Arts

For all Theatre IV’s growth, the show-in-a-van has remained the backbone of the company, embodying that mission. These days, multiple touring casts bring live theater not only to schools in Virginia but to students throughout the country. During this school year, Theatre IV will put on more than 1,000 performances in 34 states and the District of Columbia. All original productions, Theatre IV’s traveling repertoire includes familiar tales like Lyle, Lyle Crocodile and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, historical and literary narratives such as Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad and Home Sweet Homer: Legends of Ancient Greece, and several holiday-season specials. These days the shows are carefully scripted to support Standards of Learning (SOL) objectives, and a staff of seven is needed just to manage, schedule and coordinate the tours.

As always, the travel companies are adaptable. They need nothing more than a bit of space, some electricity and an audience in order to put on a professional show that neatly fits within a typical class period. “For many of our audiences, it is their first time seeing live theater,” says Jon Perez, who toured nationally in the fall with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, entertaining schoolchildren from Massachusetts to Wisconsin in just over six weeks. “The kids are always enthusiastic.”

Perez is typical of most of the tour actors, “young people usually right out of college who are looking for a paying acting job,” according to Whiteway. With Theatre IV, they get a salary and a contract for each show and often rotate through several different productions during the school year. Many of the actors return from year to year as well; Perez, who is in his third season with Theatre IV, has appeared in the casts of Jack and the Beanstalk, The Ugly Duckling, Rumpelstiltskin, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and A Christmas Carol.

Given the packed schedule of the traveling shows, youthful energy certainly would be an asset if not a requirement for cast members. Before they hit the road, they have 12 days not only to learn all their lines, all the blocking, all the songs and choreography for the musicals, all the costume changes and prop placement, but also to master the art of rapidly assembling and breaking down the sets and sound equipment and packing everything into the van. As they tour, the actors—as few as three and as many as six on a show—will collectively serve as cast, crew, business manager, driver, navigator, prop and wardrobe coordinator, sound tech and whatever else might be required for twice-daily, five-day-a-week stagings in venues that can range from a grade school cafeteria to a fully equipped commercial theater. “In a given day, we could perform for 200 children or 2,000,” says Ellie Atwood, who was also with the Sleepy Hollow cast in the fall.