Tour Well consists of practical, evidence-based tips addressing common mental health and wellbeing challenges that you might encounter while on tour, so you can better prepare, take care of yourself, and help support your mates on tour.
Going on tour is great fun – exploring towns and cities, delivering shows to new audiences, meeting people and making lifelong friends. Living out of a suitcase, being away from your family and friends, and spending hours travelling can take their toll on your mental health.
Tour Well has been designed to help you thrive on tour. Whether you’re away for a week, a month or a year, we hope you find Tour Well helpful.
There’s nothing wrong with being passionate and committed, but the risk is that ‘the tour’ starts to become ‘WHO you are’ not ‘WHAT you’re doing’.
Tour Well includes:
- How to discover and practice your values
- Common challenges to be mindful of
- A packing list
- How to look after each other on tour
- Team building activities and suggestions
- Strategies for effective communication
- Tips for readjusting to home life
Contributors
Tour Well is a resource of the Arts Wellbeing Collective, an Arts Centre Melbourne initiative. The content was created, reviewed and informed by passionate touring professionals from the Arts Wellbeing Collective Advisory Group, Arts on Tour, Entertainment Assist, ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, and Regional Arts Victoria, as well as more than 100 company and crew who shared their challenges and ideas. Key contributors include:
Charlotte is currently Company Manager at Bell Shakespeare. Previous roles include Stage Manager with Sydney Theatre Company, Force Majeure, and Griffin Theatre Company. Charlotte holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Technical Production (Queensland University of Technology) and a Bachelor of Arts, Psychology (The University of Queensland).
Sarah graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and worked as a performer before becoming Principal Clinical Psychologist at Green Room Psychology. Sarah remains active with peak industry bodies, including the MEAA, and balances her time working in acute community mental health settings with providing consultation to creative individuals and organisations.
Matt is a musical theatre performer who has toured extensively for nearly 20 years. Matt made his professional debut in the original Australian production of Mamma Mia! and most recently appeared in Les Miserables and the 60th Anniversary Production of My Fair Lady. Matt is also an associate producer of Out From Under, a concert series aimed at raising mental health awareness in the entertainment industry.
Jess is currently the Company Manager at The Australian Ballet, which tours throughout Australia’s regional towns, capital cities and internationally over 28 weeks of the year. After graduating from NIDA – Bachelor of Dramatic Arts, Production, Jess has travelled with touring parties of 20 through to 130 experiencing the ups and downs of life on the road with companies such as Bell Shakespeare, Poetry in Action and many commercial musicals.
Jacqui has been a practicing psychologist for sixteen years, specialising in athletic transitions, performing arts, and critical incident management. Jacqui consults to a wide variety of high performance organisations, including the National Institute of Circus Arts, Melbourne Storm NRL team, and Vicentre Swimming Club.
Jane is a NIDA graduate in Directing, and currently works as a clinical psychologist who consults to companies such as Bell Shakespeare and CDP Theatre Producers. Jane is also a large event specialist choreographer, and has worked on Pan American, Commonwealth and Olympic Games Ceremonies.
Sarah-Jane spent most of her early 20s touring in both large and small-scale musicals throughout Australia and Asia as a professional dancer and musical theatre performer. Sarah-Jane now works as a nutritionist and naturopath, and specialises in exploring the connections between stress responses and nutrition.
Melissa is a clinical psychologist who specialises in the psychological management of adults with sleep difficulties. Melissa worked at the University of Oxford as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry. She has worked in private practice since 2004, consulting through Sleep Matters Perth.
Alison originally trained as a theatre director at the Flinders University Drama Centre and worked in the industry for companies such as State Theatre Company South Australia and Vitalstatistix, as well as in the USA and UK. Alison completed her combined PhD/Master of Clinical Psychology in 2017, and now consults with arts and cultural organisations across Australia.
