Wearing multiple hats as creator, producer, performer and tour manager, Alyce presented Tinderella On Tour in eight regional communities over four weekends in late 2024.
Drawing from her experience in Arts Management and her professional network of five Regional Arts Development Organisations (RADOs), she developed a touring schedule to Tamworth, Armidale, Coonamble, Griffith, Warren, Young, Braidwood and Deniliquin, finding local hidden venue ‘gems’ and delivering comedy-based workshops to young creatives along the way.
Since then, the tour has continued to Canberra with more regional shows on the horizon.
Based in Albury with experience working in regional arts development, Alyce knows instinctively how to engage regional audiences with her brand of satirical cabaret, grounded in a distinctly regional Australian ‘oversharing’ style of storytelling.
“All aspects of the arts is about communicating ideas, it’s just about how you deliver it. My focus is comedy and making people laugh.”
‘Tinderella’ began as an honourary title Alyce received one night at a reading rehearsal in Albury.
“I was throwing some ideas around during a break, regaling everyone about the unorthodox and creative uses of the dating app Tinder,” she recounts.
“That evening I was anointed ‘Tinderella’ and from there the whole thing just kind of blew up. Once I had the name, my concept of the unique uses of Tinder started to build in this beautiful, classical Disney world, with a fairy godmother that presents these ideological ideas around happily ever after. The concept expanded to also include a satirical seminar, because I love a PowerPoint presentation, with a very serious executive-type character who presents her research in a Ted-Talk-sales-pitch style.”
As a regionally-based performer, Alyce is passionate about sharing regional stories and for regional audiences to see work from non-metro-based companies.
Her company Theatre On Toast began life in 2007 touring across Victoria and regional NSW with Theatre & Education productions including the environmental awareness incursion to primary schools – Billie’s Backyard. She also toured a show that blended comedy and educational information for young adults, with costumes that feature in Tinderella. Touring these productions implanted a ‘pack-light, perform light’ philosophy, where everything needed to fit into the boot of her sedan.
“Billie’s Backyard was all about environment awareness, so we had to practice what we preached. I couldn’t rock up to a primary school with a large diesel-guzzling truck full of props and energy-consuming lighting equipment,” she explained. “So, I learned the art of stripping everything back. It made it easy to adapt to a non-theatrical venue like a school classroom.”
Alyce understood the challenge of remounting the show and tweaking the tech to be portable was a daunting one. “When I created Tinderella, one of my ambitions was to create a tourable product.”
“The show was produced and premiered in 2022 at The Cube – a well-resourced theatre in Albury Wodonga. So, the original production took advantage of all the technical capabilities of the venue. When it came to touring, I knew I had to strip it back.”
From experience and her knowledge of the limitations of venues, she understood the production needed to be flexible in everything from set design, costumes and technical requirements to work anywhere, whether in a theatre or the back of a café.
Tinderella was able to be presented in non-traditional ‘country hall-type’ venues, so ticket prices were kept low.
"Knowing people are willing to take a punt and buy a ticket, that’s a really nice feeling and a real privilege."
She drew on each RADO’s expertise to select venues and assist with local promotion for each show, targeting audiences over 18 looking for a fun night out. The venues varied in each location – from country theatres, a basement bar, a cinema, local clubs, function spaces to a converted chapel.
“One of the most successful shows was in Warren, at The Crooked Arrow, which is a café- conversion from a former country church, part of the community-run WOW cultural centre. While we were setting up during the day, the place was buzzing with people including the local knitting circle, all curious about what we were doing. So, we told everyone about it and we had heaps of last minute ticket sales. It ended up being one of the best audiences who were primed and laughing from the first joke.”
Alyce’s tour was the result of many years of relationship building with RADOs and then many months of planning and arranging logistics with each location.
There were also some outside-the-box marketing tactics to spread the word. One of Alyce’s unique uses of Tinder was generating ticket sales via the app. In Tamworth, this resulted in her being blocked by the platform, but she had success in Braidwood with a man driving from Batemans Bay and buying a ticket to the show. “He told me he enjoyed it, although he’s since deleted me,” Alyce admits (with a wry smile).
After wrapping up the Create NSW-supported leg of the tour, more shows have been scheduled in 2025, including a Valentine’s Day show at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Shepparton Festival, Albury’s Hothouse Theatre and a South Coast NSW tour.
“The Valentine’s Day show in Canberra was a sellout. As an independent artist, you’re so used to relying on your friends and family to come along and fill up the audience. But in Canberra, I only knew one person in the audience. Knowing people are willing to take a punt and buy a ticket, that’s a really nice feeling and a real privilege”.
Find out more at Theatre On Toast
The Regional Arts Touring fund is open for individuals and organisations to tour works of any artform throughout regional NSW.
