Tim Dolan is hard at work developing his latest virtual tour. As owner of Broadway Up Close Walking Tours, Dolan works constantly, and heβs adapted his business in the past year in ways he never imagined. Heβs a performer. Heβs an entrepreneur. But above all else, Dolan is a storyteller.
Over the past several months, Dolan has been hosting a for °λ΅ΊΜεΣύ under the title βAt This Theatre.β� Heβs taken participants along on several of the tours he originally created to lead in-person. Recently, he created two tours specifically for the virtual space. Currently, Dolan is at work on his new tour of Broadway's oldest theatreβthe Hudson Theatreβon May 11. .
βMy life is narrative focused. If Iβm telling those stories eight times a week in a theatre, or if Iβm telling these stories through a tour,β� Dolan explains. The process of creating a new tour can take weeks, with much of Dolanβs focus on accuracy around his research and hustling to uncover untold stories.
βWhen I start to build any tour, itβs a messy Word document of 8,000 ideas. Itβs clips from articles, books, oral histories, anything I can get my hands on. After I write all of this, I sculpt and shape it into a tour with places we will βstop,β� just like a tour you would do in person. When you are leading a group of people from place to place, you need to think of the distance from one location to the next. But when you do a virtual tour, you can go anywhere. Itβs limitless!β�
Some deep dives into history may not lead to a single moment in one tour, but could resurface again down the line: βI could spend hours of research learning about two orphans from the Titanic and what they did when they came to Manhattan, but if that story doesnβt connect to the overall narrative, that research goes back in the vault.β�
As much as he loves building out the work virtually, Dolan is quick to assert that interacting with audiences in person is what he prefers, βYouβre sitting in a theatre, watching it live. Then they film a show, and youβre watching a version of that. We live in this weird hybrid moment. Iβm constantly reading the audience when weβre in person; virtually, I canβt do that as well. Reactions can change the show entirely. If thereβs a comedy and there are no laughs, it turns into a tragedy instantly.β�
What drives Dolan is his passion for an industry currently in the midst of a long intermission, βMy love of history comes from my love of Broadway. Broadway feels like its own little thing, but so many people come into this world. Everyone will be in New York once in their life, and Broadway will be a part of that. And I get to run a small business at the crossroads of the world.β�
Dolan canβt wait to welcome tourists again to his own personal heaven. Until then, whether you experience Dolan giving a tour online or standing live in Times Square, his spotlight on the industry shines bright to light the way to better days ahead.
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