Tour traveling

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 3/31/15 at 9:11pm

I apologize if this is asked a lot. How do national tours go from city to city? Do they fly or literally "bus and truck" it?

Thanks.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 3/31/15 at 9:17pm

It depends on the tour - a non-eq one-nighter tour will rarely see anything but a bus. Most tours travel whichever way makes the most sense -- if it's a six hour or less drive, the cast will most likely be on a bus. Much longer than that will be a flight. Depending on loadin schedule (ie if loadin starts Monday night for a Tuesday opening), the crew will fly early in the morning or be on a sleeper bus overnight to get to the next city in time. The set is always on trucks.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/31/15 at 9:27pm

Annie, you have done nothing that requires an apology.

I haven't worked a tour in ages, but traditionally the mode of transportation depended on factors like the length of bookings in each venue and the turnaround time available for moving.

Sets, light and costumes were almost always trucked (although I was working in South Florida and in those days the distance to the nearest national tour house was a thousand miles or more; sets, etc., were often flown to us because there wasn't time to truck them).

Cast transport also varied. A true "bus and truck" often meant a lot of short bookings within a day's drive of one another. Such companies literally had buses and drove the company from theater to theater. There were (and I'm sure still are) union rules differing between a "travel day" (which was treated as a working day) and a day off.

I'm sure other posters can give you more up-to-date info, but please don't apologize for being curious. Nobody is forced to reply.

[NJ_BroadwayGirl]

Posted: 3/31/15 at 10:01pm

I recently listened to a great episode of The Ensemblist podcast in which they interviewed three members of touring companies (equity) and it answered lots of questions I had been curious about. It seemed like they had some options when it came to travel - going with the company on a bus or plane, taking the travel stipend, driving their own car (one interviewee and his husband are both in the show so they drive together and then always have their car at the tour stop).

Same goes for the housing during the stop, the level of options seems to vary from tour to tour. It seems like their are options including the company hotel or taking a per diem and maybe renting a house with coworkers, air bnb etc.

Here's a link to the Ensemblist website, their podcast is great - you can find it on itunes too. http://theensemblist.com/

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 3/31/15 at 10:25pm

When Jessie Mueller was on Show People with Paul Wontorek last May, she did talk about how she kept meeting with her boyfriend (who is currently in The Heidi Chronicles) at the airport every Monday while he was in the touring company of War Horse.