Tour, Touring companys

   A touring company on the road between 1880 and 1930 might perform a single play or several plays in repertory in opera houses with 2,000-seat capacities or in smalltown theatres seating 100 or so. Touring was arduous but highly lucrative and did not decline until World War I, when sound motion pictures, radio, and automobiles took audiences away from live performances other than vaudeville, which continued touring until the 1930s. Tours of recent Broadway hits and out-of-town tryouts of new works continue today, but are comparatively rare compared to the golden age of "the road" when live theatre was a constant in American cities and towns.

   See also Travel.