Cast and crew gifts?

[TechWench]

So i was thinking that for the next show im doing i am going to get the cast and production team these legal pad holders with clear front and throw in stuff like the contact sheets,rehearsal schedules and a production poster. but im not sure. i have one myself and find that it is nice to take notes with and stuff. but im not sure how much the actors would use it.

what would a good "cast gift" be. im looking for something along the lines of the above. preferably some type of organizational tool.

And also. Do you guys give your cast and crew anything on opening night. or do you just like...buy them dinner or something.
i need ideas.
grr...

thanks!

[avkid]

I give graduation cards, and candy canes at christmas

[SuperCow]

The "Big Three" (SM, Sound, and Lights (me)) got MagLite Solitaires on opening night. Tons of fun.

[Peter]

As far as I know, no one in any of my shows gets gifts. The teacher who is in charge of tech @ my school has been known to give gift certificates to Best Buy arround christmas time and/or the end of the year. I dont know if actors would appreciate that as much eather :-/

[TechWench]

cause really im more looking for something for the actors to keep all of their papers in for the show. so they dont have loose papers around and have no reason to have lost their contact sheet or anything. so then when i give them something i can immediately say to put it into their folder.
i just dont know how practical it would be to give them all legal pads and stuff. i just dont want to waste my money. and they dont get their scripts until later.

hmm...

[megf]

This doesn't quite fit with the "folder for everything" idea, but it does solve some problems.

My school includes business cards in the actor packets - with the name and phone numbers of PM, SM, ASM, sometimes AD, and whoever else is important for the cast to contact if they are running late or don't know what the call is for the day. That way, even if they do lose all their pertinent paperwork (or some of it) they can still let you know in a timely manner.

The cards also fit in nearly everyones' wallets - which means they really shouldn't lose it.

[Peter]

It's probaly above your budget, but I LOVE my PDA for keeping orgainzed. It is a REALLY old one that bascily just has a calender for events and a memo pad, but it works. (Now the new ones are REALLY sweet, forget about handing anyone memos or paperwork, just zap them an e-mail for them to read on their PDA!! that's SWEET! ok, ya, I'm a bit of a technology geek too! :-) )

[techieman33]

i love my new pda, it's awsome, it's a tungsten e if anyone is wondering, i can listen to music, watch movies, pretty much the only thing it doesn't do is get on the internet, which i really wish i had gotten one with a wireless card built in, oh well. But yes they are pretty expensive as a gift, especially for an entire cast.

[TechWench]

ya, that would be hella-cool.
but i dont have that kind of money!
:?

[Peter]

hehe, I think we all just found a new thing to add to our christmas lists in the other thread! :-)

Just as a quick aside, if you are looking into PDAs, you might want to check out the Cell Phone/Palm by Kocekara (sp?) My dad has one and it's SWEET. It is a full blown palm pilot and full blown cell phone. You can view webpages on it from anywhere you get a cellphone signal, and you can hook it into your computer via USB and have internet on your computer while driving down the road! It also has a slot for a memory card of some type, which will turn it into a full blown MP3 player. It is really really sweet phone! (but defanatly on the pricey side :-( )