This photo is of a traveling theater company (taken by Washington photographer Charles Luder) which performed “The Mikado” in Washington on December 12th and 29th, 1911, in Washington and December 28th, 1911, in Petersburg. “The Mikado” was a comic opera written by the famous Victorian collaboration of Gilbert and Sullivan, originally performed in 1885. The Washington performance would likely have taken place at the Washington Opera House, a large building at the current location of the Indiana Theater. In the early 20th century, the opera house was in an upstairs room above a bowling alley and a newsstand owned by Karl Gordon. Between them was the stairwell leading up to the opera house.
