Text 1: Get-in day, by Mina Patel

An original contemporary blog.

Our theatre company is performing in twelve towns this month. The six actors travel in a minibus, while I drive the van containing the set, costumes, lamps and sound equipment. We have designed everything to fit through an ordinary double door, but unloading still takes nearly an hour.

Each venue is different. This afternoon's stage was so shallow that we had to remove a section of scenery and change two entrances. I marked the new positions with tape while the actors rehearsed the altered movements. Then we tested every lamp, checked the speakers and walked the emergency exits with the theatre manager.

At half past six, the cast ate from containers in the dressing room while I repaired a torn sleeve. The performance began at half past seven. By ten o'clock the audience had gone, but our work was only half finished: every chair, cable and costume had to be counted and packed in the correct order for tomorrow.

We left at eleven thirty and reached the next town after midnight. At eight the next morning, we were back in the minibus. Touring means performing for two hours and spending most of the day making those two hours possible.

Text 2: On the road with the Royal Provincial Players, by A Correspondent

An original newspaper feature written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

In this feature, published in 1888, a journalist accompanies a theatre company travelling between provincial towns.

The company, numbering fourteen, arrived by the morning train with costumes, painted cloths and several wooden chests. A local carter was hired to take these articles to the assembly room, while the actors walked from the station carrying their personal bags.

The room possessed no proper stage. The company's carpenter laid boards across wooden supports and hung a painted forest behind them. Meanwhile, two younger actors distributed handbills in the market and announced the evening's entertainment outside the coaching inn.

There was scarcely time to rehearse. The manager shortened the play because the last train departed at eleven, and one actress spent the afternoon sewing a missing button onto the king's coat. At seven, the room was full, although rain could be heard striking the roof more loudly than some of the actors.

When the curtain fell, the scenery was rolled, the boards were lifted and the chests were taken back to the station. The players received their wages from that evening's takings. After a poor audience there might be very little to divide, but on this occasion they left the town in excellent spirits.

Using information from both texts, explain briefly what touring with a theatre company involved.

You should make it clear which text you are referring to.