INK Festival 2024 11-14th April  – 15th April is INK Youth Festival

Welcome to the Ink website

The UK’s leading producer of original short plays.

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 500 new short plays for stage and radio.I Expanding year on year 2024 will be the 8th INK Festival.

INK Festival 2023
About Ink

What we do

Encourage

Scriptwriting

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.

Perform

The INK Festival

The 8th INK Festival will take place in Halesworth, Suffolk 11-15* April 2024 and will  feature 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 have an amazing selection of new works with topics ranging from environment, treasure, love, loss, sibling rivalry and everything in between.

There is 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 will host 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 2023 Video – watch it here

Here’s how to buy tickets by cash or card.

Support

Community

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.

A colourful image showing INK Festival, Halesworth, Suffolk. 11-14 April 2024

Special Events @ INK Festival

Beyond the plays the festival boasts an exciting line-up of events that are included in your day ticket for the relevant day. We are excited to share them with you here.

Find out more
A group of K through grade 12 children standing together giving a thumbs up. The children are all different ages and races. The children have on purple, blue, red and gray shirts, are all smiling and standing in front of a white background.

Children's Activities @ INK Festival

Explore the free workshops we have for children at INK Festival and join us on 14 April for Sunday Funday, a day packed with free entertainment for all the family in Halesworth's Market Place.

Find out more

Adult Workshops @ INK Festival

There will be 3 adult workshops at the festival this year:
SPEAKING OUT!
MY COMEDY LIFE and
WRITING TV

Book now to avoid disappointment

Find out more

The Play Programme

The short play lies at the very heart of the INK Festival. It’s a remarkable art form: flexible, anarchic, and utterly unpredictable.
We are delighted to announce the play programme for INK Festival 2024, selected from a staggering number of excellent submissions.

Find out more

Latest INK News

PLANET INK

Suffolk, our home, is a region under threat by climate change and energy concerns. Our coastline is dissolving, and present measures to address these issues are poised to ruin our beautiful natural environment, endanger biodiversity, and …

POETS at INK

LUNCHTIME POETRY PERFORMANCES ARE EVERYDAY ON THE ANGEL STAGE – 12.00pm – 1.00pm  Enjoy a pint and a platter at The Angel Stables with a spicy helping of poetry.   Martin Figura Thursday 11 April Poet and …

INK FESTIVAL SPECIAL EVENTS

Your INK Festival ticket enables you to enjoy a full day of live performance. Every day there are 70 new short plays performed, most of them several times. You can choose what you see and when. …

A background image for the mailchimp section.

Subscribe to the INK newsletter

Video & Podcasts

Video Posted on 26.07.23

INK Festival 2023 Film

Video Posted on 26.04.23

BBC Look East at INK Festival 2023