The Festival

Off Cut brings the best of Britain’s new and undiscovered writing, acting and directing talent to the stage. It is a celebration of short form theatre in its own right, and places the audience at the very heart of the theatrical experience.

For three weeks, 28 short plays are presented. For the first two weeks they are performed  in rep in four groups of seven plays. Throughout those two weeks, the audience is asked to vote for its favourite plays. The two plays from each group with most votes will perform again in the final week, where the audience continues to vote. Thus, the ultimate winner of the coveted Audience Award is discovered.

In addition, a panel of industry professionals are invited to the final night to find the winners of the individual Panel Awards for Writing, Directing and Acting.

Ultimately, Off Cut exists to nurture emerging creative talent; to advocate the fruitful benefit of open, easy-going collaboration in the process of rehearsal; and to engage with as broad a demographic as possible in drawing audiences to the theatre.

There will be no Off Cut Festival in 2013.

The Off Cut Roots project will run instead this year, with a bigger and bolder festival already in the pipeline for 2014. More details on that towards the end of the year.