Bringing Thai performers to Dubai: preparation, lead times, logistics

Lead time is the first resource

Count in months, not weeks. Between approving the programme, the formalities, booking the flights and preparing the costumes, each stage depends on the one before: a delay early in the chain carries all the way through.

The most commonly underestimated point is approving the programme itself. Until the number of performers, the pieces and the costumes are settled, nothing else can move — not the documents, not the tickets, not the trunks.

Finally, allow a margin of at least one full day between arrival and the event. This is not comfort: it is what absorbs a delayed flight, a lost bag or a rehearsal that takes longer than planned.

Formalities are handled early, and in writing

The conditions for entry and for performing depend on the artist’s nationality, on the emirate concerned and on the nature of the engagement. They cannot be guessed, nor inferred from a previous trip: they are confirmed in writing, by the venue or by the local organiser.

Work on the basis that a paid performance is not handled like a leisure stay, and put the question to your contact on site early: who takes care of what, which documents are expected, and by what date at the latest.

On the performers’ side, check passport validity well ahead, along with the consistency of names across the passport, the ticket and the documents sent to the venue. A spelling mismatch is settled in a few days when it is caught early, and not at all the day before.

Costumes travel badly in the hold

A stage costume cannot be replaced on arrival. It travels in the cabin whenever possible, in a rigid garment case or a trunk that preserves the shape of the structured pieces.

Headdresses are the critical point. Tall, rigid and ornamented, they do not fold and take pressure badly. They travel in a container of their own, and are best never separated from the person who wears them.

Anticipate what happens on arrival as well: steaming, airing, reshaping. A costume taken out of a trunk after a long flight is not ready to go on stage, however good the packing.

• —One rigid garment case or trunk per performer; never a soft bag for structured pieces.
• —Headdresses and ornaments in a dedicated container, carried in the cabin.
• —A spare set of whatever breaks: fastenings, pins, tights, shoes.
• —Access to a steamer and a clothes rail from the moment of arrival.

On site: rehearse before you perform

The floor, the height and the distances are never those of the rehearsal room. A sequence set for eight metres of width has to close up, a raised stage changes the entrances, a carpeted ballroom alters the slides. A rehearsal on site, however short, corrects all of that.

Jet lag and air conditioning play their part too. A body coming out of several hours in the air, then several hours of conditioned air, warms up more slowly and injures more easily. Write a genuine warm-up into the running order, not just a sound check.

Finally, dress conventions and the framing of the performance — audience, nature of the event, protocol — are set out explicitly before the booking, never by implication. That is as much for the client as for the artist, and it is put in writing.