For two years my stage manager's kit contained a stack of post-its, two sharpies, and two pencils with erasers, until one cast found a creative and thoughtful way of supplementing my supplies.
I got interested in stage managing two years ago and just finished my fifth show here at college. Because we don't have a theater major I had to do a lot of the learning on my own - Lawrence Stern's Stage Management in hand.
I am friends with a lot of the actors, and after a good run I usually get a card signed by everyone. It means a lot to me and I was sad when I didn't get any such thing after our most recent show.
It wasn't until a week after it closed that I came home to a message on my answering machine telling me to go immediately to one of the cast member's apartment (no further information was given). I did, and found most of the cast there - yelling "surprize" as I walked through the door! They had conspired to throw me a "thank you" party, and presented me with a shopping bag filled with all the items from the kit list in Stern's book, which one of the actors had "borrowed" from me earlier in the week. They explained that they knew I would be graduating soon, and wanted me to have a full kit when I went out to find a real job.