Talking touring

The main concerns of the Independent Theatre Council’s (ITC) members have recently been about touring. Eighty per cent of our members tour, to a wide range of places from village halls in the Hebrides to community centres in inner city housing estates, from prisons, schools, parks and hospitals to traditional theatre venues. Touring is the life blood of the independent theatre sector and the best way to extend the reach of the arts to people who would not otherwise have access. Touring in the current economic climate is increasingly difficult and companies are facing serious challenges.
 

THE SECTOR SPEAKS
An ITC member from the Midlands said, “We are getting the same fees from venues as we were 10 years ago.” A member from the North West explained that “The costs of travel and accommodation have risen hugely – at the same time we have a principle… of paying performers above the union minimum and providing the best possible conditions. Our income has not risen in line with our increasing production costs.” A Yorkshire member said “touring is a hard enough existence for artists… We must not fall into the trap of exploitation by compromising on touring conditions. We find it hard to make the case for our production costs.” One company manager commented that “venues are becoming even more risk averse – offering lower and lower guarantees. This is one of the reasons we have moved to more box office split deals than fees. We’re taking the risk ourselves.” Another rural touring company stated that “venues’ fear of the unknown is holding companies back. We have been relatively successful booking our normal circuit but the Arts Council has required us to broaden our geographical reach. The new relationships have been very difficult to build. We have had to use our funding to offer free performances to get our work seen.” A touring company from the North West said that “venues only want to book us for one night”, and this was echoed by one of our companies in the Eastern region: “We have had to cancel our national tour because we can not get enough dates. Venues are only prepared to book us for one or two nights at the most.” Jan Ryan, from UK Arts International, observed the following trend: “Smaller arts centres are programming much less theatre work – as a result there is no critical mass of work and the audiences for it are lost.” One company sadly reflected that “venues are claiming there is no audience for drama at the moment. We are losing out to tribute bands and amateur musicals.” John Spooner, Artistic Director of Unlimited Theatre Company, suggested that “venues ought to be thinking about how they can make their second/studio space work for their bigger space. There is more work available for these spaces and, relatively speaking, less risk.”
DWINDLING RESOURCES
One experienced tour booker commented, “It is so much harder to access Arts Council funding for touring. We have been shocked at the number of applications we have had turned down for work which would normally have had a successful touring life… there is not enough money in the Grants for the Arts pot. Meanwhile most of the Sustain money has gone into buildings, yet companies are the ones taking all the risks.” Jill Streatfeild, General Manager of Eastern Angles, suggested that “it would help touring companies enormously if Grants for the Arts was more flexible. Currently… you can’t get the grant without the tour list and you can’t book the tour if the majority of the funding isn’t in place… People have to be encouraged to start taking risks again.” Many members also raised the problem of dwindling local authority money. Amanda Rigali from Arts Council England stated that “the key to successful touring is the relationship between the producer and promoter”, and many companies talked about the importance of building good, co-operative relationships with venues. Jane Claire, from English Touring Theatre, was keen to stress that “the key to success is not seeing venues as the enemy”. This view was expanded by John Spooner, who said, “we put a lot of work into our relationships with venues – encouraging trust, developing additional programmes, trying to arrive well-equipped… We enjoy touring most where there is an effective partnership – recognising that reaching the audience is a shared responsibility.”
John Spooner continued, “there needs to be a major cultural shift. Audiences are more open to challenge and new experiences than venues give them credit for.” A final observation came from Nathan Curry, Artistic Director of Tangled Feet: “With our recent piece (‘Home’) we were interested in creating something that could work anywhere – we took it to night clubs, fields, a bus, a boat, a forest. We were reaching very different audiences – it liberated us and changed the way we think about making theatre.” As traditional touring patterns become increasingly difficult to sustain, many more companies are following Tangled Feet’s example and focusing on how to take the work to people in new ways. We found most of our members were meeting the challenges with imagination and flexibility – determined to continue but adapting their practice.