Non-Eq vs. Equity tours?

I come from an area that almost exclusively gets Non-Eq tours, so yeah, you can be excited. It's great to see theater. And sure, the quality overall is lesser and therefore the performances might be lesser, but sometimes it is all you've got.

David10086 said: "Alex Kulak2 said: "Also, many of my theater friends say they won’t see a show in our city because it’s a “ bus and truck” tour. Is that the same as saying it’s non-equity?"

Yes, a bus and truck tour is a euphemism for a Non-Eq tour. The implication being that the cast and crew travel on a bus, while the set is transferred from city to city on a truck. On high-profile Equity tours, the cast will frequently fly between cities after "sitting down" for weeks at a time, while on a "B & T" tour, they can find themselves in a different venue almost every night.

The average person attending a show won't know the difference whether the show/tour is equity or nonequity. I have found even Management who has booked the show doesn't know the difference. To be honest, I have seen alot of nonequity tours that were very good. There may be some slight differences in sets and the casts seem to be very young. However, they are still very talented. The recent nonequity tour of Rent was very good. I may be wrong but a "bus & truck stop is usually described for one nighters.

DooWahDiddy said: "David10086 said: "Alex Kulak2 said: "Also, many of my theater friends say they won’t see a show in our city because it’s a “ bus and truck” tour. Is that the same as saying it’s non-equity?"

Yes, a bus and truck tour is a euphemism for a Non-Eq tour. The implication being that the cast and crew travel on a bus, while the set is transferred from city to city on a truck. On high-profile Equity tours, the cast will frequently fly between cities after "sitting down" for weeks at a time, while on a "B & T" tour, they can find themselves in a different venue almost every night."

Again, thank you so much for sharing this information with us. I never really understood what they meant. I believe the B+T shows we get are the older shows that come in for a weekend rather the whole week. And yes, they still charge top dollar.

All good points on here.

As far as the cast goes, the biggest issue with non-Equity tours is typically age. Although this recently changed with the Open Access policy, it used to take most performers at least a couple of years to earn their Equity card. Therefore, non-Equity actors tend to be fresh out of college or still in their twenties. This is not an issue when casting a show like RENT, but for a show like Tootsie, if the guy playing Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels is 22 or 23 (which appears to be the case with this tour) when the character is supposed to be in his thirties or even forties...that can be problematic. Non-Equity tours often look and feel like college productions for this reason.

Like with any craft, people tend to get better at acting/singing/dancing the more they do it. If someone is in their twenties, they may be extremely talented, but they have less experience than their older peers. The best example I can think of was seeing Alan Cumming play the Emcee in Cabaret on Broadway in the late 90's, and then a couple years later seeing someone clearly in their early/mid twenties do it in the non-Equity tour. The young man on the tour wasn't "bad" per se, he just didn't have the level of experience someone like Alan Cumming has who can bring that extra "something" to a role as complex as the Emcee. And frankly, you shouldn't be charging people the same price to see a kid fresh out of college play the Emcee as you would Alan Cumming or any other older actor with his kind of resume. But the assumption by the producers is that audiences in small-town America won't know the difference and won't care because they don't know what they're missing. And usually, they're probably right, which is why non-Equity tours tend avoid major cities where audiences are more likely to have seen "real" Broadway tours before.

The Distinctive Baritone said: "All good points on here.

As far as the cast goes, the biggest issue with non-Equity tours is typically age. Although this recently changed with the Open Access policy, it used to take most performers at least a couple of years to earn their Equity card. Therefore, non-Equity actors tend to be fresh out of college or still in their twenties. This is not an issue when casting a show like RENT, but for a show like Tootsie, if the guy playing Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels is 22 or 23(which appears to be the case with this tour) when the character is supposed to be in his thirties or even forties...that can be problematic. Non-Equity tours often look and feel like college productions for this reason.

Like with any craft, people tend to get better at acting/singing/dancing the more they do it. If someone is in their twenties, they may be extremely talented, but they have less experience than their older peers. The best example I can think of was seeing Alan Cumming play the Emcee in Cabareton Broadway in the late 90's, and then a couple years later seeing someone clearly in their early/mid twenties do it in the non-Equity tour. The young man on the tour wasn't "bad" per se, he just didn't have the level of experience someone like Alan Cumming has who can bring that extra "something" to a role as complex as the Emcee.And frankly, you shouldn't be charging people the same price to see a kid fresh out of college play the Emcee as you would Alan Cumming or any other older actor with his kind of resume. But the assumption by the producers is that audiences in small-town America won't know the difference and won't care because they don't know what they're missing. And usually, they're probably right, which is why non-Equity tours tend avoid major cities where audiences are more likely to have seen "real" Broadway tours before."

Yes, the Tootsie casting is very concerning as is the amount I was charged for the ticket even with a subscription discount.