From Story Systems to action: four programmes for participation

A few days ago we announced Story Systems: C&T’s ambition to create new narrative formats that fuse theatre, storytelling and digital technology—placing people and communities at the centre as active participants.

But an idea only becomes meaningful through practice.

We are therefore developing four connected programmes through which Story Systems can be created, learned, shared and experienced: Prospero Coding Studios, Story Networks, Smart Plays and Projects.

Each offers a different way into our work.

Prospero Coding Studios

Weekly creative technology classes rooted in communities.

Prospero Coding Studios will offer weekly classes in which young people combine creative coding, digital production and theatre-making to build their own participatory experiences.

The Studios will develop technical skills, imagination, confidence and agency. Participants will learn how to turn an idea into a reusable digital experience without needing to become conventional programmers.

Our first Prospero Coding Studio will be based in Worcester, with further details and a launch announcement to follow in the coming weeks. Over time, we want to establish Studios with partners in other communities, creating a growing network of young Story System makers.

Story Networks

Connecting people and places around a shared global story.

Story Networks will be collaborative ventures linking artists, educators, institutions and communities around the world.

Over four to six months, participants in different locations will explore a shared stimulus, encounter one another’s perspectives and create new contributions. Stories will travel between places, gathering different cultural meanings as each participant interprets and extends what others have made.

Our first Story Network will begin this year, working with an international partner to explore experiences and questions surrounding the global migration crisis. We will announce the partnership and invite wider participation in the next few weeks.

Smart Plays

Reimagining what a public cultural experience can be.

Smart Plays will be C&T’s flagship immersive, interactive and distributed productions.

They might unfold across a theatre, museum, heritage site, public space or several connected locations. Audiences could follow different characters, make choices, uncover archive materials or contribute to the continuing development of a story.

We are now inviting cultural, academic and technology partners—including Imperial College London—to collaborate with us on the creation of new Smart Plays. Together, we want to investigate how live performance, digital participation and emerging technologies can create cultural experiences that tour, adapt and reach beyond a single venue or moment.

Projects

Creating bespoke Story Systems for particular people, places and questions.

Projects will enable C&T to develop commissioned Story Systems with cultural organisations, universities, schools, local authorities and community groups.

Each will begin with a specific challenge: how might a community animate its heritage, a researcher involve people more meaningfully, or an organisation use storytelling to address learning, health, inclusion or social change?

Projects already in development connect heritage, disability-led participation, digital inclusion and health. Each will respond to an immediate need while generating new knowledge, creative methods and reusable ideas for C&T’s wider practice.

And… Prospero

Alongside these four C&T-led programmes, Prospero will continue to develop as a creative participation platform available directly to other organisations.

Through Prospero, educators, artists, researchers and institutions will be able to create, manage and distribute their own participatory experiences independently. They will not need to commission a C&T Story System or take part in one of our programmes.

Together, these strands create a connected but flexible architecture. The four programmes enable C&T to create and develop Story Systems with people and partners. Prospero powers those programmes while also giving others the tools to build experiences of their own.

No single programme carries this ambition alone. Each develops different skills, relationships, audiences and creative possibilities. Together, they provide the foundations for the next chapter of C&T’s work—and several opportunities to join us in building it.

Further details of these programmes will be announced shortly, but for more information or how to collaborate, contact C&T now. ‍ ‍