Questions to Ask a Host Venue Before Taking a Show Abroad

Taking a theatre production abroad is not simply a matter of reproducing a home-season show in another country. The invitation may come from a festival, a receiving house, a co-producer or an arts centre, and each brings different expectations about who supplies the stage, crew, marketing and money. The first useful question is therefore not ‘Will you host us?’ but ‘What exactly will you provide, decide and require, and who will confirm it in writing?’ Ask it before signing, before announcing the tour and before shipping equipment.

In this article, host venue means the receiving theatre, festival, arts centre or producer that issues the invitation and contracts the engagement. A technical rider is the company’s written specification of stage, lighting, sound, video, crew and scheduling needs. An advance is the pre-production process in which those needs are checked against the venue’s actual capacity. The questions below are designed for that advance, not for the first enthusiastic exchange.

Before the contract: status, authority and registration

Clarify whether the engagement is a confirmed booking, a provisional hold or an invitation to apply. This affects everything that follows, including whether the company should buy flights or reserve freight. Ask who is authorised to sign the contract and whether the person answering emails has that authority. A programmer may love the work but still not be able to commit the venue’s crew budget.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s official venue guidance is a useful example of how a festival rule can sit behind a venue question. It states that a venue contract must be in place before a show can be registered. The same page notes that the Fringe’s Artist Services team is impartial and cannot recommend one venue over another, although it can help artists work out what will suit a show and how to approach venue managers. The lesson is general: ask which document unlocks the next administrative step, and who can supply it.

• Is this a confirmed booking, a provisional hold or an invitation to apply?
• Who is the authorised signatory, and is that person named in the correspondence?
• What must happen before festival registration, public announcement, visa letters or marketing deadlines?
• Which terms are fixed by the festival or funding body, and which are negotiable with the venue?
• What is the procedure for cancellation, postponement and force majeure?

Technical responsibility: who holds the plan?

Battery Dance Company International’s touring toolkit makes technical responsibility a staffing question. It argues that it is critically important to have one Person on the tour responsible for planning and executing all technical elements. Ideally that means two people, a production designer and a stage manager, but tight budgets may require one person to cover the range. The same guidance lists the necessary qualities: patience, powers of persuasion, repair skills, improvisation, calm under pressure, optimism, charisma, willingness to take on any task and leadership. Ask the host venue who their equivalent person is.

A named contact is not enough if that person cannot approve substitutions or spending. Ask for a point-by-point rider response that distinguishes three categories: agreed, substituted and impossible. Then ask who signs off the substitutes.

• Who is the venue’s named technical contact, and who is the company’s counterpart?
• Has the venue read the rider line by line and marked what is agreed, substituted or impossible?
• What are the get-in, focus, technical rehearsal and get-outwindows?
• What crew is provided, and what is excluded or charged separately?
• What are the power, rigging, floor, wing space, fly tower, sound, lighting and projection limits?
• Are there local working-time, licensing, fire or noise rules that change the schedule?
• What equipment can be hired locally, and who owns the hire contract?

AV, equipment and customs: local supply or travelling system?

Jon Shone’s guide to booking overseas AV and entertainment starts from the useful warning that producing an event overseas is not the same as producing one at home ‘just with a passport’. Suppliers, working practices, legislation and even expectations of what event production means can differ. For theatre, the same questions apply to sound, lighting, projection, surtitles and any recording or streaming set-up.

• Will AV be supplied by the venue’s preferred supplier, or may the company bring its own production company?
• Does the local supplier understand the brief, the language of the production and the cueing style?
• Who handles customs, temporary import, freight, insurance and return shipping?
• What documentation is needed, and who signs it? Confirm the actual requirement with the relevant customs authority or broker.
• What happens if equipment is delayed? Is there a local substitute, and at whose cost?

Money, risk and what the venue actually covers

Gary Hills’s Guide to international touring places finances and practicalities alongside research and marketing; they are not separate from the artistic conversation. A fee that looks adequate can become inadequate if the company pays freight, local crew overtime, translation, surtitles, visas or accommodation. Ask for a cost schedule, not just a fee figure.

• Is the engagement a fee, a guarantee, a box-office split or a combination? In which currency is it paid?
• When is payment due, what deposit applies, and what invoice entity is required?
• Which costs does the venue cover: freight, accommodation, per diems, local transport, crew overtime, marketing, translation, surtitles, insurance?
• Who is liable for damage, loss and cancellation?
• What tax or withholding applies? Confirm this with the relevant tax authority or a qualified adviser rather than assuming the venue’s usual practice is the final answer.
• Is any part of the engagement contingent on funding, ticket sales or festival confirmation?

Tax, withholding, immigration and customs rules are jurisdiction-specific. The venue may be able to explain its usual practice, but the company should confirm the requirement with the relevant authority and, where appropriate, a qualified adviser. A general touring workflow is not evidence that a particular permission has been obtained.

Language, access and audience context

For translated, multilingual or surtitled work, language is a production question. Ask which language or languages the audience will hear and read, who prepares the translation, who approves it and who operates the surtitles. If the venue usually presents work in its own language, an English-language production may need a different access plan from the one used at home. These are not marketing details to settle after the contract.

• What language or languages will the audience expect, and is surtitling standard practice at this venue?
• Who translates, who approves the text and who owns the translation rights?
• Who operates the surtitles, and what equipment and rehearsal time are provided?
• What access provision exists for step-free entry, hearing loops, audio description, relaxed performance or content warnings?
• Who adapts the marketing copy, and does the company approve translated titles and descriptions?

Space, schedule and local working conditions

Schedules should be specific enough to test. ‘We will find time’ is not a technical plan. Ask for a calendar with named calls for get-in, focus, technical rehearsal, dress rehearsal, performances and get-out. Check whether the venue’s definition of a technical rehearsal matches the company’s needs, especially where translation, surtitles or live musicians are involved.

• What are the exact access, fit-up, technical, performance and get-out dates and times?
• How many performances are contracted, and is there a dark day or travel day?
• What is the venue’s curfew, and how does it affect notes and changeovers?
• Are there local crew agreements or working-time rules that affect the schedule?
• What storage is available for set, costumes, instruments and flight cases?

Marketing, recording and documentation

Ask early how the venue will present the work and whether it intends to record it. Marketing images, translated titles, press quotes and audience copy all carry context. Recording and streaming raise separate questions about rights, consent, ownership and duration.

• What are the marketing deadlines, asset formats and approval processes?
• Who handles press, social media and print, and who credits the company?
• Will the venue photograph or film the production? Who owns the footage, and for how long may it be used?
• Are recording, streaming or archiving permitted under the company’s rights agreements?
• Who manages audience data, and how is consent handled?

A question set to send in writing

The table below is a practical structure for an initial venue questionnaire. It is deliberately about responsibilities and evidence, not about extracting a brochure.

Reading the answers and verifying changing details

A useful host venue will sometimes answer ‘we do not know yet’. The important follow-up is ‘who will know, and by what date?’ A less useful answer is ‘we will sort it’. Ask for the venue’s technical questionnaire, ground plan, inventory, sample contract and named contacts. Keep the rider response and contract together; an email saying that something is ‘possible’ may not survive the get-in.

Several details in this article change by year, country and festival. Venue deadlines, registration routes, visa requirements, tax treatment, customs procedures and access provision should be checked against official organiser pages and the relevant authorities, not inferred from a previous tour. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe page cited above is an example of an official route that states the contract-before-registration rule; it is not a substitute for the venue’s own contract. A signed contract, a point-by-point technical response and a named contact for each area are the minimum evidence that the questions have been answered.