We are a theatre company and a charity, based in Halesworth, Suffolk whose aim is to encourage and support scriptwriters, giving an opportunity for writers to submit new work, have it read and then, for some, the opportunity to see their work produced and performed by professional actors at the annual INK Festival. To date we have produced and performed over 700 new short plays for stage and radio.
Thank you to all who came to INK Festival 2024, to all our incredible supporters and volunteers, it was bigger and better than ever. Thank you to all the writers who submitted their work and to the directors and actors who transformed the scripts to performance.
We hope to see you at INK Festival 2025 24th – 28th April
INK, based in East Anglia, was established in 2014 to provide encouragement and support to emerging scriptwriters, giving an opportunity for writers to annually submit new work, have it read, and then, for some, a chance to see their work produced and performed by professional actors at the INK Festival.
Throughout the year INK offers writing workshops and forums where writers can experience their work read by professional actors with discussion and feedback sessions.
The short play is a remarkably versatile and accessible art form. They are tales of the unexpected, relevant, funny, sexy, touching and disturbing. The pleasure of watching them is that they invariably leave you wanting more – that is rare in an age that doesn’t sit still!
Submissions to INK Festival 2025 will be open on 1 June 2024 Categories will be launch on 1 May. Watch this space.
The INK Festival
The 8th INK Festival took place in Halesworth, Suffolk 11-15* April 2024 and featured more than 70 short new plays for stage and radio, selected from the annual submissions, from writers aged 8-80.
INK is unique: it produces all the plays that are performed. This year we had an amazing selection of new works with topics ranging from environment, treasure, love, loss, sibling rivalry and everything in between.
There was also an exciting lineup of poetry, comedy, music, short new films, talks, workshops, art, extensive children’s programmes and lots more! On 15* April we hosted the second INK Youth Festival, a day when local secondary school students can come to experience the joy of live theatre, for free.
INK Festival 2025 will be 24th -28th April 2025
The INK community is formed by our many partners: writers, actors and theatre practitioners, audiences, volunteers, sponsors and supporters.
We are based in the market town of Halesworth in Suffolk. Throughout the year we work within the community to encourage new writing with on-line and in person workshops, youth drama and literacy projects to hundreds of children in and out of schools and tour to rural areas around East Anglia, prisons, care homes and hospitals.
We involve the whole town in the annual INK Festival, with more than 8 performances venues located within the town, and come together with the business community to bring a greater awareness and prosperity to this beautiful area and a huge injection of performing arts into East Anglia.
Here is just a small selection of images taken at INK Festival 2024.
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The plays for INK Festival 2024 were selected from a staggering number of excellent submissions.
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A huge thank you to all who came and supported this years festival. It was a great success with a record number of new short plays (selected from more than 1000 submissions), performed in an …
Theatre bosses have criticised the diminishing amount of funding available for the arts The INK festival in Halesworth, Suffolk, held a panel discussion on the state of the sector. Julia Sowerbutts, the festival’s artistic director, …
This year we have the most extraordinary art show of more than 200 works which has been curated by Michael Fitzroy of Fitzroy Modern Art, Norfolk. Stunning works from Mary Webb, Fred Ingrams, Cornelia FitzRoy, …
