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One of the more innovative parts of the American National Ballet will be the Traveling Theater. Derived in part from the portable stage configuration of the Shakespeare in the Parks program, the Traveling Theater can be set up in any of the train terminals with large enough buildings, which are mostly in large city centers. The stage itself is a series of floating platforms that attach solidly to each other and can be configured to fit a wide variety of spaces.
In towns where the train terminal is not large enough to allow for both stage and audience, the portable stage can be transported to any gymnasium, meeting hall, conference center, or open air park that is near enough the train station. This makes professional ballet performances available for the first time to many communities that have never before had this cultural and educational possibility.
In addition to the dance floor, the Traveling Theater includes a series of road boxes on retractable wheel bases. Each box contains a telescoping tower that can be extended as tall as forty feet. Once extended, lights can be mounted on these, as well as a masking drape for the front so that a proscenium stage setting can be imitated. The towers can also work as pairs and hold piping that reaches across the entire stage area to hang interior electrics for onstage lighting, and a rear curtain or cyclorama.
Aluminum risers are stored under the train bed and are able to open and create audience seating on risers, much like a high school gymnasium. Additional orchestra seats are carried on the tours for the front of the Traveling Theater setup. At maximum expansion, the Traveling Theater can seat 600, with a danceable stage area of sixty feet by forty feet.