Sheffield Theatres announces inaugural Festival of Theatre Open Works

Sheffield Theatres has announced that it is to launch a brand new annual theatre festival celebrating creative talent from Sheffield and beyond. Open Works will run across two weeks in the autumn and be a hub for creatives and audiences alike.

The festival will be a melting pot of ideas and works designed to inspire dynamic conversations between audiences and artists with some of the finest names in British theatre alongside new work from local companies all gathering to connect in Sheffield. The inaugural festival will start on 28 September 2026 and Sheffield Theatres have opened submissions today for local theatre makers, playwrights and creative practitioners who wish to submit work.

Open Works will be a bold celebration of theatre artists, new voices, new stories, diverse perspectives, and fresh ideas. The new Festival will feature artist-led workshops that offer a rare insight into the creative process from some of its most significant practitioners as well as providing a platform for both established and emerging talent across the region to showcase their work.

With a full programme to be announced soon, it will include everything from world premieres to scratch nights, masterclasses to industry panels. The initial line up will include Sheffield Theatres’ Associate Companies – Forced Entertainment, Roots Mbili, Stand & Be Counted Theatre and The Bare Project – as well as work by LUNG and Swans Productions.

Alongside the work, programmed  through the call outs which open today there will be four ways for artists to have their work presented as part of the Open Works Festival 2026 and applications are invited from theatre makers in South Yorkshire :

• 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.

Leading up to the Festival, there will be opportunities for up to 25 people to join Open Working, a series of workshops focused on making and producing skills, with participants randomly selected from all eligible submitted applications to the Open Works opportunities.

Sheffield Theatres will be partnering with New Earth Theatre, the leading and longest-running British East and Southeast Asian (BESEA) touring theatre company in the UK, to develop a range of opportunities for BESEA artists as part of Open Works 2026, and to create a platform for BESEA artists in Yorkshire. They will be allocating slots as part of the Work-in-Progress, Rehearsed Readings, and Scratch opportunities for BESEA artists. In collaboration with New Earth Theatre Open Works will also be offering bespoke mentoring and networking packages for BESEA artists.

Deborah Dickinson, Creative Development Director said: “We are really looking forward to receiving and reading applications from the hugely talented pool of artists and theatre-makers from South Yorkshire and putting together an exciting programme of new and inspiring work at different stages of development, to appeal to audiences.”

Sheffield Theatres Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman said: “As one of the biggest producers of theatre in the UK across four different theatre spaces in Sheffield, further afield on tour, and in the West End, we feel a responsibility to champion new work. Open Works is one of our many initiatives designed to support theatremakers from across the region.

Applications for Performance Ready, Work-in-Progress, and Rehearsed Readings are open now via the Sheffield Theatres website. Application for Scratch will open this summer.

Open Works Festival runs at Sheffield Theatres from Mon 28 September – Sat 10 October. For further information, please visit here.