Headline: Planning Your Tour

Arts and Ideas

Winter, 2000 issue

Sitting in the audience at a professional level performance, it's easy to assume that putting together a tour must not be too hard. Just get some performers together, maybe build some scenery and props, and hit the road. Can't be that hard, can't cost that much. You may wonder why the tickets cost as much as they do, since a full house with tickets in the $20-$30 range means a lot of money… so somebody's getting rich. Hey, you may think, I could use a taste of that kind of money- what do I have to do?

Brace yourself. Set aside all your free time and all your free money. Get a good deal on long distance rates.

One of the reasons it looks so simple is that one goal of professional performance is to insulate the audience from all the work leading up to the show. We want the audience to enjoy the artistic intent of the show, and have no idea that the performers were lost in traffic until 7:35, or that the set was barely put up in time, or that a soda got spilled into the sound control board. You paid for a professional show, and that's what they're trying to give you. When you see an amateur production, say an 8th grade production of A Streetcar Named Desire, you can easily become distracted by the mechanics of production. When the kid shouts "Stella!" and can't remember the next line, or when the door slam causes a picture to fall off the wall, or when a sound effect of a dog barking is played so loud the dog must be four stories tall, you can really feel the pain of the cast and crew. Though this is entertaining in its own way, it's not the intent of the director or playwright.

[For a hysterically pathetic telling of a doomed performance of Peter Pan, you can listen to an archived program of the radio series This America Life at http://thislife.org and find episode 61, "Fiasco!" (This American Life is hosted by Ira Glass, who will be doing an Arts and Lectures presentation on April 28. Check out http://events.ucsc.edu/artslecs/glass.html for some information.)]

Let's say you have put together a local production of an original musical that was very well received, and everyone's hot on the idea of doing a professional tour with it. You agree to produce the thing, and visions of dollar signs dance in your head. Everyone says they can commit to put the rest of their lives on hold for two months.

First, determine your costs.

Add up the salaries for cast and crew for the two months on the road plus the rehearsal time getting it ready plus the travel, lodging, insurance, and meal expenses. Wince. Check again. You're probably in the neighborhood of $200 per person per day. Start trimming. Figure out whether some of the acting roles do not appear on stage at the same time, and double-cast so one person can do both roles. Or have the playwright write out non-essential characters. Likewise with the musicians- finding players who can play multiple instruments may allow you to double-cast them also. Or rely heavily on a synthesizer. One synthesizer can play a lot of instruments. Or rewrite the music for one piano, or make a tape, or how about just one guy with a kazoo… whoops, you're already so cheap the show's terrible.

So you've trimmed the performers as much as possible, and probably lost some friends in the process. That's show biz. To smooth feathers, start calling them "babe" and offering to "do lunch."

Now, what do you need to schlep along? The set you have is too heavy; it was built in place in your local theater out of 2x4's and drywall. So you need to build a touring version, light and portable and easy to set up. The lighting and sound you're using belongs in the theater, so you need to buy or rent one for the tour. Too expensive. You decide you could just use the ones that are in the theatres where you're playing, though that may be an extra expense. You can use the costumes you already have, hoping nobody gains weight on tour from eating at restaurants every day. Pack up your props, too, and buy crates to move and protect them.

Obviously not all this stuff is going to fit in a suitcase, and air freight for large items is sky-high, so you're going to need to rent a truck (take it from me: don't skimp on the truck. Just try pushing a truck).

Now assemble your road crew. You'll need a technical director to communicate with the venues and supervise the load-in. You already have this person, plus a sound engineer, a lighting designer, lighting crew, a stage manager and assistants to move scenery around, and a director. That's too expensive, so you have to decide how many people you really need. The director is the first to go, since her work is done by once everyone knows what to do. You'd love to take your whole crew, since they already know all about the show, but you're going to have to rely on local labor as much as possible to cut travel expenses. So you end up with one lighting and one sound engineer to supervise the locals. You figure this will take more time than using your own people, since the lighting and sound are quite complicated, so you decide you're going to need the day before every show to set up.

The costs are rising fast, when startup costs plus daily tour staffing and travel costs are added up. But you still want to forge ahead, and so you offer a contract to the tour staff so they won't take other work during those two months, and you order the set built. Now you're committed.

You will quickly realize that though you have, in your humble opinion, a hot product, it's not so easy to get it to the masses. You thought you would serve as your own agent, but a whole day of calling theaters and colleges has just left you confused. They want to know if you're self-producing or looking for a local producer to book the show. Good question. If you self produce, you take on all the local advertising, ticket selling, local labor hiring, picking a hotel, and paying the rental on the facility. If you seek a local producer, you agree to bring the show there for a set fee and the local producer takes care of all that local stuff (this is basically what Arts and Lectures does). This is a much simpler option for you, since you don't have an office staff or even an office. Besides, this plan will guarantee a set income, rather than rely on unpredictable ticket sales.

Figuring out how to contact the producers is confusing, so you hire a professional: an agent. Agents know what trees the producers are hiding behind and who can typically afford what. They sell your show for you in trade magazines and at trade shows and through established contacts who have learned to trust them. It takes you a while to find an agent, since they work on commission and if they think your show is hard to sell they won't touch it. Some might agree to try to book you for a flat fee, which guarantees some payment to them even if they can't sell it.

Most of the agents you call listen to your expectations-you need to make a huge amount of money in two months, you need two days to set up each location, your rate of travel is limited by how fast the truck driver can get from place to place, and the show is an unknown-and politely bid you farewell. Your product, though good, is a hard sell to producers who need to sell lots of tickets to cover their expenses and your fee.

But one, hopefully, agrees to help you. She says if you can arrive and perform on the same day, you can squeeze in more performances and get your per-event show costs down. This will mean simplifying the lights and sound greatly. She says tour locations should be localized so you can generate some regional publicity and so that you can use cheaper ground transportation. (there goes everyone's fantasy about the European leg of the tour). She also advises you to produce a CD or video for promotional purposes and to sell at the shows.

"Even with these cuts," she says, "it's unlikely that I can sell an unknown show at prices high enough to cover all the startup and operational costs." You skip worry and go directly to panic. You regret that "bridge burning" is about the politest term for your letter, and speech, of resignation at your old job. The agent continues, "But once you get a track record, you could apply for grants to offset the costs. In the long run you might break even or even make money, if the show is a hit."

You take some aspirin and sign on the dotted line, but you know that, for a while, anyone you do lunch with will have to pay. You wonder just who is getting rich off this deal if it's not you.