Open Works is a bold celebration of theatre, offering a platform for the most exciting and dynamic artists in South Yorkshire.

With a focus on fresh perspectives and powerful stories, the festival will present world premieres, and original plays that bring unheard stories to the stage.

Committed to supporting artists at every stage of their journey, the festival promises compelling performances, and a chance to experience cutting-edge theatre.

The Open Works Festival will take place between Mon 28 September and Sat 10 October 2026 across the Montgomery Theatre and Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse at Sheffield Theatres.

The festival will feature work from our Associate Companies – Forced Entertainment, Roots Mbili, Stand and Be Counted and The Bare Project – alongside work by LUNG and Swans Productions.

Ways To Get Involved

There are four ways for artists to have their work presented as part of Open Works 2026.

• Performance Ready, for theatremakers and companies local to Sheffield Theatres to have fully-realised projects programmed as part of the festival.
• Work-in-Progress, for theatremakers and theatre companies local to Sheffield Theatres to share up to an hour of in-development work as part of the festival.
• Rehearsed Readings, for writers local to Sheffield Theatres to have their work performed by professional actors as part of the festival.
• Scratch, for theatremakers and companies local to Sheffield Theatres to share up to 20 minutes of new work as part of the festival.

Applications for Performance Ready, Work-in-Progress, and Rehearsed Readings are open now until Sun 22 March 2026. Application for Scratch will open this summer.

Open Working

To support the development of new work in our region we will be running Open Working, a series of workshops focused on making and producing skills.

There will be opportunities for up to 25 people to join Open Working, with participants randomly selected from all eligible submitted applications to all of our Open Works opportunities.

We welcome and encourage applications from artists from backgrounds under-represented in the arts, including but not limited to those who identify as D/deaf and/or disabled, neurodiverse, global majority and/or migrant, and LGBTQ+.

In Partnership with New Earth Theatre

We are proud to be partnering with New Earth Theatre to develop a range of opportunities for British East and Southeast Asian artists as part of Open Works 2026.

We want to create a platform for BESEA artists in our region, so we are allocating slots as part of our Work-in-Progress, Rehearsed Readings, and Scratch opportunities for BESEA artists. In collaboration with New Earth Theatre we will also be offering bespoke mentoring and networking packages for BESEA artists.

New Earth Theatre is the leading and longest-running British East and Southeast Asian (BESEA) touring theatre company in the UK. Their mission is to bring nuanced BESEA representation to the widest possible audience.