Being an actor is great! Getting up and doing shows every day, sometimes eight times a week and sometimes less based on the schedule of the show and whether you’re a professional or at the community theatre level. But, there’s another type of show that while it gets loved, only those who have done it know and can describe what it’s like and what it does to your life while you’re doing it-tours!
While it’s great to have the opportunity to tour with a show, waking up somewhere new every few days or so, playing to lots of different people and being able to see the world through the window of a tour bus, there are a lot of adjustments that actors need to make while they are on the road.
First and foremost, get used to sleeping in strange beds! Really, you’ll bounce from hotel room to hotel room every night or every few nights and need to get used to sleeping in all shapes, sizes and strengths of beds. It’s just part of the life!
You need to learn how to live around the tour! For example, having family come see you on the road in different stops instead of being home for things like holidays (even major ones!), family gatherings, and birthdays. While that might be sad, and a bit disappointing for someone who might be a bit of a homebody, the cast you tour with become your family, and you will all be missing things at home together.
Understand you’ll have little to no privacy. While this is the norm for actors, it adds another element when you are with the same group of people twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for as many months, or even years, as you’re on tour with them.
Learn how to eat! This may seem like no big deal, but when on the road, it’s so easy to just go to the nearest fast food place between rehearsal and show time to grab something fast. Stop! Think! While this is great and sometimes even necessary every so often, you need to take care of your body the same way as you would if you weren’t going from place to place.
Know you will make memories, friends, and family to last a life time! That’s a great advantage of being on tour. You create a love and a community with one another while on the road that really stays with you forever!
To get a better insight, take a look at my friend, Jayme’s blog about being on tour right now with I Love Lucy: Live on Stage.
Have you ever been on tour? What are your experiences?