Right before the novel coronavirus started ravaging the United States, I had just secured a year’s worth of stage management contracts. Naturally, I did what any sane stage manager would do and I went hunting for new tools to add to my stage manager’s kit (both physical and electronic). This is a list of the 5 tools I’m most excited to use the next time I’m working in a theatre.
This page contains affiliate links to products. While the price you pay will not be affected, I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
1. Trello and/or ClickUp
I included both of these free, online project management tools because I! just! can’t! pick! I currently am using both to organize my website and blog and I truly think both of them would be great for organizing a stage management team. My current fantasy is to use either app for creating the ultimate pre-production checklist. Both Trello and ClickUp allow you to organize tasks in order of priority, assign those tasks to different users, and set due dates for each task and sub-task. The main difference between the two is that Trello uses a simpler interface with less meticulous features, so projects that don’t require too much high-level organization and don’t have as many collaborators will benefit from using Trello.
ClickUp, however, possesses a more thorough multi-level organizational setup and features more actions you can assign to each task. For instance, ClickUp allows you to set up dependencies, where a single task cannot be started until another task has been marked as complete. ClickUp also allows you to set up recurring tasks, so you can use it throughout the stage management process to make sure daily and weekly tasks do not slip through the cracks. Which software I use will depend on the demands of the show and the size of my stage management team. I think Trello lends itself to small productions with possibly one or two ASM’s; productions with more demands and a larger SM team would probably benefit more from the features that ClickUp offers.
2. iPad
It’s time to go paperless. Well, almost. I try to cut down on waste wherever possible in my life, and I recently have come to the realization of just how resource-intensive and wasteful the entertainment industry is. So, I’m excited to revive my old iPad and see what I can accomplish without having to print on paper. Going paperless seems a daunting task for a stage manager, especially with all the schedules, lists, and reports expected to take a paper form for the production team. Even so, I think it is a worthwhile endeavor. I want to start with an electronic prompt book and run sheets and see where that takes me. I’m not sure if the production process will ever go completely paperless, but I can at least start by making adjustments to my personal process.
buy the iPad Air 4th Generation from Apple, Amazon, or Target (affiliates)
3. Tiger Stationary highlighting strips
I use post-it tabs to write my cues into my prompt book, but in cue heavy shows, they fill up the side of the page fast and I have to start overlapping. Circling and drawing arrows to my cue lines also dissatisfies me. So, I searched for something that would allow me to highlight and color code cue lines and coordinate them with my cue tabs. And then I found the wonders of highlighting strips. They come in many different forms including semi-sticky colored rolls of tape, long sticky strips, or removable highlighting tabs. Tiger Stationary’s product comes with multiple colors for a very moderate price compared to other’s I’ve found, plus they work similarly to the post-it notes I usually use.
The magical thing about these tabs is that they are only as wide as a typical line of text, so you won’t have to worry about over-filling the page margins or having a cue tab out of line with the cue text. The transparent tabs allow you to place them over the cue line to highlight the cue; you can then place a tab of the same color in the margin of the text to write the cue type and number. The result is a clean, efficient, color-coded prompt script. A stage manager’s dream.
buy from Amazon (affiliate)
4. Boomerang for Gmail
Boomerang is an add-on tool to use with Gmail. It allows you to draft and schedules emails and send them automatically at a specified time. Naturally, I discovered this tool while writing emails late into the night, and I realized the 3 a.m. timestamp seemed a little unprofessional. Boomerang allows you to draft emails whenever you please and have them sent at a normal hour, so you can preserve the guise of having your life together. This tool will be useful for daily and weekly schedules, or any other reoccurring email. I have yet to figure out what will happen when I inevitably forget to edit a draft and thus, send out an empty template to the entire production team. I will keep you posted.
5. clear vinyl tape
This one may not surprise or excite you, but I only recently learned about the existence of clear vinyl tape and. I’m. o b s e s s e d. Usually, I spend an unhealthy amount of time trying to keep spike tape down with clear packing tape, or giving up altogether and relenting to the routine of replacing spike marks after every performance. But that was the old me, and this new person is armed with clear vinyl tape. This tool made the list for its ability to save you time and resources: you’ll waste less time and less tape replacing spike marks every day.
buy from Amazon (affiliate)
6. bonus: JAM paper scissors
Every stage manager should keep a pair of scissors in their kit, and every stylish stage manager should have a pair of these scissors. They come solid bright colors that make me happy every time I use them. They are also super sharp and, as an added bonus, they can be used left-handed 🙂
buy from Amazon or Target (affiliates)
