Road House Meet and Greet Issues

[robmonty]

I am hoping to get some input from Roadhouses that may be experiencing this issue as well.

We are seeing more and more touring acts come through with VIP Meet & Greets, which is another way for the touring artist to make some cash. The issue has been fitting an on stage meet and greet or performance portion of the M&G into the days time schedule.
In the building I am in, using one of the meeting rooms in the front of the theatre is an extra cost. Bringing a crowd of people into the audience chamber, or worse, backstage, creates a bunch of other issues with security and staffing, especially in a union house.
In general I find that the band and promoters are usually looking for a no cost way to handle this additional bit of work added to the day.
Do any other roadhouses have a policy or effective method of dealing with VIP M&G?

Thanks

 

[TimMc]

Hi Rob-

The best way is to be up front with the promoter - "additional use of otherwise 'dark' facility will incur additional costs for labor and staffing, and/or rental fees if outside the rented performance space."

Security is the promoter's issue in conjuction with the venue.

If the venue is the promoter you have other, bigger fish to fry. What's the competitive situation for your venue? Other spaces with similar capabiility and capacity?

 

[DeenT]

We utilize a small space we have within our box office next to the managers' offices. We have an usher or two bring the VIP guests into the box office at the front, they line up down the hallway, and the meet and greet happens at the back of the offices in a space big enough for our theatre banner and pictures to be taken. Our green room/artist dressing room has an extra door that opens up into the office which makes this easy for them as well.

 

[Ancient Engineer]

I think many promoters feel that smaller venues, when rented, include the whole space.

The venue's owner/manager/sales dept. need to specify up front what portions are available to the promoters act and the time ranges associated.

If they don't... hang on, it's going to be a bumpy night.

Someday, remind me to speak of the Great Cow Palace Load-In Story sometimes called The Day The Camel <poo> Hit The Promoter...

 

[robmonty]

My venue is a 2700 soft seater, and we experience " its our building because we rented it" from the promoter. Quite often now, we find that there is up to 100 people in the VIP party, all of whom paid lots extra for a package that was put together by someone way ahead of any tour advancing. So we have the band, (or worse, a VIP packaging company) expecting one thing, the promoter willing to pay for nothing.

I think Ancient Engineer is correct, with the best method is to spell out in the rental contract what rooms can be used for what purposes and are accessible to the public. Unfortunately, i don't think this information makes it to the tour until way too late, when unreal expectations lead to day of show debates with lots of finger pointing.

 

[TimMc]

My venue is a 2700 soft seater, and we experience " its our building because we rented it" from the promoter. Quite often now, we find that there is up to 100 people in the VIP party, all of whom paid lots extra for a package that was put together by someone way ahead of any tour advancing. So we have the band, (or worse, a VIP packaging company) expecting one thing, the promoter willing to pay for nothing.

I think Ancient Engineer is correct, with the best method is to spell out in the rental contract what rooms can be used for what purposes and are accessible to the public. Unfortunately, i don't think this information makes it to the tour until way too late, when unreal expectations lead to day of show debates with lots of finger pointing.

The event manager and venue tech director should meet the tour manager upon arrival and give that person a copy of the contract and all exhibits and attachments thereto. There are lots of details that never get passed along to the tour - SPL limits, loading dock access hours, etc. Sure, it was in the contract or deal memo but once the agent/manager got the client to buy the show that agent/manager becomes incapable of communicating further.

As an IATSE steward I've invoiced "the show" for labor not paid for by the promoter - setting up special meet and greet spaces is one of them. Likewise, promoters don't pay for afternoon rehearsals to work in new cast members or for work calls to maintain the integrity of the production.

 

[Chase P.]

Someday, remind me to speak of the Great Cow Palace Load-In Story sometimes called The Day The Camel <poo> Hit The Promoter...

Tell me, please! SF guy here, would love to hear about it!

 

[josh88]

I've got a 900 seat venue. We've done meet and greets everywhere (though we try to always avoid onstage) Most commonly they happen in one of our two lobbies or our green room. The layout of our space makes it pretty easy to take people down the elevator or stairs to the greenroom level and hold people there until artists come out of their dressing rooms after the show. If it's going to be a small group, our historic lobby with the entrance to the theatre can comfortably fit a hundred people. Between the smaller lobby and the stairs to the green room we have our grand lobby which could be described as a banquet space as far as openness. We can get most of our full capacity in there if the tables are cleared.

We had a show through a few months ago that had a bar onstage and the preshow involved the cast inviting everybody on stage and pouring beers for people while they mingled in "the pub" and talked with everybody until showtime.

 

[TimMc]

We had a show through a few months ago that had a bar onstage and the preshow involved the cast inviting everybody on stage and pouring beers for people while they mingled in "the pub" and talked with everybody until showtime.

I wonder if the audience would have come up for a shave and meat pie if the show were Sweeney Todd?

 

[SteveB]

Prior to closure for renovation, our 2400 seat hall had many variety type acts playing, with the in-house promoter doing on stage catered receptions, usually behind a black traveler that separated the playing area from upstage.

It was a royal PITA as it became almost every event.

Thus the “donors” could do a meet and greet with the star. I cannot remember a star ever declining.

We had no choice in this and as we had no alternative space, did it backstage, pretty lighting and all, which meant I was LD’ing essentially 2 shows, DS and US. In some respects part of the excitement for the donors was it was on stage, as opposed to a boring upper lobby. Some shows where big enough we had no room so off to the upper lobby it went.

Hated it onstage.

 

[josh88]

I wonder if the audience would have come up for a shave and meat pie if the show were Sweeney Todd?

As an aside, it was Choir of Man. A bunch of lads in a pub singing popular songs in an acoustic style similar to Once. They are on their first US tour, have one on a cruise ship and a tour in Australia. Great group of people, fast load in and out and a show that was a lot more fun than we expected. If you're looking for a one night act to fill a gap in a season.

I'm sure the meat pies would have been a hit with the audience as well but we couldn't find a free barber in time.