The New Theatre had become the company’s Cardiff base in 1954, but without a permanent home WNO had to tour to survive, and that meant not just touring in Wales (on what were described in Arts Council documents as ‘missionary tours’) but over the border into England. As the number of weeks on the road increased, organising such tours – with an amateur chorus whose members did not know if they could get time off work – became an administrative nightmare. When the company played Llandudno for the first time (following a circus, which meant that everyone had to scrub out backstage to remove the smell of the animals) or travelled by special train to appear in Bournemouth, most of the chorus had to take their summer holidays to be there.