When is the equipment for touring productions transported?

A touring kabuki production is, in effect, a theatre folded up and carried. It is not only the backdrops that travel: costumes, wigs, hand properties such as swords and pipes, the cue books recording music and effects, even the wigmaster's toolboxes — everything needed to raise the play goes onto the trucks. The theatres at the far end differ in the width of the proscenium, in whether they have lifts and traps, in whether the hanamichi is a permanent fixture. "Building the same set the same way" simply never happens.

The working rhythm is to load in and build the stage by the day before, so that on opening day only the curtain remains. Loading in means erecting the scenery, hanging and focusing the lights, setting the sound, and then the actors walking the actual stage to confirm their positions. The placement of the hanamichi alone changes the stride of a roppō, so this confirmation cannot be skipped.

On tours that move daily the schedule tightens further. Strike the stage after the evening performance, load the trucks, travel overnight, build again in the next town by morning — a punishing cycle, and not an unusual one. Behind a single act as it appears from the seats lies this repetition of carrying and assembling.