Work abroad

I’m embarking on my first attempt at producing overseas, and the challenges it presents provides some food for thought.

The magic duo that I work with, Morgan & West, are appearing at the Adelaide fringe this month. Since Australia is a pretty hefty trek, we decided that it was worth programming a couple of dates around the fringe, just to see how they go down. The theory was sound.

The practice, it turned out, was a little more complicated. Producing in a country I’d never been to was less simple than you might suppose. In many ways it was like starting afresh.

The first dilemma was the venues. How could I establish which ones were appropriate, well run and had the right sort of audience? In London, even with venues I’ve never been to, I’ll have an idea of their work, their reputation and their programming. If I don’t, I’ll have heard of them and be able to find out more.

Added to this I didn’t know the cities. Where were the arts centres? Were these venues in locations to which people were likely to come? Who here will like magic?

It was time to don my deerstalker and do some detective work with everyone’s favourite sidekick Google. An afternoon spent trawling the internet and identifying venues with similar acts, gave me a shortlist. I shot out a few emails and waited. And waited. And continued waiting until I woke up the next morning.

Even then, I was still guessing on factors such as pricing, marketing and timing. I had no idea about local standard practices.This was the second issue. Like most freelancers, my working hours are erratic at the best of times, despite this I’m not usually working at the times that Australian venues are. I had to get into the habit of waking up to responses and allowing each of query to take a full 24 hours to get asked, answered and responded to. My other option, if I didn’t want to wait, was to adapt my sleep patterns for speedy responses.

Luckily, Australians are some of the nicest people in the world, and the support I’ve been offered from people I barely know has been overwhelming. Not only the venues, but friends of friends and even people who have just seen the show have all been brilliant in offering local knowledge.

In the end, as always, I had to trust my instincts. Producing anywhere involves risks and a certain amount of trusting fortune. Find those places and people you feel most comfortable with,  and take the plunge. Look at similar shows and pitch at a price and time which seem fair and reasonable. Then hope audiences agree with you.

We have yet to find out how it will work out, but we’ve made it to Australia and we’re here for the next six weeks. I’ll try to keep you posted on the lessons in international producing that I’m bound to learn.