What to Include in a Technical Rider for International Touring

What a technical rider is for

A technical rider is the document a company sends to a venue, promoter or supplier to describe the conditions needed to load in, build, operate and load out a performance. At minimum, an international touring rider should identify the show and its version, name the technical contact, separate non-negotiable requirements from preferences, describe the production by department, and keep the stage plot, input list, power requirements and schedule consistent with one another. It should also say what the company carries, what it expects the venue or promoter to supply, and who has authority to approve changes.

The template guidance from Tour Assistant is explicit that a useful rider is not a wish list but a working agreement. Someone receiving it should be able to identify the show configuration, prepare the venue and contact the right person when a requirement cannot be met (Tour Assistant). For international touring, that clarity matters even more because the reader may be working in another language, with different equipment stocks and with local crew who have not seen the performance.

A rider may be relatively simple for a solo performer and more complex for an ensemble. The Independent Society of Musicians notes that the document can range from a short statement to a detailed multi-section specification, but that every professional performer should provide one to the promoter and venue (ISM). The same logic applies to theatre companies: fitness for the production matters more than length.

Start with control information

Put the show title, show version, revision date and technical contact on the first page. Tour Assistant recommends exactly this control information, together with a clear separation between non-negotiable requirements, preferences and acceptable alternatives (Tour Assistant). Add the production manager or touring coordinator where that role exists, so that venue staff know whether a question about scheduling, contracts or technical substitutions goes to the same person.

International riders should also state the language in which they are issued and whether a translated version exists. If both versions are circulating, say which one controls or how discrepancies will be resolved. A revision date is not administrative decoration: it prevents a venue from working from an outdated stage plot or an obsolete equipment list. Keep the approved version with the gig file and replace superseded copies rather than allowing several versions to circulate.

Separate must-haves from preferences

The most useful structural decision in a rider is to distinguish three categories. A non-negotiable requirement is something without which the production cannot be performed as planned. A preference is desirable but not essential. An acceptable alternative is a fallback the company has already agreed to consider. Tour Assistant identifies this distinction as one of the key points of a workable rider (Tour Assistant).

This matters in practice because venues often cannot meet every request. If everything is presented as equally critical, the venue has no basis for proposing a workable substitution, and the company has no clear way to decide whether a compromise is acceptable. Use labels, a table or a short summary page rather than burying critical items in long prose.

Describe the production by department

Theatre riders usually follow the production’s departments. The Jasmin Vardimon Company’s international touring rider for NOW, for example, is organised into front-of-house and general information, set, staging, effects, sound, PA and speakers, monitors, mixer, playback and outboards, communications and CCTV, video, lighting, staffing and schedule (Jasmin Vardimon Company). The order can vary, but readers should be able to find the same categories every time.

Set, staging and effects

State the performance area, floor requirements, access and wing space, masking, suspension or rigging points and any special effects. Where dimensions are exchanged across countries, give the unit explicitly and add a conversion if useful. Say whether the company travels with a set, a floor or specialist equipment, and what the venue is expected to provide. The front-of-house and general information section can also carry show-wide facts such as running time and latecomer policy; the NOW rider does this as part of its international touring documentation.

Sound, video and communications

The sound section should cover the PA and speakers, monitors, mixer, playback and outboards, together with the input list. Video may require screen or projection details, playback formats, signal routing and communications or CCTV for stage management and video relay. The point is not to reproduce a manual but to give the venue enough information to check what it has, what it must hire and what the company will bring.

Lighting

List lighting positions, control, power and any production-specific requirements that affect the venue’s rig or staffing. If the lighting plan depends on equipment the venue may not own, say so plainly and identify acceptable alternatives. A rider that assumes a standard rig without checking local conditions creates avoidable work during the get-in.

Keep the stage plot, input list, power and schedule consistent

Tour Assistant notes that the stage plot, input list, power and schedule should be consistent with one another (Tour Assistant). This sounds obvious, but inconsistency is a common source of wasted time: a stage plot that places a desk in one position, an input list that assumes another and a schedule that allocates no time to resolve the difference. When one document changes, check the others and update the revision date.

For international work, add the details a local crew cannot safely infer. State what power the company needs in a form the venue can check, and ask the venue to confirm rather than assume. Distinguish equipment that travels with the company from equipment that is hired or supplied locally. If adapters, cable runs or connector types matter, put them in the rider and in the advance conversation.

Staffing, schedule and the advance

A staffing section should identify company technical staff, local crew roles and numbers, call times and who supervises whom. The schedule should cover load-in, set-up, soundcheck, performance and get-out, with enough detail for the venue to plan its own labour. The Jasmin Vardimon Company rider includes staffing and schedule as named sections alongside the production departments (Jasmin Vardimon Company).

The rider is not the advance. The advance is the conversation in which the company and venue confirm details, resolve exceptions and agree what will actually happen on the day. Tour Assistant advises closing exceptions during the advance and storing the approved version with the gig (Tour Assistant). Name the person who can approve a substitution, and record the decision so that it does not have to be reopened when the company arrives.

International touring: one technical lead, language and local conditions

Battery Dance’s touring guidance argues that one person on the tour should be responsible for planning and executing all technical elements. Ideally there would be two people covering the area, a production designer and a stage manager, but tight budgets may mean one person handles the range of responsibilities. That person needs not only design ability but patience, powers of persuasion, the ability to repair broken equipment, improvisational talent, calm under pressure, optimism, charisma, willingness to take on any task and leadership (Battery Dance). The rider should therefore name the technical lead and make clear who has authority to approve local substitutions.

Language is part of technical planning. Where the venue works in another language, a bilingual rider or a short glossary of production terms can reduce misunderstanding. Say which version is authoritative and keep one revision history. Use the same terms for the same thing throughout: a monitor is not a speaker, and a get-out is not a load-in.

Local conditions also affect how requirements are written. Power, rigging, access, climate and available crew may differ from the company’s home venue. The rider should give the venue something it can check, not a set of assumptions about what every theatre has. Where a requirement depends on local regulation or licensing, the company should verify it through the relevant official route rather than treating the rider as proof that permission has been obtained.

What the rider is not

A technical rider is not a hospitality rider. Tour Assistant advises keeping technical production separate from hospitality (Tour Assistant). Travel, accommodation, catering and similar arrangements belong in a separate document, so that venue staff can route each question to the right person.

Nor is the rider a substitute for a show advance or a local safety assessment (Tour Assistant). It is also not a contract, a visa, a customs declaration or a work permit. Those are separate processes with their own authorities and evidence requirements. The rider describes the production; it does not certify that every legal or safety condition has been satisfied.

A practical checklist

A rider is never finished in the abstract. It is finished for a particular venue, on a particular date, when the company and the venue have confirmed that they share the same understanding of the show. The document should make that understanding possible before anyone steps into the building.