I had similar criteria to meet a couple of years ago, but we were touring an am-dram festival circuit at the time and so all output was stereo-only to front-of-house, using my MacBook Pro and Motu Ultralite.

As Elf suggested, I loaded all audio clips to the laptop and used the free version of QLab which allows quite a level of sophistication (fades in/out, one clip triggering the next, different outputs per clip for spot effects), all from the jab of the space bar- with a bit of pre-show preparation.

QLab I think is mac only but Soundcue is a pc equivalent and I believe there are freeware alternatives.

The drama group asked me to rig a similar system in their home theatre and i recommended installing SoundCue or a freeware alternative on a redundant PC and buying this cheap and cheerful multi-out interface:

8-out USB interface

But as usual, once expenditure on their part was mentioned, their eyes glazed over and I was expected to do same with two sticks and a coke can the female lead found by the back door.

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