Tour the Writer is a multi-year writer development programme, established by Paines Plough in partnership with leading theatres across the country.
This project exists to create a local, regional and national network of writers and storytellers, whilst offering ongoing support, development and mentoring from Paines Plough and our partner venues.
Tour the Writer partners venues are:
- Landmark Theatres: Peterborough and North Devon
- Theatre Royal Plymouth
- Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
- Mercury Theatre, Colchester
- Theatre by the Lake, Keswick
- Bradford Producing Hub & Bradford 2025, Bradford
The project kicked off in 2023 with Open Writer’s Labs at each venue, giving budding writers the opportunity to meet the team, connect with each other, and begin their development journey. This was followed by one-to-one meetings between venues and writers (called ‘Talk to Us’), and two online masterclasses on ‘Structure’ and ‘Demystifying the Industry’, with panellists Katie Posner, Gillian Greer, Nathan Queeley-Dennis, Chloë Moss, Aisha Zia, Mike Bartlett and Charlie Josephine.
Year 2
2024 marked Year 2 of the project, taking 72 mentored writers to continue their journey and to develop their ideas with our partner organisations and dramaturgs. Our Year 2 mentored writers were:
- Sam Turton
- Lore Green
- Jessy Roberts
- Charlie Essayan
- Emily Swettenham
- Charley Genever
- Taiwo Michael Oloyede
- Chiara Hamilton
- Shila Toprak