As the owner of Artistic Strategies and as an actor I am constantly on the lookout for apps that help simplify my life.  There are MANY out there…MANY!  But here are my top 5.  Some are free and some you can get for a small fee.  All are well worth it!
1. LINELEARNER : Memorize those lines! For $3.84 you can make memorizing a little easier with this app. There are others for free….but this one allows you to edit if you make a mistake.  Lay down all the lines in your scene and indicate which lines  are yours and which lines are others.  Play it back and a perfect space will be left for you to ‘talk’ your lines. If you forget a line you just hit the prompt button. Pretty great!

2. WAZE : Get to that audition or gig! This app goes beyond GPS.  Sinceit’s community-based…you are getting real-time traffic info.  It can tell you if there’s a pile up on 290 and will guide you to a better and faster route.  It saved my husband a few times on his commute to his theatre gig in Munster

3. EXPENSIFY or RECEIPT KEEPER PRO: Track your actor expenses! Both of these apps are free.  Expensify is an app that tracks all your expenses.  You can sync the app with yourcreditcards then you can take pictures of your receipts and attach them to line items. It will even track your mileage.  RKP is a simple receipt keeper.  The IRS now accepts electronic copies of your receipts so I like to take a picture of my receipts with this handy app and it will sync with my Dropbox where I put the receipts in ‘itemized’ folders then at tax time..they are all in one place. Right now, RKP is forAndroidonly but they are developing an iOS app.

4. Binaural Beats Therapy or AmbiScience: Get it together! Binaural tones are weird, yes, but they are proven to alter your brainwaves and the right tones can relax you or help you attain extreme focus.  I started using Binaural Beats years ago when I was experiencing terrible insomnia.  I have since used the tones to relax and focus before a big audition, to get a huge project done when I couldn’t seem to focus and even flights when I couldn’t seem to sit still. BB’s aren’t for everyone and if you suffer from certain ailments you should NOT use them.  However, there are many apps out there for guided meditation and it’s definitely worth looking into getting what I like to call a ‘pocket yogi.’  By the way, my first introduction to BB’s were through this free podcast created by Jesse and Jean Stern.  Download their stuff and if you like it throw a little cash their way!

5.  FREEDOM or ANTISOCIAL: Get stuff done! $10 and $15 respectively. Freedom, when loaded onto your Mac or PC, blocks the internet for a time you specify so you can get stuff done. This app is especially wonderful for writers.  AntiSocial is for those that need the internet for research so it blocks only the sites you choose.  FYI….if Chrome is your exclusive browser there are many extensions you can add to Chrome which will do the same thing…for FREE.