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In September 2020, companies were asked to reflect on some of the overarching questions regarding touring post-Brexit. In this section, we summarise some of their key observations.
The companies had different approaches to plan for how Brexit will affect their business model in the next year or two:
<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/50e26dc6-7e39-4b78-8aef-e215cfb7d077/Attention.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/50e26dc6-7e39-4b78-8aef-e215cfb7d077/Attention.png" width="40px" /> Stopgap are working on a number of different financial models, depending on the Brexit outcomes. They are also navigating the additional COVID-19 planning and health considerations of their artists which adds to the uncertainty of when EU touring will be possible. One of the worst-case scenarios is not touring for two years.
Thingumajig will focus on UK based touring for the time being and explore ways to diversify the company income strands including teaching and making. Developing these strands of work makes the company more resilient while the post-Brexit touring landscape becomes clearer.
Since Joli Vyann had to cancel all their 2020 shows because of COVID-19, they are hopeful they can reschedule most of these gigs in 2021, which will give them more time to assess the situation.
For Motionhouse, it is still too early to tell and like many other companies, will wait and see what the exact impact on EU touring will be.
Entr’act know there is interest for HURyCAN’s tuS extremoS amongst UK programmers, but are suggesting bookings in 2022/23 rather than 2021 to allow more time to build a more substantial UK tour rather than traveling in for only a few performances each year.
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<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/dc998077-7cf6-4b2c-bec4-4048995a93e7/Attention.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/dc998077-7cf6-4b2c-bec4-4048995a93e7/Attention.png" width="40px" /> Joli Vyann are considering working with a second cast of artists who would be based in Europe. While Olivia and Jan would focus on the UK touring, the EU cast could tour Europe more easily.
On the topic of working with a second cast, Entr’act highlighted the importance of managing expectations and relationships with festivals/bookers. In some cases, there is a long-standing personal relationship between artists and festivals and sending new artists to perform without prior discussion is unimaginable. If it is new work, with new artists involved from the start, with the original artists in more of a directorial role, these challenges may be reduced.
Motionhouse are currently ruling out the idea of having a second cast. As their show is large scale, a second cast would increase their cost drastically. But they are looking at scaling down their shows in the future to make them more easily tourarable.
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