Show dictionary · Production Management
Advance
Also: advancing · pre-production
The advance is the structured exchange of information between a production and each venue before the show arrives: technical requirements, rigging plots, power needs, schedules, labor calls, catering, parking, and every logistical detail that makes load-in day predictable.
In practice
Advancing a show means working through each date weeks ahead: sending the rider and plots, collecting venue specs, reconciling what the tour carries against what the house provides, and agreeing on times and crew counts. A well-advanced show has no surprises at load-in; a badly advanced one discovers the dock height and the missing 208 V service on the morning of the gig.
On tours, a production manager or tour manager owns the advance. In corporate production, the same function happens through site visits and pre-production calls with the venue and AV partner.
As a noun it names the process ("the advance for Denver is done"); as a verb it names the work ("who is advancing the Chicago date?").
How you’ll hear it
"Per the advance, the venue provides four motors downstage and we tie in at 400 A three-phase, stage right."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.