Regional Arts Victoria (RAV) runs a performing arts touring coordinating program that works to broker agreements between presenters and producers resulting in tours of a diverse range of performing arts productions.
Touring forums such as Long Paddock and Showcase Victoria introduce presenters to a range of producers and their work, offering new Australian drama, theatre classics, children's theatre, contemporary dance, comedy, musical theatre, physical theatre, world music, circus, opera, ballet and classical music.
Presenters who express interest in a production or productions can then be included in the development of a tour. For Victorian regional touring, the productions represented by RAV will generally be from Victoria and for national touring from either Victoria or Tasmania.
Tour Development
Tour development involves creating tour itineraries that are as efficient as possible, include as many interested presenters as practicable and match the availability of the producer.
Victorian tours result from Showcase Victoria, a Victorian touring forum where producers or artists present their work to presenters for Victorian touring.
National tours result from Longpaddock, a national touring forum where producers from around Australia present their work to presenters for national touring.
Touring Budgets
The key costs in developing a tour are:
- remount fees - the costs required by the producer to ready the production for a tour; ie rehearsal time, set re-design, touring equipment purchase.
- Weekly producer fees - the fee charged by the producer per week of tour, irrespective of the number of performances given.
- Royalties - expressed as a percentage of net box office takings, royalties are paid to key creative personnel such as the writer, composer, directors or designer.
- Touring costs - those costs associated with moving the production around, such as vehicle hire, fuel, flights, freight, accommodation and living away allowances.
In most cases, RAV will apply to have touring costs covered by funding (from Playing Australia, for national tours, and Arts Victoria, for Victorian regional tours) and the producer fees (remount and weekly) are shared between all the presenters on the itinerary.
Tour Coordination
If a tour is successfully developed and funding is approved, RAV will draw up a contract with the producer and individual contracts with each of the presenters involved. RAV will coordinate the tour by booking accommodation, vehicles, flights etc and organise payments to cover these as well as invoicing presenters and paying producer fees.
RAV also takes a central role in marketing each tour. It coordinates the production of marketing collateral as well as providing an extensive marketing kit to each presenter. Online marketing will be done through the RAV website and through metropolitan media. RAV also provides guidance on the best ways to market each show, including which market segments might be the most appropriate and how to target them.
Apart from these formal tour development mechanisms, RAV keeps a large database of producers and productions and is happy to pass on information about productions that may be able to tour at short notice or be suitable for a particular programming niche.
Image: Showcase 2009 (Expo), hosted by Regional Arts Victoria and the Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres (VAPAC).
