as the sound tech guy. Part of my responsibilities include playing the music and sound effects for the performance. I’ve done this before for other shows, but never one with as many sound effects as this show has.
Normally I download the .mp3 files from a site like freeSFX.co.uk to my laptop and use Quick Time player to fire them off during the show. The problem is that for this show there are 32 sound cues, and manually playing the right one at the right time will be a challenge.
I assume there are programs I can buy that would allow me to cue up the .mp3 files and just hit a key to fire them off in the correct order. Freeware would even be better. 
Any suggestions on a good way to do this?
Make a playlist.
Use something other than QuickTime. I assume you’re on a Mac; just use iTunes and make a playlist.
Sounds like what you want is a soundboard. Google soundboard app plus your operating system and you should be good.
Thanks Snoboarder. I’m on Windows, but I can use iTunes and make a playlist. For some reason when I play one song/sound effect it plays the next ones on the list automatically. How do I make iTunes play them one at a time?
Uncheck all the boxes next to the titles. This prevents them from playing until you click the title.
If you need to be faster than that, then I’ll echo duality72 and recommend that you find a soundboard app or software. There are free ones all over the web and quite a few for the iPad as well.
Ugh. I tried loading a few free soundboards and got a nasty virus on my laptop. Can someone recommend a reputable Windows soundboard I can download safely?