Introduction

The magic in any performer’s heart is on the stage. The desire to reach out and touch other human beings through theatrical presentation is paramount to the performing artist’s life. For many of us, this desire is satiated by attaching ourselves to the established frameworks of our profession: the repertory company, the unions, or the agent system. However, there are a few brave souls who seek to create new frameworks and continually re-establish the perspectives of the performing arts. Our modern culture is uniquely suited to these individuals. The enormous variations in culture and tastes among the American population allow burgeoning artists to develop their own companies and artistic expressions in a manner that is unprecedented in theatrical history. However, our capacity for absorbing new material requires that these new artists find their demographic niche – and that means embarking on that wild journey we call ‘touring’.

Touring is an event that can make or break young performance companies. In the time period where the company is too big to be an amateur activity, but too small to support itself in a community or regional setting a well-run tour season can make or break the company’s future prospects. While there are many different ways a company can run a tour, there are several basic concepts that prevail as the most vital areas to address for small groups of performers attempting to make a living on the road. This article is intended provide a road map for those beginning directors who have only limited experience with the concepts of tour management, but desire to step into the way of that truck anyway.

There are three main stages to address on any tour.

1. Preparation
2. Execution
3. Follow-up

Of these three areas, by far the most vital is the first: Preparation. The area that will impact your future audiences the most is the Follow-up. Execution is the area most artists excel in, but which, ironically, has the least impact on the success of a given tour. Let us take a look at what I mean.

Preparation

Preparation includes the rehearsal process, scheduling, contract negotiations, daily planning, and tour policies. I will go into several of these issues in a moment. This is by far the most comprehensive stage of a tour. For groups that do not have a home theater, or who plan on extended tours this stage is, for all practical purposes, never-ending.

Personally, Preparation is my least favorite stage of any tour. I tend to be a hands-on manager and director – I love to deal with things that are happening around me. I also know from experience that most performers and directors tend to follow that same pattern. All other aspects of touring rest on the strength of this stage, unfortunately for me, so it behooves those of us who detest paper-pushing to develop this stage into such a state of discipline and familiarity that it becomes automatic.

There a few simple questions you need to ask yourself before you go on

1. What is the purpose of the tour?
2. What are the issues we will encounter?
3. How will we overcome the issues?

It is important to ask the questions in that order, just as it is even more important to have thorough answers to each question. In order to go on tour, you must have a very good reason for it. When veteran tour groups come through, it often seems like they simply decided it would be fun to go on tour and then took off. However, if you pay close attention to the curtain speeches and publicity material these groups use on their tours, you will notice they will invariably give a specific reason for touring. It can be as simple as fund raising, audience development, or it could even be an artistic statement. The point of the matter is to have a specific purpose for your tour and to stick with it. I have found that this point helps sort out many of the issues raised later on.

So, you have a purpose for your tour. Now what do you do? Well, question number two requires you to sit down and exercise that latent pessimist that lives inside all of us. List all the difficulties and obstacles you can. DO NOT pull your punches during this session. If you can think of anything that could possibly go wrong with your tour, get it out here – write it down! You’ll thank yourself later. Another warning – often the last two steps of Preparation will overlap as venues and schedules appear and change. Simply keep in mind that you need to understand the obstacle before you create a solution. Keep the questions in order!

These are just a few of the most important categories I recommend you address, there will be more specific needs for each tour and organization:

1. Travel methods (driving, flying, train, buses, parking, rest stops, etc.)
2. Travel hazards (ex: driving = maintenance, flying = lost luggage, etc.)
3. Personnel issues (spats, personal drama, personality mixes, etc.)
4. Room & Board (hotels, hosts, meals, road snacks, pre-show water, etc.)
5. Health Care (downtime, emergency, chronic illnesses, seasonal, regional, etc.)

Traveling is hard thing, and traveling with the intent to perform is probably clinically insane. After you have your list of all possible horrible ends, you will have a very humbling reminder of why many people never leave a twenty mile radius of their birthplace.

Fortunately, after intimidating yourself with the power of negative thought, you can move into the final stage and begin to come up with solutions for as many issues as you can. This is where you can begin to use your creativity in planning and organization.

A quick example:
On our first tour scheduling was a huge issue. Our group had five people who committed to going on the tour. We were only able to rehearse together for three days before our group split for approximately two weeks. The first tour date was set for exactly one week after our schedules were free again. Normally, we would like to have that entire intervening time to rehearse together, but we didn’t have it. So we met four days before our first date, arranged for some extended time at the first venue and spent three days rehearsing from morning until night to finish putting our show together . As physical performers, we were insane to do that, but we were able to use our commitment and good health to overcome a very tricky issue.

Preparation is not only asking these questions, but it is also security. Touring itself is an unsafe event, emotionally and physically. It is important to give yourself and your fellow performers as much safety as possible to carry them through the rougher times. Here I will lay out some basic practices that I have found help immensely when you get out on the road. There are plenty of on-line resources available for research on these topics.

1. Venue Contracts – Always have your venues read and sign some sort of contract. No matter how well you know your venue or trust them, it is always better to have a written obligation than a verbal agreement. This defines relationships and establishes a freedom for both parties to enjoy the contact more than if both of you are constantly feeling your way into each other’s worlds. This also allows you to schedule more assertively with venues, which is a huge benefit when trying to coordinate drawn-out travel schedules. Also, always leave both sides an emergency exit in the contract.

2. Technical Riders – As part of your contract with your venue, have them read and sign a technical rider that lays out exactly what kind of space, equipment, and personnel you will require at each show. Again, this defines the working relationship and allows a higher comfort level as both parties have certain expectations that can be relied upon to be met.

3. Company Contracts – Put in writing what you and your performers (and possibly crews) can expect from the tour. Issues like pay, time commitment, liability, and responsibilities are key issues to define in a contract.

Although you can go to great lengths to achieve the improbable, there are some problems that are not fixable. This is the real reason you write out ALL of the problems you can think of. If there are too many problems that you cannot address, then it probably time to re-evaluate your plans. There is no shame in calling off a proposed tour if you cannot support it. It is better to save what you have than to lose it with an ill-planned tour.

Execution

With all of the Preparation you should have done prior to your tour, the Execution of your tour should be an enjoyable experience. Personally, I have always found that this part of the tour is the most rewarding. I perform in order to share my experiences with other people and to experience their lives in return. You may find other aspects of touring attract you more than this one, but for most performers, this is the experience that draws us to the road.

Execution covers several topics. Of course, one of these is the technical execution of a show. A tour without this step is no tour at all. While this step is just as important as the others, it is important to not get caught up making this the end of all your efforts. Remember, the first step of Preparation was to ask why you were touring in the first place. The show is a means to that end, not the end.

While Preparation goes a long way toward making this stage proceed smoothly, there are inevitably hang-ups and mishaps along the way. There are far too many unique and creative ways that tours can be shaken up to categorize all possible responses. Instead, there are a few basic categories that the problems themselves fall into.

1. Equipment – Props, sets, costumes, and other technical devices take a huge beating in travel and set-up. There are two basic responses when they break: Do without, or make do. Bus wheels are not optional.

2. Venue – Venues will very often have issues completely unrelated to you. Sometimes things just will not work out, no matter how hard both sides try to manage things. This is where having contracts and escape clauses comes handy.

3. Personnel – If you coop up sensitive artists with other artists for weeks on end, something is going to go wrong. Even if your group is perfectly compatible (which hardly ever happens), stress will get the better of someone. This is where most tour issues come from. If your people are not working together, it gets more and more likely that someone will get hurt (emotionally or physically) or something will get left or broken. Humanity does not perfect itself on the road, it just gets more honest.

The best advice anyone ever gave me was to keep three things flexible: your mind, your heart, and your decisions. This is not to advocate being indecisive, but to keep your pride out of the way so you can change a decision that turns out to be wrong, or apologize when you need to. A touring performer must be able work in team before anything else. Do not be afraid to cut people from tours because they do not play well with others.

Leaders and directors especially must be able to absorb and dissipate stress in large quantities. Always consider that you do not have a monopoly on The Answer. Remember that if you can (actively) understand the issues your people have, they will respond better under pressure. Deal with these intellectual and emotional issues before they have a chance to fester. And remember to let off your own stress somehow.

Follow-up

While Preparation and Execution are the two primary stages of a tour, Follow-up is just as important as anything else you can do on tour. Keep in mind that you should Prepare for Follow-up with both your audiences and venues.

Follow-up is probably the most difficult stage of any tour. After you go through all the work to prepare and execute a tour, the last the thing you want to do when you get back is keep working on the same tour. The connection you make with your venues and audiences after you is possibly the most important contact you could possibly have. Long-term relationships with venues and audiences are established at this time, which is how you mine resources for future tours and events.

For example, my team performed in a Pennsylvania church to a small, but enthusiastic, crowd. The church loved the show, and invited us back any time we were in the area. About three weeks after that show, I received an email from a lady who had seen the show and asked about ways we could work with her church (in the same area). The next time my team tours through that area of Pennsylvania, I now have two potential venues instead of one. Plus, I have an enthusiastic audience that will bring more people to our shows and increase our potential contacts even further.

Another avenue of Follow-up is the simple act of thanking venues and sponsors after the fact. People run every organization in the world and people love to be appreciated. Especially when you travel into high-traffic road houses, a simple thank you card will make your name leap out at managers and owners. In the end, this can smooth the way for returning to these venues as well as using the people as resources for other venues.

Conclusion

The final point to remember is simple, but counter-intuitive to the title of this article. I’ve presumed to tell you how to survive your first tour experience as a director. The truth is you can never really get a handle on directing a tour until you do it. You can plan until your ears bleed and rehearse until you wake up on the stage at the end of a spotless dress rehearsal, but you can never tell how you will be able handle directing a tour until you actually step on the road and take charge. This article is full of advice and recommendations, but it none of it compares to the school called ‘Hard Knocks’. And believe me, touring will knock hard. Most of the things I have discussed come out of mistakes I have made at one point or another. But take heart in the knowledge that the experience is survivable and, above all, worthwhile.

As I was just starting to strike out on my own, I ran into a man who had gone through the same crisis I was about to go through. I looked up to him as the pinnacle of creation because I went on tour with him and never saw him blink twice about it. That experience carried me through some of the tough roads I traveled, because I knew it could turn out OK. The best part now is that I am still early in my career, and can look forward to many years of continued discovery.

The road is an invaluable tool for the burgeoning troupe. Properly utilizing the road and capitalizing on its opportunities are two of the most rewarding skills any director can develop in his early years.

Prepare, Execute, Follow-up. It is possible. Go.

Author: Jonathan Lowery is the Artistic Director of The Joshua Squad, a performing arts ministry team based in Jackson, MS. Jonathan has toured and performed in foreign countries including Japan, Taiwan, Italy, and Switzerland as well as across the United States. He has trained under many of the leading teachers of physical performance styles from mime, to dance, clown, circus technique, and physical theatre. He is a graduate of Belhaven College with a degree in Theatre and Biblical Studies. Jonathan is also a co-founder of Gratuitous B Productions and serves as Artistic Coordinator there.