Rider (theater)

Last updated December 27, 2024

In theater, dance, and live musical performances, a rider is a set of requests or demands that a performer sets as criteria for performance, which are typically fulfilled by the hosting venue. Types of riders include hospitality and technical .^[1]

Hospitality rider

The hospitality rider is a list of requests for the comfort of the artist on the day of the show. Common requests are:^{[ citation needed ]}

Specific foods and beverages (typically water, but sometimes alcoholic beverages)
Fresh towels
Transportation and hotels
A runner (a person or persons hired to act as a personal shopper/driver for band and crew needs)
A number of complimentary ("comp") tickets or guest lists (free tickets for friends and family)
Security personnel and/or locking rooms
Access to a private bathroom and/or shower
Ice

Technical rider

A document which specifies the types of equipment to be used, the staff to be provided, and other arrangements directly relating to the performance.

For live music performances, technical riders usually include:

An input list, which will highlight every single stage connection that the engineer is going to be making, giving them an idea of how many channels are going to be required for the show.^[2]
A stage plot, a rough block diagram that shows where each band member will be on the stage.^[2]

Typical requests are:

Piano

Orchestras will often specify a make of piano (e.g., Steinway) and a standard of tuning for the instrument, should their program require one.

Sound

Sound reinforcement system, generally described in terms such as 'a professional quality 3 or 4 way active system', frequency response (e.g., 45 Hz-20 kHz) and power (either in wattage or dB SPL) are also common^{[ citation needed ]}.
Mixing consoles —it is normal for engineers to specify a list of preferred consoles and also minimum requirements (such as number of channels) from other consoles as a backup. Requests for recording equipment or feeds for recording are sometimes included here.
Outboard gear —the number and quality of gates, compressors and effects units required.
Channel/input list—a list of the instruments being used, including preferred microphones and inserts.
Monitor requirements—often included alongside the channel list, detailing the number of monitor wedges and mixes required, a section similar to the front of house requirements detailing the need for monitor desk, graphic equalizers and other outboard equipment. If a monitor engineer is to be provided by the house it is generally requested here.
If the artist brings large amounts of equipment (such as a PA system) then power requirements are likely to be stated here.

Lighting

Depending on the size of the production this can vary between 'provide a front wash and x kW of back lighting' to specific lighting plots of equipment
The number and type of follow spotlights to be used
Number of lighting technicians
Power requirements
Truss weightings (when the lighting system is provided by the touring production.)

Backline

Some bands will not transport the full backline due to the expense of transport (generally if performing only a few times in each country/area) and may have the venue provide some to all of it. Larger items like amps, cabs and drums are more likely to be requested than guitars which many musicians treat more personally.
Risers—a riser is a raised area of stage, the size and positioning of risers for musicians (such as drummers, orchestra wind sections) are specified here.

Other

Crew—productions typically specify the number of local crew the venue should provide as well as any technical staff.

Notable rider requests

Van Halen requested in the technical rider that a bowl of M&M's be provided in their dressing room with the brown ones removed. Failure to do so would not only mean that the band would not perform, but the venue would still have to pay the full fee.^[3] The objective of this clause was not to fulfill any excesses on the part of the band, but was a method to determine how much attention to detail the crew at a local venue paid to the requests specified in the rider. Should the bowl be absent, or if brown M&M's were present, it would give band members reason to suspect other legitimate technical and safety requirements in the rider had also been performed poorly or had been entirely overlooked.^[4] David Lee Roth stated in his autobiography that this request was made as a result of faulty workmanship at a venue on an earlier tour which nearly cost the life of a member of Van Halen's road crew. He added that at Colorado State University-Pueblo, where he found brown M&M's, the management's failure to read weight requirements in the rider resulted in the band's equipment sinking through the floor and causing over $80,000 of damage. The underlying issue was that Van Halen was the first rock band to attempt to bring first-tier showmanship to smaller venues in third-tier markets. Those venues had never seen anything like the sheer amount and complexity of the equipment required for a typical Van Halen performance. The band needed to be able to quickly verify those venues' strict compliance with their technical requirements to be certain they could safely perform.^[5]
Johnny Cash required an American flag on stage.^[6]
Paul McCartney requested a sweep of the venue by bomb-sniffing dogs before the show.^[7]
Elton John required that his dressing room be kept at "60 °F (16 °C) in summer and 70 °F (21 °C) in winter."^[8]
Deadmau5 requested an inflatable pool toy at all of his performances for use during the show.^[9]
Laibach requested for a 1980s tour that the venue provide a deer head with antlers to use as a stage prop.
Lady Gaga requested for her performance at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend that her dressing room be covered in Union Flag bunting, Pimm's and fish and chips with battered Mars bars to be served and, most unusually, her staff to speak in Cockney accents for the entire event.^[10]
Michael Bublé, who has been an avid ice hockey fan since childhood, requires "one local team hockey puck" in his dressing room as part of his rider contract to concert promoters in every city.^[11]
Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose gained attention by the extensive and sometimes bizarre requirements in his rider document, which include a cubic melon, seven types of cheese, six lamps, a rug and two bear shaped pots of honey. Until 2010, he also demanded his dressing room to be all black and decorated with red and white roses.^[12]
The Wonder Years singer Dan "Soupy" Campbell stated in a video interview with Rock Sound that they had put Hi-C Ecto Cooler on their rider as a joke, but once they got to an unnamed college in the UK, a woman on the staff apologized to the members of the band for not being able to locate the drink, due to it being discontinued, and so found the list of ingredients, compared them to modern juice drinks and found a near equivalent, before the band revealed to her that it was indeed a joke.^[13]

Related Research Articles

Stage management is a broad field that is generally defined as the practice of organization and coordination of an event or theatrical production. Stage management may encompass a variety of activities including overseeing of the rehearsal process and coordinating communications among various production teams and personnel. Stage management requires a general understanding of all aspects of production and provides complete organization to ensure the process runs smoothly and efficiently.

Stagecraft is a technical aspect of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes constructing and rigging scenery; hanging and focusing of lighting; design and procurement of costumes; make-up; stage management; audio engineering; and procurement of props. Stagecraft is distinct from the wider umbrella term of scenography. Considered a technical rather than an artistic field, it is primarily the practical implementation of a scenic designer's artistic vision.

An electrical lighting technician, or simply lighting technician, are involved with rigging stage and location sets and controlling artificial, electric lights for art and entertainment venues or in video, television, or film production.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is an umbrella term for a number of standards organizations which develop protocols for mobile telecommunications. Its best known work is the development and maintenance of:

A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. This person usually has the highest level of skill within a specific technical field.

In theatre, the running crew are members of the technical crew who supervise and operate ("run") the various technical aspects of the production during a performance. While the "technical crew" includes all persons other than performers involved with the production, such as those who build and take down the sets and place the lighting, the term "running crew" is generally limited to those who work during an actual performance.

The set decorator is the head of the set decoration department in the film and television industry, responsible for selecting, designing, fabricating, and sourcing the "set dressing" elements of each set in a Feature Film, Television, or New Media episode or commercial, in support of the story and characters of the script. The set decorator is responsible for each décor element inside the sets, from practical lighting, technology, art, furniture, drapery, floor coverings, books, collectables, to exterior furnishings such as satellite dishes, Old West water troughs, streetlamps, traffic lights, garden furniture and sculptures.

A stagehand is a person who works backstage or behind the scenes in theatres, film, television, or location performance. Their work include setting up the scenery, lights, sound, props, rigging, and special effects for a production.

The Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, often referred to simply as the Meyerhoff, is a music venue that opened September 16, 1982, at 1212 Cathedral Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The main auditorium has a seating capacity of 2,443 and is home to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. It is named for Joseph Meyerhoff, a Ukrainian-Jewish Baltimore businessman, philanthropist, and arts patron who served as president of the Baltimore Symphony from 1965 to 1983.

A tour manager is the person who helps to organize the administration for a schedule of appearances of a musical group (band) or artist at a sequence of venues. In general, road managers handle tour details for their specific band, while tour managers are used to oversee the logistics, finances and communications for tours as a holistic entity. So, on any given tour, there may be road managers taking care of each band as well as a Tour Manager responsible for caring for the entire tour. The Tour Manager may also be the headlining band's road manager.

A fly crew is a group of people who are in charge of maintaining and operating the fly system during theatre production. A member of a fly crew is also called a flyman. Despite the name, there is no gender restriction in order to work within a fly crew.

A theatrical technician, also known as a theatrical tech, theatre technician, or theatre tech is a person who operates technical equipment and systems in the performing arts and entertainment industry. In contrast to performers, this broad category contains all "unseen" theatrical personnel who practice stagecraft and are responsible for the logistic and production-related aspects of a performance including designers, operators, and supervisors.

In theatre, an electrician is a person who works with the various aspects of lighting. Some of the positions among electricians include the lighting supervisor, master electrician, deck electrician, light board operator, moving light programmer, followspot operator, as well as simply electricians. This group is generally known as the "Electrics" Department or LX Department.

The control booth, control room, lighting box, technical booth, tech booth, or just booth used by television, film or theatrical technicians is the area designated for the operation of technical equipment, lighting controls and sound board, while the control booth in industrial operations is used to house employees and sensitive equipment in all types of locations such as process control pulpits, loading racks, dredge cabs, loading docks and more. Often one or two followspots may be located in the booth as well. In a theater, it is generally an enclosed space with a large sliding window with a good view of the stage centered in the back of the house. It may be on the ground floor or at the balcony level. In a film or television production, it might be in a trailer or other space near the studio.

The 1984 Tour was a concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen in support of their sixth studio album 1984.

The Rose Center Theater is a performing arts theater within the Westminster Rose Center located in Westminster, California. It is part of the larger Rose Center complex that includes multiple ballrooms and banquet facilities. It is the home of the Vietnamese American Philharmonic Orchestra, TNT Productions, and the Westminster Chorale. It has also served as the host to many touring Broadway productions, dance companies, opera troupes, and was the temporary home of the Academy for the Performing Arts during the renovations of Huntington Beach High School.

The World Invasion Tour was a concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen in support of their third studio album, Women and Children First.

There are different types of theatres, but they all have three major parts in common. Theatres are divided into two main sections, the house and the stage; there is also a backstage area in many theatres. The house is the seating area for guests watching a performance and the stage is where the actual performance is given. The backstage area is usually restricted to people who are producing or in the performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Backline (stage)</span> Audio equipment at the back of a stage

The term backline is used in popular music and sound reinforcement system contexts to refer to electronic audio amplification equipment and speaker enclosures that are placed behind the band or the rhythm section on stage, including amplifiers and speaker cabinets for guitars, bass guitars and keyboards. Such equipment is often rented or leased by the band or their management, or provided by the venue. Speakers placed at the front of the stage facing the performers are also known as monitor speakers or "foldback". The main speakers facing the audience are sometimes referred to as "front of house speakers".

A touring theatre company travels to different locations to perform plays and musicals.

References

↑ Rosenfeld, Jennifer (3 January 2017). "What's a Technical Rider (And Do You Need One)?". iCadenza. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
1 2 "Tech Rider: How to write a good tech rider for live shows". Groover Blog. 2021-07-02. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
↑ "RIGHTING THE WRONGS: Van Halen and M&Ms". 27 February 2008.
↑ "Craziest music rider". Telegraph. 17 January 2017.
↑ "Brown out". snopes.com. 19 January 2001.
↑ Time Waster. "TSG Backstage: Johnny Cash". Thesmokinggun.com. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
↑ Time Waster. "TSG Backstage: Paul McCartney". Thesmokinggun.com. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
↑ Time Waster. "TSG Backstage: Elton John". Thesmokinggun.com. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
↑ deadmau5 (2010-08-31). "Deadmau5". Choleric-mau5.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2010-12-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑ "Lady Gaga says staff must have English accents". CTVNews. 2011-05-10. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
↑ "Michael Bublé". 12 June 2014.
↑ Musicrooms News Desk (2012-05-21). "Axl Rose asks for a square melon in his dressing room". Musicrooms.net. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
↑ "Dan 'Soupy' Campbell, The Wonder Years - #7of30". Rock Sound YouTube channel. 2014-01-09. Archived from the original on 2021-12-17. Retrieved 2014-04-23.

External links

A list of original concert riders at The Smoking Gun website

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Rosenfeld, Jennifer (3 January 2017). "What's a Technical Rider (And Do You Need One)?". iCadenza. Retrieved 20 March 2019.

[Groover_Blog-2] 1 2 "Tech Rider: How to write a good tech rider for live shows". Groover Blog. 2021-07-02. Retrieved 2023-03-09.

[3] "RIGHTING THE WRONGS: Van Halen and M&Ms". 27 February 2008.

[4] "Craziest music rider". Telegraph. 17 January 2017.

[brownout-5] "Brown out". snopes.com. 19 January 2001.

[6] Time Waster. "TSG Backstage: Johnny Cash". Thesmokinggun.com. Retrieved 2010-12-09.

[7] Time Waster. "TSG Backstage: Paul McCartney". Thesmokinggun.com. Retrieved 2010-12-09.

[8] Time Waster. "TSG Backstage: Elton John". Thesmokinggun.com. Retrieved 2010-12-09.

[9] u5 (2010-08-31). "Deadmau5". Choleric-mau5.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2010-12-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[CTVNews_2011-10] "Lady Gaga says staff must have English accents". CTVNews. 2011-05-10. Retrieved 2022-11-19.

[11] "Michael Bublé". 12 June 2014.

[12] Musicrooms News Desk (2012-05-21). "Axl Rose asks for a square melon in his dressing room". Musicrooms.net. Retrieved 2012-05-24.

[13] "Dan 'Soupy' Campbell, The Wonder Years - #7of30". Rock Sound YouTube channel. 2014-01-09. Archived from the original on 2021-12-17. Retrieved 2014-04-23.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]