Sheffield Theatres has just announced their inaugural Festival of Theatre, taking place from the 28th of September: Open Works 2026. This event seeks to highlight both longstanding British theatre-makers, and new creatives from local areas.
As well as theatre, the festival also seeks to run workshops that aim to provide an insight into the creative process from leading practitioners. These are called Open Working, and can be joined by application: 25 applicants will be randomly selected, and will learn how to develop their making and producing skills.
The festival has already secured some partnerships, such as New Earth Theatre: the longest running British East and Southeast Asian theatre company. New Earth Theatre will be awarding slots in the festival’s open access programme to artists that are of British East and Southeast Asian descent, as well as bespoke mentoring and networking opportunities. Other companies that are going to be involved with the festival are Forced Entertainment, Roots Mbili, Stand and Be Counted Theatre and The Bare Project.
Most excitingly, the Festival has many slots open for local creatives. These come under four categories:
Performance Ready, for theatremakers and companies to have fully-realised projects programmed as part of the festival.
Work-in-Progress, for theatremakers and theatre companies to share up to an hour of in-development work as part of the festival.
Rehearsed Readings, for writers to have their work performed by professional actors as part of the festival.
Scratch, for theatremakers and companies to share up to 20 minutes of new work as part of the festival.
These are open to theatre makers in South Yorkshire, and aim to celebrate diverse perspectives and new voices. Applications for Performance Ready, Work in Progress and Rehearsed Readings will be open soon on the Sheffield Theatres website. Scratch applications are due to open in the summer.
Open Works 2026 will have a tightly packed schedule including world premieres, industry panels, masterclasses and scratch nights. This will be released soon: Creative Development Director, Deborah Dickinson states “We are really looking forwards to […] putting together an exciting programme of new and inspiring work at different stages of development”.
