My Stage Management Special Topics class at the University of Iowa launched the 2011 Stage Management Survey this afternoon. If you have stage managed at least one American theatrical production, we invite you to participate. Feedback from the first 80 participants has been very favorable, although one responder found our question about stage management texts to be overly complicated and confusing. The issue of books on stage management has been very problematic. Many stage managers do not read any books about our field or they see them more as textbooks for students. And we received feedback in 2009 that some books were useful, but others had better stories. So we followed a participant's advice and asked this year on most useful and favorite books. We'll see how certain books fare in both categories.

The simulator is progressing nicely during this "quiet" phase. Leighton Hubbell has provided three rounds of sketches on the user interface and we are beginning to add color to the main screen. Jason Bridenstine is developing the logic behind the scoring system. Good work from everyone, even if things seem a bit quiet for now.