Introduction:
So you want to go on tours, huh? That's Awesome! Enclosed herein are notes and tips about doing so. These come from my experiences in the Spring of 2019, where we performed in Hartford, CT, for the MIT Alumni Club there. It was fun, we learned a lot, and hopefully reading this will give you a sense of how to go about starting up this process.
Just one additional word before getting into the meat of it. Make sure you have support before really diving into this. Tours take a lot of effort, and you support is imperative to make sure you get the people power you need to make it happen without tearing your hair out. Now to the meat of the thing...
Logistics:
Why Go on Tours?
Tours can be really fun. You get to spend a few days with friends, putting on theater; it's why we're a part of the Ensemble. It's a great way to meet alumni, perform for new people, and experiment with how putting together a show in a short amount of time in an entirely new space. It's challenging, but definitely doable if you have the support (mainly the actors, someone to run logistics day of, and some prod staff).
How To Initiate the Process
When we initially toured in the 1980s and when we restarted the program in Spring 2019, we were working primarily with the MIT Alumni Club of Hartford. Leon Kaatz reached out to us and asked if we could perform for the alumni there. Leon really liked hosting us, although he was already getting older during my time, so he may no longer be involved with running the alumni club. I recommend that wherever you want to perform, you find some group to host you. Hosting here means less that you stay with them (more on that below), but more that they can help you find lodging, organize food, publicize your event to interested parties, and most importantly find a performance space. The guide below contains no information on actually locating a performance space because, luckily for us, the alumni were able to do that. We performed in a school, which worked well, but lower-key options include a public park, community theater, or someone's backyard even. It all depends what you and the alumni want. Additionally, some Alumni Clubs may be able to provide funding or support your trip financially, which is really helpful for renting cars and finding lodging.
To find Alumni Clubs, I recommend looking within a few hours driving radius of MIT and seeing what alumni clubs are active. Email them and just ask if they'd be willing to host you guys and your performance. Every Club you deal with will be different in what they want or can provide, but having a support in the location you are going to makes planning easier and ensures you have an audience when you get there.
When to Tour?
Fall Semester:
In my time, we never toured during the Fall semester since the on-campus show dates were right near Thanksgiving and a weekend trip (or Tour in general) didn't seem feasible.
Spring Semester:
In 2019, we performed during the second weekend of spring break (leave MIT the Friday of spring break, return Sunday, the day before classes begin). This timing worked well enough, but it resulted in what felt like a very short spring break. Now that the last performance of the spring semester is the Friday right before spring break, an alternative that we voted on for the attempted Tour of Spring 2020 was leaving campus that first Saturday of spring break and then returning to MIT by Monday, thus allowing people approximately 5 uninterrupted days after Tours to return home or relax on campus. Also coordinate with the alumni/performance location on this to match their needs, but at the end of the day, it matters more that people are available and willing to Tour the selected weekend rather than where exactly you are in performing.
Where to Stay
In 2019, we stayed with the alumni of the Hartford Alumni Club. The overwhelming response to this was that it was unnecessarily stressful, and it resulted in Tours being quite unfun since everyone was split up. I do not recommend doing this again. Instead, try and find reasonable (read: cheap) hotels near where you are performing. Alumni can likely help fund this as well. Book the rooms as soon as you have an accurate headcount of how many people are going (actors, production staff, extra hands if needed), and then record from those going rooming preferences. Some things, like how comfortable someone is rooming with a certain gender or individual, are really important to take into account. Also, it's generally good practice to keep couples separate. If you receive push back from Alumni who want you to stay with them, feel free to cite MIT Policy, which does say that the Institute does not like students staying in the homes of Alumni.
How to Get There
Rental cars are an easy way to get places. For 3 days you're looking at ~$150 for a 5-person car. People with personal cars are definitely valuable too as they reduce cost. Remember to also include the cost of gas in your budget. For help renting cars, check out this page I wrote a bit ago, it goes through all the details of applying the student discount at Avis/Budget. Also note that those who reserve a car need to have someone with a credit card there to pay for it; Budget and Avis don’t accept Debit cards when renting cars. Try and reserve cars as soon as you can.
Also, a note on car sizes, while SUVs could be helpful if you are moving large set pieces, they also tend to be quite a bit more expensive. If you NEED a lot of huge set things and have a thick budget, perhaps a UHaul is the way to go. Otherwise, 1 SUV to fit big props/small set pieces is probably all a budget can handle.
Now, time for the good stuff and how you actually cast/get prod staff for all of this...
Actors, Production Staff, Directors:
Directors:
In my experience, neither year we did this was the director available to go on tours, and honestly that was perfectly fine. For the most part, the difficulty of the Tour performance is in adopting blocking, and actors are good at that on their own. It also minimizes the number of people you need approval from for understudy casting, and lessens the number of rooms to book. All pluses in my view.
Actors, Understudies, and All That Jazz:
To do a performance, you need actors (wild, I know)! During my time in the Ensemble, Tours were always considered secondary to the on-campus show, meaning that an actor's ability to go on tours did not influence their on-campus casting. I think this is good to go by, but if times have changed, go with the times. Regardless, below are the steps to go through in order to determine who can/cannot go on tours and accordingly fill roles:
During Auditions:
First, the normal round of auditions are held. Included on the audition contract is this question: Indicate if you: a) don’t want to be an understudy for the Tour show under any circumstance, b) only want to be an understudy for the Tour show , c) if you are not cast for on campus show, would be okay being an understudy for the Tour show. Once the on-campus show is cast without consideration for the Tour show, an email should be sent out to all actors asking whether or not they can commit to coming on tours the designated dates. Actors are given until 1 week after read through to indicate if they can and wish to go on tours. Any actor who can maintains their role between the two performances. For those actors who cannot go on tours, it is time to cast a Tour Understudy.
Finding/Casting an Understudy:
Begin by looking through the audition contracts for anyone who auditioned only as an understudy or who was not cast but said they would be willing to be an understudy. Additionally, email out to the Ensemble to ask if anyone is interested in being an understudy for the tour show. If you do not have enough interest through these methods, send dorm spam like would normally be done for auditions. Once you have people interested in understudying, the decision of whether or not to hold formal understudy auditions for ensemble members is left up to the discretion of dirstaff and tourdirstaff depending on how much time and interest you have. If auditions occur, the director has first say for casting if they desire it (they often do not because they are not deeply involved in the Tour), otherwise it shall be decided by dirstaff and tourdirstaff in a 2/3 majority vote.
Understudy Rehearsals:
The decision of how much rehearsal understudies are expected/can have is up to you and the rest of dirstaff. Basic expectations are outlined below, and for small roles you can probably get away with very few, blocking-focused rehearsals. For those roles that are larger/more integral, the director may want to run a rehearsal or two with the understudy. It's just important to keep in mind both that this respects the amount of time the understudy indicated they want to put into the process, and that it doesn't interfere too much with the on-campus performance. Scheduling for understudy rehearsals would ideally be under the SM, but it may also fall on you. If this is the case, I found that a run through with the understudies during brush-ups was pretty easy to do since mainly you just need to run a few scenes.
Expectations of Tour Understudies:
- Go on tours
- Participate in tour Put-In, Strike, and other Tour-related activities
- Memorize lines and participate in Understudy Spaghetti rehearsal
- Participate in scheduled understudy run throughs (Suggest at least 2, even if only those scenes in which understudies participate are run)
- Notes will be given:
- Acting Notes: Given by Director, AD or some non-actor person will give notes to understudies (no actor to actor notes should be given)
- Blocking Notes: Given by SM or anyone familiar with the blocking
- Notes will be given:
- If the Director so desires, they may request an additional rehearsal with the understudies. Rehearsal of this type may not take up more than 3 hours a week unless the understudy explicitly approves of it and doing so does not detract from the on-campus performance.
- Attend one full run/show they do not participate in to get a sense of the show
- Shadow at least 1 rehearsal for each scene they will be a part of
Production Staff:
Now onto the process of finding production staff to help out with Tours! The first step here is identifying which departments are vital for tours to happen, and which can either be left out or easily transferred. As with actors, any department head who wants to go on tours is more than welcome to, and in such a case they would be given first dibs on running their department on Tours. To get a sense of who among prodstaff wants this, begin by emailing out to the crew seeing who can and wants to come on tours. I gave people 1.5 weeks from read through to come to a decision, at which point their department was up for grabs.
If a department has no one who wants to go on Tours, it's up to you to find someone to take point in ensuring that anything from that department needed from on-campus makes it on tours. For some departments, this can be as simple as tasking an actor with collecting all of the costumes at the end of the last show and making sure they get into the car. For others, this could mean having someone design a light plot ahead of time and program simple cues when we get to space. Below, I've outlined what I found to be useful for each department to do for tours, as well as highlighted a few new prodstaff positions you can search for if you need more hands.
Hair & Makeup:
The main thing here is just ensuring that any makeup/wipes/wigs/whatever used during the show is set aside during on-campus strike such that it can be easily found and transported into a car for Tours. The amount of tour presence of a H&M person scales with how active they are during the on-campus performances (i.e. if someone who needs to do complex hair/makeup change in a scene, may be worth trying to get someone designated for that on tours). Otherwise, you probably don't need a designated person.
One thing of great importance though is ensuring that understudies have their foundation/highlight/low light matched while still on campus. Work with the H&M designer to get this done.
Costumes:
Similar to H&M, need for this a specific person assigned to this department depends on the complexity of the show. Focus should just be ensuring that costumes make it on tours. Also, work with them before Tours to ensure that understudies, if they can't fit into the on-campus actor's costume, has something to wear. It can be simple, especially since it's more work for the Costume designer, but it needs to be done and shouldn't be done by you.
Pub:
Ideally, you will have a program specifically for the Tour show that lists understudies, tour production staff, thanks the alumni/location you are performing, etc. Ask the Alumni early on if they would like anything special in the program so that you don't spring this on the Pub Manager during Tech Week. Assuming you stay on top of this one and can go to Copy Tech to get them printed for free, and you should be golden.
Blood:
If present in a show, make sure you have blood packs and know how to apply them when the time comes. Otherwise, not much needed here.
Lights:
Sets:
Video:
Props:
Paint:
Sound:
SM:
TD:
Day-Of Logistics:
Overview:
Sample Schedules:
When Things Aren't Going Right:
When shit hits the fan (or the fan has never been working properly) and you're not finding any way to pull it together, first, take a deep breath and remember that this is really hard, but you're doing a great job. Find those who can support you, both in terms of what needs to get done and mental-health wise. There are some times, though, when things are not going well and it is time to pull the plug on the Tour show. This decision is hard and it sucks, but we needed to make it in Spring 2020 and it was the right one. Below are some scenarios for when it may be appropriate to consider canceling Tours, and guidelines on how to move forward:
The Tour Cast is Not Filled:
All actors for the on-campus show will be given 1 week from read through to indicate whether they will or will not be acting in tours. After this week has passed, the Tour Coordinator will work with the dirstaff to cast tour understudies from the pool of actors who auditioned for as understudy roles. If this pool is not of sufficient size or interest, members of the Ensemble will be surveyed, as can members of the general MIT community need be through dorm spam. If, after all of these efforts or the allotment of 3 weeks, the Tour cast is not set, a meeting should be held between the dirstaff and tourstaff to discuss the casting issue and vote on a resolution. A 3/4 majority vote of dirstaff and tourstaff is required to cancel tours.
The Tour Crew is Not Filled:
All production roles for the on-campus show will be given 1.5 weeks from read through to indicate whether or not they will take their department on tours. If, after the allotted time, any of the lights, sets, SM, Director, or TD departments are entirely unable to go on tours, a meeting between dirstaff and tourstaff will be held to discuss whether or not these departments are vital for tours to occur. A 3/4 majority vote of dirstaff and tourstaff is required to determine the specific department’s necessity. If the department is determined not to be vital, the Tour Coordinator is under no obligation to fill the department. If a missing department is deemed vital, then the Tour Coordinator has until 3 weeks after read through to find a replacement, at which time a meeting should be held between the dirstaff and tourstaff to discuss the issue and vote on a resolution. A 3/4 majority vote of dirstaff and tourstaff is required to cancel tours.
No Performance Location:
Ideally, the alumni you are working with will be able to find a reasonable location for you, and they will do this in a reasonable time frame. If, 3 weeks after read through, the alumni have no leads, the Tour Coordinator, tourstaff, and alumni will speak on the phone to discuss contingency plans such as performing in someone’s backyard, a public park, etc. If, a week after this phone call takes place, there are still no performance space options, a meeting should be held between the alumni, dirstaff, and tourstaff to discuss the issue and vote on a resolution. The alumni may phone in for the beginning of the discussion to state their points and answer any questions, after which time they will leave and the remaining members will continue to discuss and vote on a resolution. A 3/4 majority vote of dirstaff and tourstaff is required to cancel tours.
Cost:
If, at any point in the process, the cost of going on tours is growing to such an extent that it would be financially impossible or irresponsible to go on tours, the Treasurer may call a meeting of the dirstaff and tourstaff to discuss possible alternatives, including but not limited to: grant applications, alumni financial support, scaled-back costs. Upon conclusion of this meeting, if the Treasurer does not see an improved financial situation within 1.5 weeks of initial meeting, they may call a second meeting with the dirstaff and tourstaff at which point discussion and voting on a resolution will take place. A 3/4 majority vote of dirstaff, tourstaff, and Treasurer is required to cancel tours.