Interview with Alan Whelan:
Q: This is your second time round working on Gaelforce Dance. Is it very different this time or not?
Alan: Yes, the market has changed, and my role is different as well. First time round I was just Head of Sound, in charge of getting the rig up every day. I had two people working with me, a monitor engineer and another technician, and I mixed the show. I still do that; but I'm also Production Manager now, which basically means I have to run the whole show.
We bring a lighting director with us, and he will programme it and do the lighting end of it, but all the logistics of putting the whole thing together is my job as well. So I have a full-time job whereas they have just an on-tour job. I do all the pre-production beforehand, all the organisation, the freight, the visas, the cast information, passport scans, everything that goes with the tour; so I'm working constantly.
Q: And the tour is still being organised as you're working? Not all the dates or venues are set in stone yet?
Alan: Well, normally at this stage it would be set in stone because we're heading out in two and half weeks, but because it's selling so well, and keeps selling out, they keep adding shows! We have a break of about two weeks between Poland and Taiwan, which is partly because the Worlds [World Irish Dancing Championships] are on and about ten of the dancers are entered; and they were really worried when they were doing the auditions, so we said it would be fine and they would be able to do that.
When we first went to Poland a few years ago we were the first [Irish dance] show to go in there, and the shows just keep selling out; so I think we're into the first week in April now and we won't do any more. Then in Taiwan, the first gig is on the 21st [April] and the last is on the 30th, but they won't extend that.
Originally we were going to Korea, but the Korean promoter moved the date – and we had actually put Taiwan in to suit them, because they asked us, so as to share flights and so on, same part of the world. We have been there so many times and know the company really well so they're happy to put us in every six or nine months.
So Korea didn't work out, but as Taiwan was already sold we said we'd do it anyway.
Q: Do the promoters really dictate a large part of what you do with a show?
Alan: Yes. When we're booking it, we try to work out some sort of provisional timescale – for instance, when we started this the Polish dates came in first, and the Baltic States. One promoter is doing all of that, so we tried to add to it and extend it, with places like Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, the Czech Republic – because they're all nearby countries, and realistically you could get to nearby cities overnight.
If we can come within 300 to 350 kilometres a night between gigs, then we can do them, because we can travel overnight and be there next morning to do the work.
Q: And you use coach [bus] travel, rather than having to fly everywhere?
Alan: Oh yes. We couldn't do the shows the next night if we had to fly, because we can't fly the equipment with us.
When the Polish tour started to be extended, we decided to leave the other countries for later. We will also be going to Germany, hopefully in the autumn. And we've an option on eight weeks in the UK.
Q: And Ireland?
Alan: Ireland is an odd one. We want to do it, and we were going to do a week in June; but we decided not to because Celtic Tiger is going, and that's such a big gig people are going to travel from all over to that, so there was no point in going at the same time. But we will do a week in Dublin and a week in Belfast later on.
We did the Waterfront [in Belfast] last time, when we did the DVD, and it was gorgeous, and we had six sell-outs there. We've always wanted to do Dublin as it's the hometown, and we never have, so hopefully we will, maybe October-November, before Germany, which is supposed to happen from November to January.
And in America, they want January to March 2007.
Q: So you're already booking well into next year!
Alan: Yes; you really have to, because the economy is changing so much. Where before you would have organised a tour in maybe four months, to sell the tickets, now they want six to twelve months to make sure they all sell out and make sure it's worth doing, because people don't have so much money over there any more.
Q: When you take a tour round different countries, and you have a number of nationalities in the troupe, as you do now, does that cause problems?
Alan: Yes, sometimes, but the world is kind of becoming one place at this stage!
For instance, in Europe five years ago, with Ella [Haluk], who is Polish, we'd have to get visas for most countries. But now that Poland has joined the European Union, she doesn't need a visa; and the same with the Hungarians we have in the troupe. The only person we need a visa for this time is the Taiwanese girl. I thought the Israeli guy would need a visa everywhere, but no, that's fine.
Having said that, when we go to America, everyone needs visas! That's the most nerve-wracking time in my year, with all the forms, because if everything isn't right you have to go back, and doing that with 30 people is just a nightmare.
With the other places it's great; they just send an invitation out, and you just visit the consulate and usually you get the visas the same day. It's the same with Taiwan. The whole of Asia, we didn't need visas. I think in most countries, if you're working and you're not going to be more than 30 days, you don't need to worry; but obviously we have to check it every time we do a tour. And the promoters are great; they know all about that, and they guide us.
Q: Tell me about the schedule, when you're on tour.
Alan: Well, the start of a tour always takes at least two days to set up. You have one equipment supplier for the whole tour, and they will bring the equipment to the first venue. The stage will be set up, the lights, the sound, the rigging, the floor, everything goes up.
The initial days, you're teaching the crew how to put the show up. They come on tour with us. Sometimes you only have maybe five people who are heads of departments and the rest are locals: a light person, sound person, stage set person, maybe a dance floor person and a wardrobe person. But in the case of Poland, they send out ten technicians and they all go everywhere, so we will pick certain leaders and give them jobs and have them for the whole tour. That means we don't have to watch them every day. But in the initial set-up they need two or three days so they can learn the parts they need to know.
We have to programme the show into the light board. The sound I do all the time; it's not a problem, it's always manual anyway, but the lights are all pre-programmed.
Basically, how lights work is: there is what's called a 'cue', which is a scene, and there is one particular 'look'; and there might be ten or fifteen looks in each piece of the show, with lights moving or going from one point to another, or changing colours, depending on what's happening on stage. That all has to be pre-programmed; and then the light operator switches between cues and operates the show.
In our show, I think at one stage we had something like 650 cues, and it had to be automated because the light operator physically couldn't do it! The way we do that is the backing tracks run off a time code. Everything on stage is live – all the singing, dancing, all the musicians, that's all live – but we also use music in the background because we don't carry an orchestra with us, and all this music is orchestrated. So the time code for the music is used to run the lights, with manual cues on top of that.
Generally, it takes two days to set up. We start at 8 am and have a meeting on stage to discuss what we want to do, because every venue is different. We carry a certain size of floor, light rig, etc., but if you're in a venue that's smaller, for instance, we have to rethink it, reduce it.
So every day we have that meeting, then between 9 am and 1 pm the whole system goes up on stage. Between 1 pm and 4 pm is usually what's called 'focus'. With lights, although they are pre-programmed, there are certain points on the dance floor that those lights must hit – say, where the singer will stand to sing. They’re ‘intelligent’ lights, which means that if the singer moves from one point to another the light will follow. So all those cues have to be programmed. Although they have been set before, a new venue could mean altering it left or right, up or down. That's 'focus', and has to be done for the entire show every day, and takes about 3 or 4 hours.
Meanwhile, I'll be checking all the sound, backing tracks, microphones – all our dancing is live, so we use about 20 radio systems on the dancers and musicians, which can be troublesome sometimes.
We do get the odd lunch break when we have time as well!
About 4 pm the cast arrive, between 4 and 5.30 I do a sound check with the band and the singer, and the dancers have their dinner (we have catering). When we finish, the dancers come on stage – from about 5.30 to 7, depending on what time the show is at. They rehearse for at least an hour and a half, warm up, stretch; and while they're on stage the crew have their dinner. The dancers will stay on the stage until the doors open for the audience, then they go for make-up, costumes and so on.
The show is about two hours long, with a twenty minute intermission. And after the show, each night half the cast goes out into the venue to sign autographs, before they change out of costume.
The costumes are collected and separated into washbags ready for the next day; sometimes dry-cleaning goes out, sometimes not. In certain countries it actually gets collected by the dry-cleaning people after the show, done and delivered to us the next day! But in most cases Ella, or whoever is doing wardrobe, will have to do all the washing and ironing in the venue.
Then the show comes down: everything goes back on the truck, and we go back out. We work with sleeper buses or nightliners, which can have up to eighteen beds on them, bunk beds. If you get a single-decker, they usually have 12 beds, and they have a front lounge and a back lounge – one with a TV and fridge, the other a little kitchenette and another TV and stereo. They're very comfortable.
So we pack the truck, do an 'idiot check' and see that nothing is left behind; and have a shower at the venue, because we have no hotel rooms except on the days off. Then we get on the bus and have a beer and a chat, maybe watch a DVD – try to relax, because it's a long day, maybe 16 hours.
Then you go to bed, and wake up at the next venue, and it starts all over again.
Q: And the cast spend the night in a hotel and follow you?
Alan: Yes, the cast will stay in a hotel, usually in the same city as they had the show, so they have time to go and have a drink and see the place and relax, and they'll get into a bus the next morning. But sometimes you have a very long drive – especially in the US, or in Canada or Australia, the drives are really long.
In Europe we try to keep to a 300 to 350-kilometre drive, which is four to five hours. But if it's more than that, the cast might do maybe three hours after the show, check into a hotel about mid-way, and then do another three hours in the morning. But it's still quite civilised for them!
The one who has the longest day is Ella. She multi-tasks: in addition to being musical director and violinist, she also looks after the wardrobe with an assistant! She travels with the crew as well, so she'll be on the same bus, which is obviously handy for both of us, that we can be together – that's one thing, that we can be together in the show, which is great. We try to work it that way all the time.
So she does wardrobe, and works all day, going in at the same time [as me]; then she has to take the sound check, do any musical direction she needs to do, then she has to do the show, go out and sign autographs, and then she has to go back in and pack up all the wardrobe! So it's a very long day. It's the same as us, but she enjoys it, it's good fun – and it keeps you fit!
Q: And it sure beats working in an office!
Alan: It does! I could never do that!
Author: Ann Margaret Keller
Editing: Louise Owen
