I was a very slow adopter of iPad technology. A few years ago I worked on a show where my ASM was all about. She did all her notes on hers, regularly accessed documents, and would call the show (which is still a pretty hard no for me, but to each their own on that front).

I had a little extra money and the same show used Stage Write for all its blocking, so I decided it was time to make the investment and I bought a 7^th generation iPad after much debating back and forth about possibly getting a Pro. I decided to spend less and decide if I could really make the jump to iPad.

On that first show, I did regularly access the Stage Write files to make sure we were covering things correctly when someone was out and other than that I often accessed the spike chart on it to spike out the stage in new venues. I used to leave my printout in this box full of stage weights all the time because it was near the final spike and I would get distracted.

I just started leaving my iPad in there instead. Overall, I wasn’t sold on the whole iPad thing. I still wanted my laptop to do any paperwork or reports, despite springing for a keyboard that always seemed to struggle to connect properly. And while I’m not 100% against calling digitally, especially in tech, I am not comfortable enough with my iPad to call that and I just can’t stop thinking it could freeze or crash in a way paper won’t, so while I have called off it a time or two, it’s still not my preferred way.

Then there was the pandemic and I did several shows online and thought I’m going to use this time to get better with some technology. So below are my thoughts on several of the apps I’ve used on my iPad.

Stage Write

If the show has a high turnover, I think Stage Write could be worth it, but I do not think it’s quicker than just sketching out the blocking. Maybe more practice would get me there, but for a quick show, I have no interest in putting in the time to setup the show and then the extra work to do the blocking in this app.

That being said, I thought it was super handy on the circus I worked on, especially to double check what needed to be covered if a performer went out. I also think it would’ve been great back during my cruise ship days.

Additionally, if you’re just looking to upskill, sure, go ahead and learn how to use it. That never hurts. I would be curious if others feel the same way though, that it’s not worth the hassle for a quick and/or small show. I do think if you work as a dance captain this is probably a really useful app and I would be delighted to get a copy of dance blocking from choreographers using this app.

Line-It

I wrote a more in-depth review of Line-It here after using it for a digital show during the pandemic, which does point out some pros and cons. I don’t work a lot of shows that need line notes anymore and when I do it’s usually a task I delegate away immediately but my overall review, compared to physically writing out line notes, is whoa Nelly this app is a line notes game changer. Thinking back on the literal hours of my life spent doing line notes in the past… the iPad was almost worth it for this app alone. Especially as I’ve been doing more shows with line notes over the last two years.

They are 99% done by the end of rehearsal. You pretty much just have to email them out. And you can easily prompt while you’re working on them. It’s so easy to use, I taught my ASM how to use it in less than 5 minutes during a rehearsal break on my last show.

Notability

Notability took me a while to warm up to and, to be honest, I wasn’t fully converted until I went back to school and started doing all reading and note-taking on my iPad.

That being said, I now think Notability it much better than a paper notebook. It’s easy to set up dividers and tabs. You can easily write and insert things onto PDFs and you can convert your notes into PDFs to email very easily.

Board Remotes

A lot of sound or light boards have an app you can install on your iPad that will let you do a basic mic check or dimmer check. Qlab also has a remote app.

Additional suggestions from other stage managers:

• GoodNotes – a note taking app similar to Notability
• Scriptation – lets you annotate a script
• Line Notes – a line noting app like Line-It
• forScore – for sheet music
• Evernote – for organizing information and note taking
• Virtual Callboard – scheduling, attendance, reports, announcements, etc.

Do you have any to add to the list?