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 1: Why Tour?
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There are many different reasons artists choose to tour:
- Because it is essential to have regular opportunities to perform or to extend the life of a particular performance piece.
- To meet the fans (and make new ones) stimulating CD sales or to introduce the songs on a new CD.
- Because touring is the raison d’etre. For many children’s touring companies, the home community is simply a place for the rehearsals and first performances before taking an academically relevant 45 minute piece to school cafetoriums and community performing arts centres.
- To keep a traditional art form alive and vital, cross-cultural exchange and/or to introduce a traditional art form to the uninitiated.
- For an Aboriginal theatre troupe touring to First Nations territories as well as to rural communities and urban centres, it is an opportunity to celebrate contemporary expressions of indigenous stories, songs and dance through cultural exchange.
- For career development. Accomplished artists often speak of how their early years of touring led to the development of their fan base and a sustainable career.
- For some companies, international touring has fueled their creativity, allowed them to sustain their work and, ultimately, brought them international attention.
 The World Outside
You can count on your loyal home audience, but when you bring your art into an unfamiliar territory, it becomes all that you have to stand on.
Dwayne Morgan Read more...
Decide your own "why?"
There are a thousand reasons to tour, and before considering where and when to tour, you must decide why touring is important to you. Touring is an expensive proposition – some argue that the performance fees will never cover all the expenses incurred in putting together and undertaking a tour.
If you are a non-profit organization, does touring fit into your organization’s mission? If you are a solo artist, how will you and your performance benefit from a new audience?
Are you ready?
To understand the value of touring for you or your company, you have to assess the impact it will have on artists and support personnel. Think of touring in terms of gardening. In the spring, when you start digging, you find that you are sore at the end of the day. After a dozen or so sessions with the spade, your muscles are tuned to the task and gardening is not nearly as painful. Do you have your touring muscles?
Are you organized?
Touring is all about getting (and staying) organized; so get your thoughts and "to-do list" in order by completing a strengths and weaknesses analysis.
Determine your tour readiness and than assess the resources you will need to get your tour on the road. Take the Tour Readiness Quiz.
It takes a lot of planning to put your best foot forward on the road. Everywhere you travel, you want to represent yourself as an accomplished, professional artist. You want to make a fabulous impression on your audiences and the person who booked your performance. If the audience has a wonderful time with you, the presenter may want to bring in others of your art form; if they don’t have a wonderful experience, that presenter and their audience may not be interested in having you – or anyone else of your art form – back to their community.
A Crucial Element
I think that artists tour mainly because they want to reach out to others and share their vision.
Jacqueline Gosselin Read more...
Anything Can Happen
Touring is hard work, full of unknowns and can even be dangerous. It is also a great privilege to be invited to another town, city, country to show your work. Anything can happen and does.
Denise Fujiwara Read more...
I Wanted More
If the advantage of performing at home is variety and experimentation, the advantage of playing on tour is repetition. You will hone your performance, you will polish what works and discard what doesn’t.
Veda Hille Read more...
A Sustainable Career
It is on tour that artists can make a lasting connection with their audience – you are, after all, sharing something very special.
Sheri Jones Read more...
Performing Abroad
Our company started its touring experience in the late 70's due to the fact that as a company without a home touring was the only way to present our performances.
Pierre MacDuff Read more...
Itch for a New Audience
Instead of hoping that an audience would seek my music, I sought them.
Ember Swift Read more... |