Both the Walnut and Bristol are ahead of the curve on what could become a trend for professional regional theater companies looking to expand revenue and recognition. Touring has long been the model for Broadway shows, which send out national casts, and for larger dance companies and musical ensembles that could not exist if they depended on an audience in only one city. Now regional theaters are exploring it.
After the Walnut celebrated 200 years in 2009, its profile was on the radar of arts presenters, and producing artistic director Bernard Havard met with Marc Baylin, head of an Baylin Artists Management in Doylestown, which represents many touring enterprises in music and dance, including Philadanco.
They decided that The Glass Menagerie - which the Walnut would present on its intimate third-floor stage to an 80-seat audience - would recoup its preproduction costs in Philadelphia and could then go on the road. They also received backing from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, supported by foundations and some state money to give funding to venues seeking to book tours.
Baylin scheduled six weeks of touring, much of it one- or two-night stands, that took Menagerie to small theaters run by colleges and arts centers. Nashville was the largest city it visited. The tour cost the Walnut a little more than $30,000, says its managing director, Mark D. Sylvester, and the theater hopes to add $50,000 to its cash stream when all accounts are settled. For next season, Baylin is scheduling a Walnut tour of David Auburn's Tony-winning Proof.
"All the stars aligned" for Menagerie, says Sylvester. "If we got snow and had to cancel, we wouldn't have gotten paid. There's an amount of calculated risk."
