INK encourages, develops, produces and performs short new plays for stage and radio.To date INK has produced more than 400 plays at the annual INK Festival held in Halesworth, Suffolk.
Our aim is to provide inspiration, encouragement and opportunities for writers and theatre practitioners throughout the UK to showcase their work.
INK Festival 2024 will be held on 11th – 14th April 2024. (April 15th will see our second INK Youth Festival Day, when local secondary school children will be invited to experience all the short play performances for free.)
We are a charity run by mostly volunteers, if you can support us by becoming a friend or sponsor, we would love to hear from you.
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!
The 7th INK Festival took place in Halesworth, Suffolk 13-16th April 2023 and featured 50 short new plays for stage and radio, selected from annual submissions that we receive each year from writers aged 8-80.
INK is unique as it produces all the plays performed. This year we have an amazing selection of new works with topics ranging from floods, AI, love, loss, sibling rivalry and everything in between.
There is also an exciting lineup of poetry, comedy, musicals, short new films, talks, workshops, art, extensive children’s programmes and lots more!
On 17th April, we introduced the new INK Youth Festival, a day when local secondary school students can come to experience the joy of live theatre, for free
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.
Do you dream of seeing your play being produced and performed professionally at INK Festival 2024?
Short play categories and submission details are here.
INK marks it's debut appearance at First Light Festival on Sunday 18th June with a performance of three of best short comic radio plays from INK Festival 2023.
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The Gaffer, by acclaimed journalist Rob Crossan, will be performed at this year’s Edinburgh Festival starring fringe first award winner, Chris Larner. Selected from hundreds of short play submissions, The Gaffer was premiered in April at the 2023 INK …
INK marks its First Light debut on Sunday 18th June with a performance of 3 of the best short comic radio plays from the INK Festival in Halesworth. The Flying Eye by the award-winning playwright Jan Etherington, Lost Dogs and Wheelie Bins by …
Thank you to all who came and made INK Festival 2023 such a wonderful event. It’s been the biggest and best so far, with a record breaking number of amazing short plays and brilliant performances. …
Performed byTim Bentinck How do you know if you’re a Suffolk man? A man from Poland and a man from Suffolk take issue.
Performed by Miranda Hart & Emma Henderson Marjorie is trying to reboot her friendships after saying things she really didn’t mean. Or perhaps did.