Tour the Writer

Tour the Writer is a multi-year writer development programme, established in 2023 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.

Our partner venues are:

• Theatre Royal Plymouth
• Landmark Theatres: Peterborough and Barnstaple
• 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 Two

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.

Bradford: Dan Loops, Carolyn Eden, Claire Eden, Amber Hafren, Michael James, Nick Maynard, Marina Poppa, John Quinn, Richard D Rhodes, Jan Ruppe, Tahir Shah, Laura Strickland, Marie Williamson.

Colchester (Mercury Playwrights in association with Tour the Writer): Emma Bernard, Sue Bevan, Tassa Deparis, Daniel Hallisey, Giannini Hemmings, Eleanor Hyde, Ed Ismail, Fiona Padfield, Ben SantaMaria, Benjamin Wilkinson.

Coventry (Belgrade Theatre): Sara Amanda, Linzi Doyle, Matthew Gabrielli, Sam Holley-Horseman, Paul Tafaro, Alisha Kadir, Ryan Leder, Katy Lynam, Roe McDonnell.

Cumbria (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick): Sophia Atcha, Nina Berry, Beth Broomby, Lekhani Chirwa, Eireann Devlin, Daneka Etchells, Karen Featherstone, Grace Kirby, Eve Pereira, Rachel Price, Hannah Roze-Lewis, Sally Ann Staunton, Hannah Stratton.

Landmark Theatres – North Devon & Peterborough: Michele Borsten, Charlie Essayan, Lore Green, Lori Hilson, Kayleigh Mai Hinsley, Carron Holmes, Nayomie James, Selina Keedwell, Louise Lecky-Thompson, Susan Luciani, Jessy Roberts, Nathan Rodney-Jones, Lucy Roslyn, Anne Rouse, Ysella Sims, Emily Swettenham, Sam Turton.

Plymouth (Theatre Royal Plymouth): Hattie Collins, Jon Nash, Roni Neale, Rosie Race, Fynn Roberts, Jane Spurr.

Year Three

For the third year of Tour the Writer, we selected two writers from each of the seven areas of the country, who we will continue to mentor throughout the year, and will culminate in a showcase of their work in March 2026 at the Tour the Writer Festival at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.

The Year Three mentored writers are:

• Dan Loops & Jan Ruppe in Bradford
• Emma Bernard & Ben SantaMaria in Colchester
• Sara Amanda & Matthew Gabrielli in Coventry
• Sophia Atcha & Rachel Price in Cumbria
• Jessy Roberts & Emily Swettenham in Peterborough
• Kayleigh Mai Hinsley & Selina Keedwell in North Devon
• Jon Nash & Jane Spurr in Plymouth

Read more about these writers here.

Tour the Writer has been generously supported across the years by The Garrick Charitable Trust in Year 3, and The Noel Coward Foundation (@sirnoelcoward), who supported Year Two of the programme and the Tour the Writer Festival in March 2026