Children’s Theatre Partnership secures Arts Council funding to tour three new shows

The Children’s Theatre Partnership has won the support of Arts Council England to operate for a further three years.

Initially launched in 2010 as the Children’s Touring Partnership – a partnership between Fiery Angel and Chichester Festival Theatre – the newly named Children’s Theatre Partnership will work with the Nottingham Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic, Curve in Leicester and the Royal & Derngate in Northampton over the three years from 2020.

It has announced three UK tours including a remount of Nottingham Playhouse’s Holes by Louis Sachar and two new commissions – George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Michael Rosen’s An Unexpected Twist.

Previous CTP productions include Goodnight Mister Tom, which ran in the West End and had three UK tours, and a UK tour of Michael Morpurgo’s Running Wild.

Goodnight Mister Tom review at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London – ‘heartfelt’

The partnership is led by producers Fiery Angel.

Fiery Angel director Edward Snape said the funding enabled the partnership “to commission exciting new shows, collaborate with our partners to build new audiences and run a full education programme that we hope will inspire young people to become actively involved in the arts”.

CTP has also set up a new advisory board, whose members include Unicorn Theatre artistic director Justin Audibert and chief executive of Blackpool Grand Ruth Eastwood.

ACE said: “We want our funding to help distribute great cultural activity across the country, so it is really positive to see this group of venues along with CTP coming together to make this a reality.”

Holes will tour from January 2020 and will be directed by Adam Penford.

Producer Edward Snape: ‘At West End prices, the least we can do is provide a comfy seat’