I have an IPhone! 
And let me tell you, it’s a revelation. For the past two years, I have been using a Blackberry, for various reasons that expired as time went on.
I get why workaholics like Blackberries. You can’t turn them off. You just can’t. I didn’t want mine to beep every single time I got an email, so I put it on the lowest possible setting, which meant that every time I got an email, it would vibrate, and then vibrate again two minutes later. I like my technology to be there for me, but I don’t want it to be continually beeping at me and telling me I have email, because I will want to check it.
My IPhone does not beep every time I get an email. I get on it when I need to check my email, and I check it. I’m in control.
Well, as much as I can be in control of anything technological.
Oh, and the apps…. all the sweet, sweet apps….
So, in celebration of my first IPhone, I bring you a list of Theatre-related apps:
IBroadway: If you are planning a visit to the Great White Way, you might want to consider this app, which lets you know what’s playing, what’s hot, as well as reviews and exclusive content. (FREE)
At the Booth: When I was in London, every single day began the same way: I’d jump on the tube and go to Liecester Square to the TKTS booth, where they sold day-of half price tickets to shows, buy my tickets for whatever I was going to see that day, and then go on with my day. At The Booth is an app developed by Ken Davenport and his team, for the Times Square version of TKTS in NYC. It has up-to-the minute stats about what half-price tickets are available, as well as other good things. ($.99)
Shakespeare: If I had a buck for every time I thought of a line from Shakespeare and wondered “which show is that from?” I’d be rich. It includes 40 plays, 6 poems and all the sonnets. Seriously, it gives me a theatrical nerdgasm. (FREE)
A couple of tools to help you learn your lines:
Rehearsal: is the professional tool for actors to organize their scripts for auditions and working on set. It basically is like taking your sides and putting them on your IPhone–you can highlight your lines, make notes, and it will even black out your lines for you when you are trying to learn them. You can also record the other character’s lines to play back so that you can “run lines” with yourself.(FREE for 30 days)
Scene Partner: You upload a script to the Scene Partner website, and then it uses advanced text to speech (TTS) technology to play back your lines, your cues, or whole scenes. You can even record your own voice and the voices of your fellow actors, and merge them with the TTS playback. ($4.99)
And a couple of apps closer to home: (FREE)
- Cirque Du Soliel
- The Stratford Festival
- Vancouver Fringe (for next year)
This is by no means an exhasutive list. What’s your favorite IPhone app? Share it in the comments below.
There are a whole bunch of lighting design apps like ShowToolLD which I understand is great. There is also a stage management app called ShowToolSM and while I hear that it has some good features, I’m told it isn’t as well developed yet as it could be (especially for the $4.99 price). ListPro is great for check lists and to do lists (and it also has a groceries feature) and I use it in rehearsals for creating my work list for the stage management team. Flashlight is great for backstage in a pinch, and dropbox is a must have for all the reasons that one could want a file syncing program.
My current favourite though is Bump – a program that allows you to share contacts, photos, events, & music by bumping your phones together. I have used this to pass entire contact lists for shows to other people working on the show.
As a bonus, the sleep cycle alarm clock, while not directly theatre related, has been a real find. For $0.99 you set a time you have to be up by and it watches the half hour prior to that to see when you are in your lightest sleep and wakes you up then so that you wake up feeling more rested. With doing a TYA show and having to be at the theatre for 8:30am this has been a great help. (It also gives you stats on how well you’ve been sleeping and how long).
There’s a way to add theatre websites as reference apps to you phone – it only works well for ones that have been adapted to read on smart phones. The two I find most useful are the GVPTA site & The Georgia Straight. Go to the website from your iPhone web browser and press the + sign at the bottom of the screen. You’ll be prompted to add it and presto!
Non- theatre apps: “The Poetry Foundation” has a beautiful free app. It’s “spin” feature that lets you discover poems – or you can mix and match categories yourself. Allows you to collect your favorites in a file. My top must have app is probably “Sound Hound”. When you hear a song you love on a commercial, TV show or where ever and want to know the artist, sound hound will tell you who they are and save the reference to a list (free). I love recipe apps and the one I use most is “Epicurious”. Finally – art apps rock – and my top fav is “JD Reflect” at $1.99.
Games? Don’t get me started! :):)
Lois and I tried “Bump” last night and it worked like charm!!