THE ROAD

Moss Hart, in Act I (still the greatest theatrical autobiography ever written), tells of visiting the offices of theatre producers in the 1920s and finding actors sitting there, waiting for possible employment.  Theatre producers, in those days, produced perhaps four plays a year, with companies of plays produced in previous seasons still on tour.  If an actor in a touring company became ill or otherwise left the company, he or she had to be immediately replaced.  If one of the actors sitting near the entrance was the right "type" for the role in question, that actor would be immediately signed to a contract and sent out to join the company.  This was the way it was for many years.

Beginning in the early 1920s, the teen-aged Moss Hart heard actors sitting there complain that there was not as much work as there had been in previous years.  Terms like "a bad season" were uttered rather frequently.

The following year (theatrical year:  Labor Day to Memorial Day), Hart heard the same complaints and that it was "worse than last year."  Then, the next year, it seemed only to get worse.

Hart, in retrospect, knew what the situation was.  "The road was dying."  Silent motion pictures were already weakening the one and two-night stands that many touring companies had been playing for decades.  Audiences for the live theatre were already growing smaller.

There were other factors, too--including World War I.  But that's another blogging.
#americantheatrenetwork

PEAK YEARS

What years were the peak years of employment in the American theatre?  The answer may not surprise you.  Then again, it might.  Stay in touch with the American Theatre Network.
#americantheatrenetwork

BEST WISHES

Wishing all lovers of the theatre--Broadway, Off-Broadway, London West End, Tokyo, and all points north, south, east, and west, a great summer ahead.
#americantheatrenetwork