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Choose our 2025 panto

By | News, Panto | No Comments

Ye gads! Treasure Island opens in less than one week, almost a year after you chose it in our audience vote at Red Riding Hood.

This Christmas we once again invite you to choose next year’s show, so let’s meet your candidates for panto 2025.

👠 Cinderella

An absolute classic, which we last performed in 2017 at Fruit. Pattie Breadcake would have to be one of the two sisters, but who could be the second?

🎩 Alice in Wonderland

The one where Alice falls through a rabbit hole into a world of anthropomorphic creatures. Imagine the fun we’d have with Reluctant Stage Manager Andy…

🫘 Jack and the Beanstalk

You trade the family cow for some magic beans and grow a beanstalk in the backyard that leads to a sky castle inhabited by a giant. We’ve all done it.

🧙‍♀️ The Wizard of Oz

A shameless attempt to cash-in on the popularity of Wicked? Or a chance to stage a tornado and flying monkeys in a warehouse on Humber Street?

Everybody who attends Treasure Island at Social this Christmas can vote at the parrot polling station, by the bar.

Remember: it’s one panto pal, one vote. Whatever you choose, we’ll perform next year!

The winner will be announced at the end of our final performance of Treasure Island, on Sunday 29 December, and online.

Godspeed, and may democracy prevail.

Library Talk and Book Club Events Early 2025

Upcoming library events in 2025

By | Artist Development, News
Library Talk and Book Club Events Early 2025

Our Book Club and Library Talk events are taking a break until February, while we go into (and recover from) panto, but we’ve been busy putting together a programme to kick us off again in early 2025.

Both events run back-to-back on the first Friday of every month. Book Clubs start with a read along at 9am, followed by discussion from 11.00am until 12.15pm. Library Talks run from 12.30-2.00pm.

Friday 7 February

Book Club: Dugsi Dayz by Sabrina Ali

When a power outage at the Mosque plunges them into darkness, four girls retell Somali folktales to break the ice. As they delve into their stories, they discover parallels that may just lead to friendship.

Library Talk: Embedding Communities into Your Practice

Engagement is an increasingly important part of making art, whether you’re seeking funding or improving your reach and impact. This session, with Josie Lena Davies, will explore key principles and offer some practical considerations for potential projects.

Friday 7 March

Book Club: A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction by Miranda Rose Hall

A bold experiment in eco theatre-making, which sees the play tour, but not the people making it.

Library Talk: How to Use Production Document

Lost in the jargon of technical theatre? This practical talk with production manager Danielle Harris will shed light on the mysteries of risk assessments, tech specs, show reports and more.

Friday 4 April

Book Club: Giant by Mark Rosenblatt

A nuanced portrait of a fiendishly charismatic icon, Roald Dahl, that explores the difference between considered opinion and dangerous rhetoric.

Library Talk: Freelance Survival Guide

Plan for the new financial year with a crowdsourcing session, in which we invite you to share document templates, resources and advice that make your life easier as a freelancer.

All Book Club events include free breakfast and the Library Talks a free lunch. We kindly ask people to RSVP so we can manage numbers and avoid food waste.

The February events will be open to RSVP from early January.

Tax Return Tuesday

Peer support to file your tax return

By | Artist Development, Events, News, Uncategorised

Join us at Tax Return Tuesday for some moral support. We’ll bring the tea and biscuits, you bring your receipts.

Dreading that impending self-assessment deadline and looking for some motivation?

We’re hosting a drop-in session for Hull freelancers to come and work on their tax returns together on Tuesday 14 January, from 11.00am to 2.00pm.

Our rehearsal room will be set-up with tables, chairs and free wifi and we’ll stick the urn on for a ready supply of hot drinks.

We will also be joined by tax advisor Barry Kernon FCA by Zoom for a group Q&A session in our breakout space, from 1.00-2.00pm.

You can submit any questions you might have in advance, by emailing literary manager Matthew May before Friday 10 January to pass onto Barry.

No sign-up necessary, just drop-in as and when you like.

Sid Sagar

Middle Child receive £92,079 Arts Council England grant

By | News

Middle Child have been awarded a £92,079 Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant (Touring Projects Strand) for our 2025 production, Biting Point.

Written by Sid Sagar and directed by Paul Smith, Biting Point will premiere at the Fruit Market Multi-Storey car park in Hull, before touring to towns across the north of England.

Biting Point is a story that asks big questions about race, class and privilege. It is about the people in our community and how the constant pressure we’re all under can shape us into people we don’t want to be.

All this will be told in Middle Child’s unique style, taking high-quality, bold new writing and placing audiences at the heart of the experience.

Biting Point is commissioned by Middle Child and funded by Arts Council England, Hull City Council, Garfield Weston and The Sylvia Waddilove Foundation, with support from East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Wykeland and Hull Truck Theatre.

Biting Point was originally developed as part of a placement at the Hampstead Theatre, with the support of Davina Moss, Tessa Walker, Jennifer Davis and Roy Williams. The R&D was supported by the National Theatre’s Generate Programme and Blueprint: Without Walls R&D Investment Fund.

Paul Smith and Matthew May receive Olwen Wymark Awards

By | Artistic Director, Awards, News

Middle Child artistic director, Paul Smith, and literary manager, Matthew May, have today been recognised for their “exceptional encouragement of theatre writing” with an Olwen Wymark Award.

The awards are handed out every year by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), with the winners nominated by WGGB members.

Sid Sagar nominated both Paul and Matthew for their support on his upcoming play, Biting Point, which Middle Child will produce next year.

Sid said: “As a new playwright in an uncertain world, working with Paul and Matthew is a dream.

“Their talent, drive and kindness has given me the confidence to make work that is both entertaining and empowering.”

Biting Point is a story that asks big questions about race, class and privilege, which will premiere in a car park in Hull in the spring.

Sid’s play is about the people in our community and how the constant pressure we’re all under can shape us into people we don’t want to be.

A white man in blue t-shirt leaning against a wall

Matthew said: “I am absolutely delighted to have won an Olwen Wymark Award.

“Middle Child have worked with some incredible writers this year, who consistently show their skill, passion and ability to view the world in new and revealing ways.

“In what is a tough time for new writing it is a privilege to be able to offer our support.

“In particular it’s lovely to have been nominated by Sid, whose show Biting Point is a testament to the power of contemporary work. On top of that he’s also a lovely human.”

The Olwen Wymark Awards are the brainchild of playwrights Mark Ravenhill and David James.

They were set up to give WGGB members the opportunity to publicly thank individuals, rather than institutions, who have given them exceptional encouragement in theatre writing during the past year.

They are named in honour of playwright Olwen Wymark, passionate supporter of WGGB and former chair of the WGGB Theatre Committee, who died in 2013.

Paul previously won an Olwen Wymark Award in 2021, following a nomination by Luke Barnes.

Paul said: “I’m so proud to receive the Olwen Wymark Award for a second time, and am delighted Sid chose to nominate us as a result of our work together.

“Working with brilliant writers and supporting them to tell their stories really is the best part of my job.

“It’s so important we continue supporting new voices, making sure radical new writing has a home.

“I can’t wait to bring Sid’s play Biting Point to life and to continue our fruitful partnership.”

More information about Biting Point will be announced in February.

The seven writers commissioned for Fresh Ink: Hull Playwriting Festival 2025 will also be revealed in January.

Competition: Voice of Panto 2024

By | News, Panto
Competition: Be the Voice of Panto at Treasure Island 2024

The first day of rehearsals for Treasure Island is rapidly approaching, but there is one VERY important role we have still not cast – our audience announcer!

Could that be you? 🧐

Last year seven-year old Ellie Seaton melted hearts, recording the pre-show messages that play over the speakers at Social.

This year we’d like another primary school-age kid from Hull to be the voice of panto at all of our family shows. Cue competition! 🥳

How to enter

To enter, simply send us a voice note featuring the child in your life saying their name, age and the reason we should choose them as our voice of panto.

You can send these through Facebook MessengerInstagram or WhatsApp on 07763 633459.

The winner will need to be available to visit us in Old Town, accompanied by a grown-up, to record the announcements on Thursday 12 December at 5.30pm.

We can also cover your travel costs to and from our space, whether that’s a taxi, bus fare or car parking.
The competition closes at midday on Thursday 5 December, so there isn’t long to enter, and our cast will pick the winner on Friday 6 December.

As a thank you for their hard work, we’ll also give the winner four tickets to the 6pm performance of Treasure Island on Saturday 21 December 😃

Terms and conditions
  • Entry is only open to children aged 5-11 years old, who live in a HU postcode.
  • Entries received after 12pm midday on Thursday 5 December will not be accepted.
  • Entrants must be able to travel to the Middle Child rehearsal space on Thursday 12 December, between approximately 5.30pm and 6.30pm, to record the announcements. Timing can be flexible to accommodate accompanying adults, including arriving before 5.30pm.
  • The winner will be chosen by the cast of Treasure Island on Friday 6 December and notified that evening. Should they no longer wish to take part, the role will be offered to another entrant.
  • The winner will also be offered four tickets – one of which must be a standard (adult) ticket – to the 6pm performance on Saturday 21 December.
  • If the winner is already attending this performance, they will be offered four tickets to an alternative show, or a full refund of up to four tickets, in exchange for free tickets for the 6pm performance on Saturday 21 December.

Learn how to write a play with our Writers’ Group

By | Artist Development, News
Writers Group

Budding playwrights in Hull are invited to apply for the Middle Child Writers’ Group, which returns in January 2025.

The free introduction to playwriting course includes a series of five weekly workshops, designed to help people find their voice and start writing their first ever script.

These scenes will then be brought to life by professional actors, in a rehearsed reading at the next Fresh Ink: Hull Playwriting Festival, in the summer of 2025.

The group is led by Tom Wells, a local playwright whose work has been performed in theatres across the country.

Tom said: “It’s properly exciting to be running the Middle Child Writers’ Group again.

“Every year we find ace new writers full of characters, stories, warmth and humour and give them the tools to start turning those things into plays.

“I’m sure this year we’ll get another brilliant gang.”

Hannah Scorer took part in the 2019 course and has since gone onto receive paid commissions for Hull Truck Theatre and Fresh Ink: Hull Playwriting Festival 2024 (pictured above).

Hannah said: “It is easy to talk yourself out of joining things. The usual questions of what if I’m no good or what if everyone else is amazing can be followed with feelings of being a fraud.

“The great thing about the group is that the only thing you need is an idea and imagination. If that’s you, apply. You will be richer for the experience.”

Applicants don’t need to have written anything before or come from a theatre background.

Tom added: “All you need is a few good stories to tell – funny stories, sad stories, tough stories, tender stories – stories we’re eager to see on Hull stages.

“Whether you’re burning to put something on stage, or just curious to see whether you can write a play, we’d love to hear from you.”

Applications are now open and close on Tuesday 26 November.

Full details about the Writers’ Group and how to apply are on the Middle Child website.

Bellaray Bertrand-Webb, Hattie Callery, Tanya-Loretta Dee, Cole Green, Rachel Hogg, Harriet Johnson and Amber Wiles.

Seven new people join the Board of Trustees

By | News

Middle Child are delighted to welcome seven new faces to the Board of Trustees.

Bellaray Bertrand-Webb, Hattie Callery, Tanya-Loretta Dee, Cole Green, Rachel Hogg, Harriet Johnson and Amber Wiles.

Top: Bellaray Bertand-Webb, Hattie Callery and Tanya-Loretta Dee
Bottom: Rachel Hogg, Cole Green, Harriet Johnson and Amber Wiles

Bellaray Bertrand-Webb is a theatre maker from London. In 2023 she produced the Middle Child and Milk Presents show Modest, which toured around England and ran at the Kiln Theatre, London.

Hattie Callery is development manager at HOME in Manchester. Her previous roles include executive director (maternity cover) for Middle Child.

Tanya-Loretta Dee is a professional actor, writer and facilitator. She is also a trustee for Futures Theatre Company and has worked with Middle Child as an actor in past productions.

Rachel Hogg is production coordinator at Hull Truck Theatre and is also a writer, who participated in Middle Child’s Writers’ Group in 2022, as well as receiving writing commissions from both Hull Truck Theatre and Burn Bright.

Cole Green has a passion for theatre-making, heritage and Hull’s local history. As an active member of Hull Truck Theatre youth theatre and the University of York DramaSoc, Cole has dabbled in acting, directing and playwriting.

Harriet Johnson has been a supporter of Middle Child since our inception and credits us for her love of local theatre. She is head of partnership at Two Ridings Community Foundation and grower at a local flower farm.

Amber Wiles is a recent MA English graduate who worked with Middle Child last year in the role of artistic development assistant, as part of Hull University’s Internship Scheme. She has a passion for making accessible and relatable theatre and is currently writing her first full-length play.

Middle Child’s new trustees join existing board members Rozzy Knox, Magda Moses, Chris Tonge, John R Wilkinson, Jack Heaton and chair, Amanda Smethurst, while Jack has also become vice-chair.

Middle Child would also like say a huge thank you to outgoing board members Jay Mitra and Emma Tucker.

Dear Hull, our worries are existential

Dear Hull, our worries are existential

By | Artistic Director, Blog, News

Artistic director Paul Smith writes about the need to support arts and culture in Hull, ahead of the opening of Baby, He Loves You

The cast of Baby, He Loves You

Dear Hull,

A few weeks ago, we announced our new show Baby, He Loves You and shared with it an accompanying blog post, which outlined the challenges around making and selling theatre right now.

One of the things we try to do at Middle Child is be transparent and open about the difficulties we face day-to-day as a charity who exist to produce theatre in Hull.

So, here goes…

A few weeks have passed and unfortunately, one week before opening we are not where we hoped we’d be in terms of ticket sales. We’re at 32% of our target.

This makes for a significant and terrifying impact on the future of Middle Child, if we do not reach our financial target of £19,500 ticket income on this show.* However, no-one gets into the arts to write blogs about balancing the books, so I wanted to write to you for a different reason.

I am doing this, of course, as the artistic director and CEO of Middle Child and a founding member of the company. More importantly I’m writing to you as someone who has an unwavering belief in the power, importance and potential of live theatre.

I am so incredibly proud of this show.

I’m incredibly proud of what it means to put this show into the world right now. I’m incredibly proud that Baby, He Loves You is a world premiere of a brand-new play by a Hull writer, Maureen Lennon, with a brilliant local team, at a time where big-budget revivals and celebrity names dominate our industry and the box office.

It breaks my heart to think that, at present, many people in this great city will not see this brilliant play made with them in mind. I hate leaving a rehearsal full of excitement at what we’re creating here to check sales reports and be met with disappointment.

I’m aware that a big part of this is on us. Us as in Middle Child, us as in the theatre industry, us as in the arts sector. Money is tight right now: we’re having to prioritise getting by in this (awfully-named) cost-of-living crisis. Clearly, and for a variety of reasons, live theatre isn’t always high on that list. We exist to change that perception and are doing everything we can to make the case that art, theatre, culture enrich our lives.

Times are tough too for art, theatre, culture. Audiences simply haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. Funding is more competitive than ever. Costs are going up much faster than our income levels. You know it, we know it.

Running an arts organisation has never been harder than now. Our worries are existential, if not immediately so. As we have already seen with fallen friends in recent times, companies like Middle Child are not guaranteed to be around forever. Unless things change, we will lose brilliant art and brilliant arts workers. We will lose those magical moments that bring us out of our houses and into one space together to witness something that challenges the world around us.

None of this is new information. These conversations are happening daily behind closed doors. Theatres and theatre companies nationwide are struggling in similar ways. We often feel ashamed to admit it. But clearly, we are in the midst of a very real fight for a cultural future and we have to be honest about that.

I lay awake at night unable to sleep questioning how we crack this puzzle.

Last year, we decided to refocus our work more directly on reaching the people of Hull and better serving our local communities. We did this because we believe in Hull, love this city and want to help make a difference here. Money that would have previously been put towards touring the show or taking it to London has been put towards doing it in Hull. Help us justify this and keep doing it long into the future.

The thing I realised I haven’t done is “say the thing”. So here I am, saying the thing in the hope that it galvanises something.

I want to say that:

– Hull has grown one of the most exciting, talented and bold playwrights in the entire country in Maureen Lennon. Her incredible, authentic, Hull-centric writing stands-up against that of any other writer in the country – I’d put my house on it.

– Hull grows brilliant actors. We all know about Isy Suttie, Tom Courtenay and Mike Jibson but that’s not all. This show alone includes three outstanding local talents, from Dan McGarry who grew up on Chanterlands Avenue and is now into his 25th year as an actor, to the fantastic Laura Meredith who I first met through Hull Truck Youth Theatre and Elle Ideson, a former Archbishop Sentamu student, who is exploding onto the professional scene as Lucy. These actors are the product of Hull and to see them perform on its stages is not only a joy, but also exactly what makes regional theatre so special. These actors know these streets, they know this city and some of them probably know you. Come and support their incredible craft, which was developed in the schools, colleges, playgrounds and after-school detentions of this city. Showing your support sends a signal to Hull’s young people with similar aspirations that their dreams are possible, that the city will help them to get there and come and clap and cheer for them when they come true.

– Hull knows how to put on a show. Most of our brilliant creative team live here and are having successful careers from within its borders. Careers are built here and have no limits. Your support shows the incredible people who already live here that they should stay, and that others should join them.

– We know there is an audience out there. You sell out our panto every year and we love you for that. We shed a tear every year when so many of you tell us how our silly little pantos have become a staple of your family Christmases. Take a chance on us. Live theatre and new writing can be as good a night out as panto, albeit with fewer knob gags. These shows are made by the same team, with the same amount of love, hard work and Hull spirit. We know loads of you already come but we’d love to look out and see even more our panto pals smiling back at us, though maybe with fewer boos.

– Funding to the arts is being cut across the country. We must show that this can’t happen here and that we value our art and our artists. New work is harder to justify than ever. While Shakespeare adaptations, syllabus plays and celebrity casting all have their place, we cannot allow them to become the only theatre that is viable to produce. What would then happen to stories about places like Hull, with people from places like Hull in them? If you don’t come, they won’t happen. Please show us that new work has value to you and that stories about your lives, where you live now, matter.

– I’m sorry. I’m sorry it’s come to this. That Middle Child, theatre and the arts haven’t made the case well enough for you to buy a ticket to our show yet. That the world is so tough right now that many of us are having to choose between essentials and things like theatre tickets. I really don’t want to write this blog and ask you so directly to come and see Baby, He Loves You; I’m only doing so because I believe so strongly in what we’re creating and know, deep in my soul, that if you come and see it then it will have an impact and prove our worth.

Hull proudly and rightly speaks of itself as a cultural city.

I implore you to come and support us, see this thing we made for you and I promise, you won’t regret it. The feedback we receive from our audiences is always gorgeous and we want to impact more people with our work.

The fact we have regular support from Hull City Council – who are huge supporters of the arts – and the Arts Council means we can exist at all. I’m also aware that I’m writing this at the same time we’re launching our incredibly exciting new playwriting festival, Fresh Ink. I just wanted to take a moment to say that is only possible thanks to major funding and wider support from our founding partners Wykeland, investment from the brilliant J F Brignall Trust, as well as trusts and foundations like the I Am Fund and Garrick Charitable Trust, who are directly supporting the commissioning of new plays.

This shows how we can and are thinking outside of the usual system to keep supporting the creation of new work, but we do also need to talk about ticket sales.

If you already have a ticket and are reading this, then I’d love you to think about how else you can support this hard-working team. Is there a friend who you know would love live theatre, but hasn’t tried it? Do you have a family member who is a huge advocate of the people of Hull and their unlimited potential? Do you know someone rich who can pay for all of the tickets so anyone in Hull can come for free? (A boy can dream). If so, please take 30 seconds to share this blog, talk about the show, share the booking link.

Thank you for reading. I write this not as a plea, but as a statement of unwavering confidence in what we are building and how it relates to Hull. I believe wholeheartedly in what we are doing, and I care passionately about fighting for the value of arts in Hull and further afield. I’ve dedicated my life, my career, my work to lessening the barriers to theatre I felt as a young working class kid in Essex and which have only widened in the 18 years since I moved to and fell in love with Hull.

Join us on this adventure. Let’s pack this show out and show that work by incredible artists from Hull such as Maureen Lennon have as much audience appeal as a bloke from Stratford who died many moons ago, or that fella from that Marvel thing.

*I should say a bit here about that money bit at the top. We have a £19,500 target for Baby, He Loves You, a £40,000 fundraising target and a £38,000 panto target this year alone. Failure in one or more of those things puts us in genuine and immediate risk, as it does for all arts organisations. Please, support local art.

UPDATE (17 April): We have been blown away by the response since this blog post went live. While there is still a way to go, sales have rocketed from 32% to 69%. We have also received a number of one-off donations, including from anonymous donors wishing to buy tickets for people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to go. Thank you so much for your support, and to everyone who shared, bought tickets and donated so others can see the show for free. Thank you for supporting live theatre.

Fresh Ink Writers 2024

Writers revealed for first Fresh Ink: Hull Playwriting Festival

By | Artist Development, Fresh Ink, News

Middle Child are pleased to announce the six writers commissioned for Fresh Ink, a new annual playwriting festival coming to Hull’s Fruit Market in July.

Rosie Race, Hannah Scorer, Grace Waga Glevey, Marc Graham, Prince Kundai and Andrew Houghton were selected from 130 entrants, who responded to an open call for writers with “a meaningful connection to Hull”.

Rosie Race and Hannah Scorer will each write a 70-minute play, Grace Waga Glevey and Marc Graham a 30-minute piece and Prince Kundai and Andrew Houghton a 15-minute excerpt of a larger idea.

They will work with Middle Child to develop two drafts of their respective scripts, to be performed in rehearsed readings at a pop-up venue in Hull’s Fruit Market quarter.

The Fresh Ink festival programme will also feature a series of workshops, talks and social events over the weekend of 20-21 July.

Fresh Ink Writers 2024

Meet the writers

Rosie Race is an actor and writer from Hull, who is now based in Plymouth.

She works as a movement director and is associate artist at Theatre Royal Plymouth, where her first full length show Us Against The World opened in February 2024.

Her play No Woman Is An Island is a perversely funny, absurd and moving portrayal of a pregnant woman on the brink of insanity.

Rosie said: “I’m super chuffed to be offered one of the writing commissions.

“I am both excited and a tad emotional about immersing myself in the place I grew up and returned to for the birth of my child and the first year of her life.

“Hull is so much a part of me but I’ve been away a while, and writing this play which has my hometown at its very heart feels like the perfect way to reconnect.”

Hannah Scorer is a writer from Hull, who first took part in Middle Child’s Writers’ Group in 2019 and last year shared a script at Out Loud, Middle Child’s scratch night with Silent Uproar. This is her first full-length commission.

Can We Be Friends? follows a single parent and her daughter as they both discover family doesn’t always look the way we’re told.

Hannah said: “Because I reached my mid-30s without ever writing creatively, I didn’t think it was something I’d ever do.

“The Middle Child Writers’ Group is where this story started, as a 10-minute monologue, so it’s incredibly exciting to have this chance to tell the whole story.”

Grace Waga Glevey is a theatre and television maker from Scunthorpe, who recently founded Hani Projects, a not-for-profit theatre and arts production company committed to developing and attracting new work in and to Humberside.

She has trained with the Old Vic as a young theatre maker and in Sheffield Theatres’ New Dramaturgs Group.

Her play Jack & Gill depicts an unexpected friendship between two octogenarians, from vastly different walks of life, who wind up in the same crumbling Yorkshire care home.

Grace said: “I’m so excited to work with Middle Child on my debut play. It feels like my play has found its natural home here, with a company that champions new work in the area in which it is set.

“The story is inspired by Scunthorpe, and my family’s working heritage; particularly my mum, a generous and devoted carer her entire working life, and my uncle, a gifted sheet metal worker.”

Marc Graham is an actor from Hull, who also took part in Middle Child’s 2019 Writers’ Group. This is his first commission as a writer.

Isabelle tells the story of a family coming together at Christmas for the first time in ten years, bringing not only themselves but unwelcome remnants of their past lives.

Marc said: “I think a lot of people have the feeling that they’ve been sitting on a play for years, but don’t know how to uncover that. I feel incredibly lucky to be given the opportunity to attempt to do just that.

“I don’t have it all planned out ready to go, I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m excited to figure it out.”

Hull-born Andrew Houghton is a co-founder of Pink Milk Theatre, who most recently toured their solo show, Naughty. This is their first commission as a writer.

Phobia depicts a father and their child on their annual trip to Hull Fair. When a ride malfunction leaves the pair stranded high in the air, a very panicked dad requires constant conversation to keep his nerves under control.

Andrew said: “I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to work with Middle Child and debut my first professional writing commission in my home city.

“Spotlighting queer experiences I didn’t have the words for growing up, in the city I grew up in, is such a personal triumph.”

Prince Kundai is a Hull-raised creative who made his acting debut in the critically-acclaimed production of Bootycandy at the Gate Theatre London.

Fresh Ink marks Prince Kundai’s first venture in writing, with an African coming of age story about a young girl and the dynamics between her, her small family and the world around them.

Prince said: “To be commissioned for the first time is quite the feeling. A new journey along a road many have taken before you and to have your first step be upon a milestone? A first commission? Well, that really is quite something.

“Hull is a cornerstone of my identity and to be working here is both an honour and a privilege.”

A new festival to support Hull theatre making

The six writers were selected by a festival steering group that included representatives from Wykeland Group, Hull Truck Theatre, Back to Ours, freelance artists and local business people.

Fresh Ink: Hull Playwriting Festival will become an annual platform for Hull writers to create and develop new plays in the city.

Middle Child artistic director and chief executive, Paul Smith, said: “When Wykeland first approached Middle Child to explore an idea to support creative skills development in Hull, we knew there was huge potential to build something which could meet genuine need and last long into the future.

“The 130 submissions we received as part of Fresh Ink’s first open call are evidence of this, going far beyond our wildest dreams and proving that exceptional writing talent exists in Hull and needs a platform to match its undoubted potential.

“We were blown away by the creativity, confidence and craft of the local writers who applied this time around and it is no exaggeration to say that we could have commissioned enough plays to fill the festival ten times over.

“We are delighted to announce these six commissions and cannot wait to bring these exceptional ideas to life. Each one is full of the heart, humour and hope that echoes around this city, and we are sure they will resonate with the people of Hull.”

Middle Child hope the festival will attract producers, venues and critics from outside of Hull to experience theatre by artists who may go unnoticed in the current climate.

Paul Smith added: “We are particularly proud to work alongside our founding partners Wykeland and initial funders Wykeland and J F Brignall Charitable Trust to support the development of new writing at a time of great risk.

“Opportunities for freelance artists are becoming scarcer, with institutions such as the Vault Festival closing due to the challenging economic climate.

“We must continue advocating for the power and importance of untold stories from unheard voices, and the wider importance of culture in a thriving society.

“I am in no doubt that our first Fresh Ink festival will once again demonstrate the transformative power of culture and showcase what is possible when art made by local people is meaningfully supported.”

The 2024 event will be run as a pilot, so Middle Child can learn what works best and improve on it for the following years.

Dominic Gibbons, managing director of Wykeland Group, said: “Wykeland are delighted to be the co-founders and sponsors of the new Fresh Ink: Hull Playwriting Festival.

“We approached Middle Child following their highly successful There Should Be Unicorns production, which we sponsored and they performed at Stage@TheDock in the summer of 2022, to see if we could work together to create something that would have a deep cultural impact on the city and the people in it.

“Fresh Ink gives the opportunity for writers of all levels to expand their skill set and have their work performed at Stage@TheDock, a venue we opened in 2016 with the aim of it being used as a platform to develop new and exciting work.”

The full festival programme will be announced in June, with tickets for performances and workshops on-sale thereafter.

  • Read more about the writer selection process, in a blog post from Middle Child literary manager, Matthew May