sfxdude Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 I'm currently organising a trip for our backstage society to go to see We Will Rock You at the west end. I've also been trying to organise a backstage tour as part of the trip, but apparently they only do it as part of the VIP package or if you hire out a room, which we obviously don't want to do. I'm just wondering if anyone has any contacts within the theatre, of if anyone knows who to speak to? Many thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beingalive27 Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Did anyone find out anything about this? Would be amazing to see backstage at the Dominion and meet the We Will Rock You cast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth A Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 You could just call the stage door and ask for the "Head of Stage"?! Hes a nice guy. ! I promise. ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LXSX Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Hi Guys, Pretty new to this forum and the first thing I see is quite relevant, I used to work for Rock you and It is a challenge to get things like backstage tours etc.. and no that it gets pretty busy, however like Gareth said its definitely worth dropping a call to the stage door and seeing what the score is... I do know that one of the guys on the stage door is called Steve, leave this one with me and Ill see what I can do, no promises though ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erroneousblack Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 You could just call the stage door and ask for the "Head of Stage"?! Hes a nice guy. ! I promise. ! But willing to give up his time and go against company policy to give a bunch of strangers a freebie? The OP has been told what the costs are for a backstage tour, if they want it pay for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brainwave-generator Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 You could just call the stage door and ask for the "Head of Stage"?! Hes a nice guy. ! I promise. ! But willing to give up his time and go against company policy to give a bunch of strangers a freebie? The OP has been told what the costs are for a backstage tour, if they want it pay for it! I don't know about "Against Company Policy". They may say they only do it for VIP Packages to prevent them getting 65 phone calls a day from every amdram group and Queen fanatic in the country asking to go 'backstage'. (I'm sure we all know why I put backstage in inverted commas). But that doesn't mean it's directly in breach of company policy for the Stage Manager to offer a privately arranged guided tour outside of those VIP tours. It just means it's not something offered as standard. As ever, it's best to ring stage door, but not within an hour of a performance, as things will be hectic enough as it is. One good tactic is to try and get the SMs e-mail off the stage door. Doing so means you can ask the person who authorises it, but by e-mailing not phoning, you can guarantee you won't be disturbing them if they're busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Part of my job when I do panto is to organise all the photo ops, competition winners, and that's pretty horrible. The venues all have different policies on tours, and frankly it depends if they are prop or anti. It's easy to find excuses - and legitimate ones at that. However - I actually like giving tours to people who are interested - age isn't important. The trouble is sometimes having a load of strangers backstage is not a good move. Maybe there are planned changes, or other activities going on that the public are going to be additional risk, or maybe there are special effects that mustn't be seen, or even confidentially agreements that have to be monitored. If you can get to the right person, have a chat on the phone so they can get a feel for what you're after then it can always be arranged - but don't expect stage door to be pro this kind of thing - in fact at many venues stage door are a filter - putting people off nicely. They're so sorry they can't put your through, or give you anything other than a general info@ email. That's part of their job - getting rid of strange people. You have to be crafty to be viewed as worth it. I wanted to find out how the Miss Saigon helicopter worked when it first came out, and joined the backstage tour - that didn't go anywhere interesting, and then accidentally got lost. I found out the secret, but got caught and thrown out. Sometimes you have to make your own chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumpersq Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Hello All, I am the Head Of Stage for the Dominion and as Gareth said " a nice guy" I promise. Just to clear up backstage tours. We Will Rock You is our resident show and tours can VERY rarely be arranged though them by talking to the company manager. This is highly unlikely as the show is one of the busiest ive ever worked with/on. Tours can also be a part of a package that the events team organise for corperate clients as part of their day in the theatre. They are mostly however organsied and given by me after shows. We do not like to take large groups of people backstage for obvious reason but we also have no fixed policy on tours in the building either. Its pretty much down to if its convinent for me or not. Most tours are conducted after the show before the building locks up, this way there is the minimum disruption to WWRY. If they are day tours they are always before WWRY arrive in the building. We have a strict no photography on stage policy and tour consists of a walk and talk on stage, substage and in the wardrobe areas. Hope this all helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erroneousblack Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 I actually have had a backstage tour of WWRY, about 7 years ago. I was working as a TM for Clear Channel and we brought our tech staff up to London to see a West End show from front and back. I got a major telling off for refusing to watch the show, I'd been to the opening night, and no way was I going to waste another second of my life on that utter crock of S***! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LXbydesign Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Im a bit of a Queen fan - not OTT though and went to see it a few years back. It certainly ticks all the boxes for 'spectacular'. My highlight though was counting how many times the screens got 'stuck' - which then of course held the show up for a few moments on intervals. Just one of those things with automation now and again . . . . The only bit that wound me up though was that the guy started to sing 'I wanna break free' - but then his mic pack failed.... the band / click carried on.... still no vocal.... I felt like shouting out 'someone give him a hand-held for christsake!!' The poor guy just ended up standing there like a nit while the track continued to the end. I can empathise that the show must be 'radio-mic city', but surely there must be a couple of standby hand-helds in the wings ready just in case of a pack or packs failure...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigclive Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 My own thoughts on backstage tours are that they are a useful extra source of income for the production company. That's the official tours that is.... Then there's just taking a buddy behind the scenes to show them what you're working on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeStoddart Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Im a bit of a Queen fan - not OTT though and went to see it a few years back. It certainly ticks all the boxes for 'spectacular'.<snip>... the guy started to sing ... - but then his mic pack failed.... the band / click carried on.... still no vocal.... I felt like shouting out 'someone give him a hand-held for christsake!!' The poor guy just ended up standing there like a nit while the track continued to the end. I can empathise that the show must be 'radio-mic city', but surely there must be a couple of standby hand-helds in the wings ready just in case of a pack or packs failure...... I'm also a Queen fan (and a Ben Elton fan as it happens) I've seen WWRY a couple of times and in one performance a few years back there was a radio mic fail and VERY quickly there was a DSM type running across the stage delivering a hand held and we missed very little of the vocal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumpersq Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 We never charge for tours be they offical or privately organised. My own thoughts on backstage tours are that they are a useful extra source of income for the production company. That's the official tours that is.... Then there's just taking a buddy behind the scenes to show them what you're working on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erroneousblack Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 We never charge for tours be they offical or privately organised. What, you don't recharge for the hours worked? Why not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth A Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 You can always tell a CCE technical manager :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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