With rehearsals swiftly approaching for this season and people coming from far and wide, have you ever wondered what it must be like to be an individual who travels for work from town to town, from city to city, from country to country and occasionally continents? What kind of person does that for a living? They choose to base themselves in one place and hope to get to see it occasionally throughout the year, because they work somewhere else? To leave all that’s familiar, voluntarily, and head off into the unknown to earn some money? To living out of a suitcase in a faceless hotel or apartment block. Having to re-adjust to time zones, climates, languages, cultures, food and customs? Christmas in New York or Summer in Iceland. Yes?

Well, welcome to the world of the vast majority of the people who work in Wexford Festival Opera!  From not just the artists, but the conductors, stage technicians, choreographers, designers, wardrobe assistants, prop makers, repetiteurs, the list goes on…this is their life. I may come across as being slightly negative but this is the reality of it. If you want to work in this business of show then not always getting to your own home in the evening, is something you can accept and thrive upon, accept and reject or muddle on through with no major concerns. It suits some people, some not.
So to add a little positivity, what other kind of job could you do where the rewards are inconceivable? Where the prospect of achieving the highest plaudits from your peers may lie around the bend? On approximately a 6 week turn around you arrive in whole new surroundings, possibly an unknown language, blazing sun, searing rain or like Wexford somewhere in between. (Regularly in one day!)  You meet a whole new set of people, some become friends for life others just great collaborators. You get to work on the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of your work. I mean, some jobs you’ll enjoy, some less and some, well, don’t even go there! Every new destination is your playground. It’s ever changing and don’t get me wrong, it is possibly the easiest way to visit other countries too. You’re constantly learning something new. It’s exciting, engaging, spontaneous, now.
It’s unique, odd, challenging, frustrating, hilarious, sad, rewarding, maddening. It’s “Excuse me Madam, where is the nearest ATM machine”- in Japanese…It’s “I realise the flight is closing, sir, but your colleagues in Baggage Reclaim sent my suitcases to Guatemala and not Gatwick and that’s why I’m late for my connection”, it’s the hilarity of a similar phrase in one language meaning something quite different in another…it’s your accelerator cable snapping on the way to a stage and orchestra rehearsal, your phone will die if you try to make a call to the stage manager and you’re the principal soprano! It’s those special nights out where the most amazing stories of peoples’ experiences are shared in Simon’s Place. It’s the time you got sick and your colleague surprises you by getting all your groceries. It’s the time the audience rose to their feet and the applause rang out forever.
It’s missing home too.
Mam, Dad, siblings, partners, children, your favourite niece…
It’s Skype.
It’s webcams at midnight in the green room on free WiFi, to kiss your wife goodnight.
It’s Facebook.
It’s a photo of your 30th Birthday with all your colleagues, sent home to show your loved ones who couldn’t be with you.
Thank God for laptops. I’ve never seen so many in one room on a tea break from rehearsals, than I have in recent years. I once asked someone “why did you need to spend so much on a high spec laptop”? His reply was simply: “because I’m away so much, it’s my brother. My family”.

It’s uncertainty.
Am I going to be able to do my best on this job? Did I leave the iron switched on…in Barcelona? Is my house alarm going off? Did that cheque clear, my mortgage is due? Is my dog ok in the kennels? Will a get along with everyone? Is there internet in my apartment because I have to send an e-mail as soon as I get there or I lose my next engagement?  Where am I going to eat, I have so many allergies am I going to find somewhere? Will I pay a fortune if I get ill? Is my next contract just around the corner?

You know, it’s our life. It’s everything above and more.
It may only be one thing to you. But collectively, all of those ‘one thing’s’ become the life of a touring theatre professional. The reason we keep doing it. The reason we put up with the good times and the bad times. The reason’s that come together that make us love it. The news that there’s 90% bookings at the WFO box office this year so far, in particular, that make it all worthwhile and go the extra (air) mile. That is that.

It’s…just what we do.

Justin