Our national tour of Romeo & Juliet, generously supported by Katie Page, CEO of Harvey Norman, has reached 26 venues all over Australia, culminating in its final stop at the Sydney Opera House this month.
Hello, I’m Slade, and I’m the Production Manager here at Bell Shakespeare. The national tour is one of the mainstage productions that I look after as part of my role.
The national tour here at Bell is one of Australia’s biggest touring shows, visiting quite the range of venues and cities across the country. This year, I was very lucky to hit the road with Romeo & Juliet, not only as the Production Manager but also as the Touring Head Mechanist. It’s been such a rewarding experience, though I’ll admit it’s also been very challenging at times.
As part of my role as Production Manager and Head MX, it’s my responsibility to email and liaise with all the venues, draw up the stage plans, and figure out how the set fits into each of the spaces. I prepare the scheduling, book the crew, unpack the truck, help drive the cars with cast and crew from point A to point B, and most importantly, make sure that the ideas and designs created by the creative team are maintained as consistently as possible across every venue. Our goal is to deliver the same high standard and quality of show all across Australia.
As you may know, this year with Romeo & Juliet we’ve toured to 26 venues, most of which we like to call 'one-hit wonders'. We call them that because both myself and the Head of Lighting (Sam Wylie) arrive at 7:30am to unload the truck, build the set and lighting, and are then joined by our stage management team at 10am to look after costuming, props, audio, etc. Everything is prepared for the cast to be on stage for a technical rehearsal at 3pm, followed by a performance that same evening. We then pack everything down that night, aiming to close the truck doors by around 12:30 or 1am.
I think what’s really important to note is how different some of these venues can be. For example, the width of our stage can range from 14 metres wide all the way down to just 7.5 metres at our smallest venue in Hobart. Some venues have lighting bars that can only support a few lights due to weight restrictions. The black masking we use to hide backstage activity sometimes has to be tied off in awkward, hard-to-reach positions, or at some venues, it can’t even be moved. Some stages, like in Ballarat, are on a rake, which means we have to sandbag everything to stop it from rolling into the front row! Sometimes we arrive with the truck at loading docks that are too high, too short, small, big and everything in between. But the one constant throughout this tour has been the incredible reactions and appreciation we receive from the local crews we work with, and the feedback from audiences who are amazed by the scale of the show we bring to their towns.
It truly has been a wild ride, but one I would do again in a heartbeat. Getting to travel all around Australia to perform, build, and create is so special, and then on top of that, getting to explore as we go! Taking the time to discover waterfalls and rivers, little roadside fruit stalls, climbing mountains, and diving on the Great Barrier Reef. It’s all been incredible. Finding cute cafés and restaurants, tasting wines at the wineries and beers at the breweries... what more could one ask for? The perfect work-life balance.
It's been such a wonderful time away, and I have learned so much personally, but also in how I'm going to be able to support future crew members who take on these roles on the road, while I’m back at home leading the next few national tours.
It can get very hard and isolating at times, being away from family and friends for so long, so it was really important for me to find some down time. I decided to really lean into my art by drawing postcards for my partner in each city or town we had a show in, sending them home with little updates to keep him connected to where I was and what I was doing. They will be a lovely memory and memento of how truly amazing this experience has been.
