I started SMing without paper and have never looked back. I am junior in high school and have Stage managed 7 shows (not including 1 more for a community theater) and have used my iPad as my main device. I use pages to type up the script, export it as a PDF to Iannotate, and use Iannotate for blocking, lights, sound, flies, etc... I also use pages for a rehearsal schedule and just email it out to the cast. Everyone in the cast has a smartphone and receives my daily emails quickly. My style, without paper, has never had an issue. From what I see, if other highschools have SMs like me, the sm world will soon be paperless
What happens if a cast member doesn't have a smart phone?
What happens if you have to hand a show off to another SM who doesn't have a iPad? Or a different tablet computer?
What happens when you drop your ipad?
Or the battery goes out?
Do you keep your iPad in the booth at all times? In case you don't show up?
I would not feel comfortable working with an assistant who was entirely paperless and completely digital . . . but again, this is a generational different and depends on the project.
I worry about a stage management style that is too specifically tied to one kind of technology (Apple for example, which I am moving away from due to their high cost, limited upgradable options, ties to the app store), or technology that doesn't play well each other. I also don't want to impose any sort of technology requirements on my team - if I required every ASM I had to have an iPad, then I better offer to buy them an iPad.
I want team members that are interchangeable - who can jump on different tasks. If someone is taking blocking on a iPad, and they need to go to another rehearsal room, then I am stuck without the blocking . . . again, I want everyone to be able to do everything. Have a paper blocking script is easy to hand off to someone else.
I will also re-state something I said before, iPads, laptops, etc - are tools that have multi-functions, and that is how we interact with them. If I want to focus, sometimes shutting the laptop, turning off the electronic device allows me to focus on the room - and take notes on a note pad, without being distracting by incoming emails or text messages. It's easy to get drawn in on a computer or tablet, and distracted from the tasks at hand and what's going on in the room. Also, I know, when working directly to the computer - for example when I tech directly into a file - I spend more time making it look perfect, then I do with a pencil and an eraser. Which can actually slow me down.
Again, I think the technology is a tool but never should be a requirement for the job.