What Next? Rural – Outdoor Performance

Thursday 15th October 2026

This meeting focused on Outdoor Performance within the Rural Touring sector. What Next? meetings are open to all, however they operate under Chatham House rules, so we do not share details on our website, however, this page is designed to give you an idea of what was covered.

Outdoor Touring is a key part of the rural touring offer, across the UK, but one that is perhaps less known or less understood. Unlike indoor rural touring, outdoor performances can happen anywhere, and are often part of bigger events, so individual shows are not always ticketed. This means that sometimes audiences can come and go as they please, so artists have to work hard to keep them engaged.

Our speakers shared insights into the process of programming work for outdoor touring, as well as logistics from an artists perspective, which covered travel, set, fees and more.

Our three speakers were:

Sally Lampitt is Programme Lead / Deputy Director at Applause Rural Touring. Sally’s passionate about life and never happier when visiting a gallery, theatre or music venue. She’s extensive experience of working in the arts as a freelance producer and project manager and recent highlights in her career include commissioning and producing a community Opera ‘PUSH’ with Glyndebourne, bringing the Winter Giant to Battle Festival and producing Hastings Fat Tuesday Music Festival.

Having spent a few years managing the Outdoors programme at Applause she now leads on our artistic programming, working with some of the UKs most exciting artists and companies to create and curate shows for our rural promoters.

Tim Casson a Choreographer, Educator and Performer, creating for theatre, public, unusual and online spaces. Directing Casson & Friends, he makes accessible, interactive and joyful dance projects with productions including, Choreocracy, Night at the Theatre, and the World Record Breaking, The Dance WE Made. Tim’s work has been presented in France, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, America, Canada, The UAE and Zimbabwe.

Tim works extensively in education as a teacher, mentor and consultant for a wide range of dance organisations including NYDC and Sadler’s Wells where he is Programme Leader for their Young Associates scheme. Tim performed and taught extensively for Jasmin Vardimon Company, founding their JV2 Training Programme, and has also worked with Ben Wright, Katie Green and Nigel Charnock. Tim recently worked with Disney, Star Wars and Public Health England, to create their Train Like a Jedi programme.

Molly Freeman is a performer, puppeteer, director and lecturer. She established Smoking Apples, with her fellow co-artistic directors, in 2010. Smoking Apples is an award winning puppetry and visual theatre company that explores complex subject matter. Over the past 16 years, their work, which includes CELL, In Our Hands, Flux and Kinder has toured all over the UK, Europe and World, visiting the Czech Republic, Malaysia and Hong Kong amongst others. Molly is fascinated by movement and the anatomy of the body, both in performer and puppet, and this combined with a compelling story is the type of theatre she both likes to see and make. She also freelances as a puppet director/consultant and lectures as a higher education facilitator.

Smoking Apples first outdoor performances of Arbor The Tree were comissioned by Applause Rural Touring in 2019.

About What Next?

What Next? is the only UK-wide free-to-access movement that brings together both freelancers, and small and large organisations, to debate and shape the future of the arts and culture. We work to democratise power and policy making in our sector.

What Next? works to change the conversations that the arts and culture sector, government, policy makers, funders and philanthropists have about the UK and its future. We disrupt traditional power narratives, where only those with money or privilege have access to the knowledge and levers that make change happen. We structure regular, open policy conversations, online and in-person, which are fully accessible, where freelancers are paid for their contributions, and which are underpinned by values of social change.