Equitable Touring: Performance, Technology, and Sustainable Futures
About this Event
What are we going to do about touring?
It's a question the sector has been circling for years, but right now it demands an answer.
Touring performance is at a crossroads. The infrastructure that once moved work across the UK and Europe is under extraordinary pressure: rising costs, funding austerity, shrinking venue networks, and a widening gap between what is commercially viable and what is artistically and socially necessary. The problems are well-known. This conference is about what comes next.
Hosted by the Centre for Performance, Technology, and Equity (PTEQ) at Royal Central, this two-day event will explore what a reimagined future for touring might look like, and how we might start building it together.
Day One features a programme of panels, roundtables, research presentations, and practice sharings, structured around three interconnected questions: How do we make touring financially and ecologically sustainable? How do we sustain transnational exchange whilst developing appproaches on a local level? And what does responsible, equitable touring look like in practice?
Highlights include a presentation by Arts Council England sharing insights from their major new research on the State of Touring Across the Performing Arts Ecology, alongside contributions from Independent Theatre Council, Local Theatre Touring Alliance, Fevered Sleep, Variable Matter, Theatre Green Book, Battersea Arts Centre, LIFT, Project 1961, and the Association of British Theatre Technicians, among others.
Day Two takes a different form: a Devoted and Disgruntled Satellite (D&D) event facilitated by Improbable. Led by the question “what are we going to do about touring?”, we will gather for a day of non-hierarchical, participant-led conversations inspired by day before.
The conversations will be facilitated by Improbable, a theatre company who specialise in using a process called Open Space Technology (OST). OST is a simple way for groups of people to think, work and take action together around a shared concern. There is no set agenda and you decide what to discuss. You are free to move between conversations in a single session depending on what interests you. You can read more about Improbable and Open Space here.
Together, the two days are designed to generate new ideas, connections, and momentum for the future of touring in the UK and beyond.
Day One
🕑: 09:45 AM - 10:15 AM
Arrival and refreshments
🕑: 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Conference welcome
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:40 AM
Presentation by Arts Council England
Host: Paul Kaynes
Info: Arts Council England presents new research on the current state of touring across the performing arts, offering findings from their major 2025/26 research project into outdoor, rural, community, and small-scale touring. What does the data tell us, and what does it mean for how we think about the future?
🕑: 11:40 AM - 11:50 AM
Break
Info: A short break before the programme splits into parallel tracks.
🕑: 11:50 AM - 01:00 PM
Panel: Learning From the Past for Future Innovation in Touring
Host: Stephen Greer
Info: Drawing on historical and archival perspectives, this panel examines what earlier models of touring can teach us about how to build something better today.
🕑: 11:50 AM - 01:00 PM
Panel: Beyond Market-Based Approaches to Touring
Host: Ben Francombe
Info: As market logic tightens its grip on what gets toured and where, this panel asks what alternative economic and ethical frameworks might look like. What does touring look like when it's organised around need, community, and artistic risk rather than commercial viability?
🕑: 11:50 AM - 01:00 PM
Roundtable: Touring Processes (over Products)
Host: Fevered Sleep
Info: What happens when we shift the focus of touring from the show to the way it's made and shared? This roundtable brings together artists whose practice centres relational, process-led, and participatory approaches to explore what a process-oriented model of touring might offer, and what it demands.
🕑: 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Lunch
🕑: 01:25 PM - 01:55 PM
Practice Sharing: Project 1961
Info: Working simultaneously on stage and in game, Sound and Fury bridges physical and digital spaces. Macbeth and his wife Lady M are gamers manipulating their avatars like puppets, with in-game action projected immersively onto screens to create a layered experience that challenges traditional ideas of theatrical presence. At its heart lies a question central to both gaming and Macbeth: who is really in control?
🕑: 02:00 PM - 03:15 PM
Roundtable: Venues and Networks
Host: Kathrine Sandys
Info: A practical, sector-facing roundtable examining local networks and venues developing innovative new touring models.
🕑: 02:00 PM - 03:15 PM
Panel: Rerouting — Equity and Infrastructure for Touring Performance
Host: Ian Garrett
Info: Chaired by Kate Elswit, this panel develops a single urgent proposition: that the future of touring will not be found by doing the same thing more efficiently, but by building new kinds of infrastructure that place equity and ecology at the centre, not the margin.
🕑: 02:00 PM - 03:15 PM
Roundtable: Innovations in Touring Across Artforms
Host: Carolin Forsythe
Info: Touring is in crisis, but for many companies are it still forms the backbone of their work. Charlotte Jones, CEO of ITC curates a discussion with four leaders from the independent sector exploring the challenges facing touring and how companies are navigating these to create sustainable, innovative models for touring: balancing financial viability with ethical work practices and care of the artist. Why is touring so important? What does the future look like for touring and what does the sector need to sustain it?
🕑: 03:15 PM - 03:30 PM
Break
🕑: 03:35 PM - 04:05 PM
Presentation: The Development of the Anti-Racism Touring Rider
Info: An account of the development, piloting, and reception of the Anti-Racism Touring Rider, a practical tool designed to embed anti-racist commitments into touring contracts and relationships. What has it achieved, where has it met resistance, and where does it go next?
🕑: 04:10 PM - 04:40 PM
Presentation: International Touring
Host: Battersea Arts Centre
Info: As international touring becomes more complex, this session focuses on the politics of ‘hosting’ artists from different cultural contexts, the implications of Brexit, and emerging approaches beyond concept touring
🕑: 04:40 PM - 05:00 PM
Wrap-Up Including Reflections from Listener-In-Residence
Host: Maddy Costa
Info: Writer and dramaturg Maddy Costa reflects on the day's conversations, drawing out recurring threads and open questions to carry into Day Two.
🕑: 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Drinks and refreshments
Day Two
🕑: 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Arrival and Refreshments
🕑: 10:30 AM - 04:00 PM
Devoted & Disgruntled: 'What are we going to do about touring?'
Host: Improbable
Info: Day Two of the conference will be a Devoted and Disgruntled Satellite (D&D) event facilitated by Improbable. Led by the question “what are we going to do about touring?”, we will gather for a day of non-hierarchical, participant-led conversations inspired by day before.
The conversations will be facilitated by Improbable, a theatre company who specialise in using a process called Open Space Technology (OST). OST is a simple way for groups of people to think, work and take action together around a shared concern. There is no set agenda and you decide what to discuss. You are free to move between conversations in a single session depending on what interests you.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 20.00 to GBP 50.00
