The Collaborative Touring Network
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We are a proud member of The Collaborative Touring Network, a national network of producers working in areas of cultural deprivation who are dedicated to providing access to the arts for everyone.

The Collaborative Touring Network (CTN) was formed in 2013, with the aim of developing a different way of touring.

Currently a collective of 7 organisations based in Wigan, Torbay, Thanet, Peterborough and Medway, Bradford and Stoke-On-Trent, CTN believes in the power and possibility of live performance.

Our towns and places have often been overlooked and under-resourced, but we believe every town deserves life-affirming, soul-shaking, perspective-changing shows, and we work with artists and communities to make this possible in our places.

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Bunker Of Zion

In July 2022, John Pfumojena, The Old Courts and the Collaborative Touring Network toured Bunker of Zion across the UK.

“Bunker of Zion brings together an underground collective of artists to tell their incredible stories. Through energetic live music, dance, and song, you will experience a colourful celebration of Zimbabwean culture.”

The show featured music that was masterfully created using traditional Zimbabwe Mbira and Marimba instruments. Traditional and modern Zimbabwean dance with break dance and gumboot dance was woven into the performance.

Each touring partners show featured collaboration with local performers and community groups, making each version of the show unique.

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Burnt Out In Biscuit land

In July 2023, A show by disabled people about our right to exist toured through the Collaborative Touring Network.

“While the world outside is in chaos, three neurodiverse inhabitants of an apocalyptic bunker are doing their best to survive.

Blending film, live performance and conversation, Touretteshero’s funny, surreal and moving show explores resistance and joy in the face of a crisis.

The follow up to Touretteshero’s smash-hit productions ‘Backstage in Biscuit Land’ and ‘Not I’ by Samuel Beckett, featuring writer, artist, and activist Jess Thom.”

Accessibility was a priority. All performances were relaxed, captioned in English and had audio descriptions built-in. There was also COVID related access provisions in place, Further resources were available including a visual story, content notices and relaxed performance overview.

What We Do

As a network, we support and develop artists locally and deliver two festivals a year packed with inspiring touring work, home-grown talent, music, workshops & feasts.

Occupying parks, community centres, boxing gyms and nightclubs; the network imagines new contexts for performances that inspire audiences and artists alike. To date we have presented work in over 170 different spaces.

We think touring live performance is most impactful when it is invited into places where community is already happening. We create local partnerships and put on shows in these unlikely spaces: from car parks, to nightclubs, rooftops to community centres.

We commit to working in ways that can contribute to a fairer, more inclusive society. A society in which access to cultural experiences and opportunities for creative expression are not limited by circumstance or context.

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Shows

Shows that have toured with CTN previously include Christopher Brett Bailey’s This is How We Die, Theatre Ad Infinitum’s Ballad of the Burning Star, Victoria Melody’s Major Tom, The Paper Cinema’s Odyssey, Touretteshero’s Backstage in Biscuit Land, Foreign Radical by Theatre Conspiracy, Ground Control by Non Zero One and Rendezvous in Bratislava by Miriam Sherwood.

Shows that toured as part of the Spring 2019 season of festival included Paper Cinema’s Macbeth, Lost Dog’s Juliet and Romeo, Caroline Williams & Reem Karssli Now is The Time to Say Nothing and FILSKIT THEATRE’s Kaleidoscope.

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