There are certain groups that tour in multiple places at once, by way of two or more troupes or subgroups that tour simultaneously. Usually both troupes will use the same tour name: this poses a challenge when importing the tours as Series, primarily in the realm of naming. In the case of this upcoming Mannheim Steamroller tour, the tour name is known and the troupe names are known; how should the Series name be presented?
I’ve listed a few possibilities, but I’m always open to more suggestions:
“2016 Christmas Tour (Green)” and “2016 Christmas Tour (Red)” (with parenthesized text in the title)
“2016 Christmas Tour: Green” and “2016 Christmas Tour: Red”
“2016 Christmas Tour” with “green” and “red” in the respective disambiguation boxes
Theoretically yes, but often times there are differences. For example, Trans-Siberian Orchestra (the group whom I first observed exhibiting this touring pattern) have separate tourbooks for each sub-tour.
I thought that too, but at least in the case of TSO they often have shows in two different cities on opposite sides of the country on the same day. It seems disingenuous to lump all of the shows together, considering it’s essentially 2 separate groups touring at the same time.
Hmm, if, say, Madonna goes on tour, the session musicians, dancers (and of course also lighting engineers, sound technicians, etc.) could switch from one city to the next, maybe even alternating. Because the figurehead „Madonna“ is played by the same woman every night, we blindly accept it as a coherent tour.
I’d argue that it is similar here, but the figurehead is not a lead performer present on the stage every time – but the absent director, choreographer, or whatever team that is responsible for the concept of „Mannheim Steamroller“.
I’m not sure how Mannheim Steamroller’s touring works, but I know TSO has a pool of members who form each regional troupe, and those core members stay the same throughout the whole tour (when I saw them last, they had some local orchestra musicians on stage with them; presumably they did that in every city).
Regardless, TSO don’t explicitly delineate which troupe will be performing in which city on their website, which would somewhat make a case for having just one Series. Mannheim Steamroller has delineated which troupe will be visiting which cities, as can be seen in the link I posted above. This would necessitate separate Series, would it not? (Of course I’d link the two together as subseries of a master entity.)