Sometimes spending a little can make your life a lot easier. Apps are one of these instances.

Like when I mentioned that a Macbook can be a frugal decision, sometimes a smartphone is too. Honestly, how did we get by before these things? A performer asks some crazy question about the origin of a word – who needs a dramaturge? Google can answer it for you in seconds (kidding, kidding, dramaturges are still useful… for a little longer).

And while I’m a big proponent of robots being evil, I have to admit that this little robot that I keep in my pocket makes my life a lot easier.

A year ago I wrote about 10 free apps I use as a stage manager, but there are actually a few out there worth shelling out some money for… because sometimes the free time you regain is worth more than the .99 the app cost.

1. Rehearsal 2

Let’s be real here – sometimes you stage manage a quick and dirty show and it’s like guerrilla stage management. That ASM they promised you is actually a bored 15 year old who won’t stop playing angry birds and no one has any theater experience at all. But, ya know, they’re all about making art.

Rehearsal 2 is pretty useful for that type of a guerrilla performance. It can let you access a script, take rudimentary blocking notes and will let you record what performers are doing to send off to directors, producers, YouTube… j/k.

Honestly, I wish I’d owned this app during the show with the squirrel.

2. Time Calls

Are you a Droid user?  If not, skip to #3, but if you are and you’re working in a theater without a backstage announcement system, this could be your new best friend.

Do you have one of those performers who likes to wander off to odd areas of the theater and then sass you that they never heard the time calls?

This app can save you. And your legs. Your Fitbit might hate it, but you can set up this app to send out the show calls for your show. It even lets you incorporate holds. How awesome is that.

Working at the Liberty Theater without a PA system has been the first time I wished I actually had a Droid. I’d use the heck out of this app right now.

3. Scene Partner

So why would a stage manager want scene partner?

Let’s rephrase that. Why would a stage manager want to give less line notes? (Seriously, am I the only one who despises line notes? Not a chance.)

For around $2 a pop, you can download quite a few titles, send your brain dead actor out into the lobby or away from everyone else and have them run their lines with this app over and over, instead of with you over and over. So hopefully, for you, it’s just over. Not over and over.

2 bucks well spent, #amiright?

4. Show Tool SM

This app gives you several tools in one for less than $6. It includes a show times which allows you to label by Act and/or Scene, assuming the “Lap” labels on your iPhone irritate or confuse you.

The spike mark database can be useful for a show with a large number of multi-colored spike marks. Additionally, if you’ve got complicated props tables, it lets your create lists for them as well. It also incorporated a preshow checklist option.

Although iPhone comes with a free timing and checklist app, the main reason Show Tool SM is pretty cool is that it can organize all this stuff by show, so if you’ve got multiple gigs going on at once, you can keep each list under the gig it belongs in.

Sometimes one less thing to try to track is worth $6, and making sure you’re in all the right checklists for the right show can be one of them.

The same developer has a Show Tool LD as well, if that’s your bag, but 99% of the stuff there is available as free apps – the Power Calc function to help you cheat with the math on single and 3 phase configurations for your fixtures is pretty cool though.

5. Theater Blocking

Can we stop for a minute and talk about why there are several cool SM apps only in Android? Well, for your Droid users, here’s another.

Basic blocking – done. For less than $2, you can get your diagramming on with this app. it’s not fancy, but let’s be real here, we all know blocking doesn’t have to be. It is delightfully color coded and easy to read.

I wouldn’t use it for dance or really complicated shows, but for your average straight play or simple one act…

Done and done.

Got any to add?