Tips on Theatre Touring

Today I spent the day in a room with 130 other people interested in theatre touring, at the 2013 Victorian Theatre Touring Workshop. Present were venue managers, artists, producers, writers, theatre companies, support agencies and managers. What a fascinating conversation!

The main theme that emerged for me during the day was around targeting your message and knowing your market. This applied equally in conversations around how producers and presenters engage, what drives programming decisions, how to generate publicity and how we communicate with audiences.

Kane Forbes from Regional Arts Victoria began the day by describing theatre touring as "an ongoing national festival of performing arts" which was an unusual but apt way to describe what being part of the touring circuit can be like. Kane also went on to accurately summarise that "everything you do in performing arts touring is a marketing and advocacy exercise".

There was a lot of ground covered during the day, predominately around mechanisms for touring regionally in Australia, programming, marketing, administration of touring, touring pathways and access. During the day there were a lot of great summaries on Twitter #victourshop. A snapshot of some of the key messages to come out of the conversations include:

• If you want to tour you need to be clear about the role of touring in your long term strategy - it should be an integral part of the plan if you want to do it properly
• As a touring company, think about the legacy you will leave for the community you are visiting
• Producers who understand their niche and target audience are much more appealing to venue managers than those who don't
• Programming and audience development are inextricably linked - if you want to develop audiences you need a solid programming plan
• Rather than seeing some shows as loss making, focus on the idea of investing in developing future audiences
• Artists who want to tour need to remember that they are creating entertainment as well as a piece of art

It's always fascinating to get presenters and producers in the same room talking, and I am sure that just as many useful conversations were had over coffee as were had during the workshop. It's great to see the sector engaging in discussion like this, looking forward to seeing you at the next one.