The Mercury Theatre in Colchester has today announced that they will hold their first Mercury Creatives Festival on Saturday 9 August, as part of their commitment to local creative development through Mercury Creatives. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, arts cuts, and ongoing precarity for freelancers, celebrated artists will be returning to Colchester to inspire the next generation of creatives — offering real-world insight, practical support, and a powerful sense of belonging.
Mercury Creatives Festival is a one-day creative takeover at the Mercury Theatre, spotlighting the extraordinary talent emerging from the East of England — and welcoming everyone passionate about theatre, growing their creative business and making work that matters.
The festival will comprise of a full day of talks, workshops, masterclasses and panel events, as artists from Essex and beyond return to share their journeys, spark ideas, and support others starting out.
The festival is for both early-career artists or those simply curious about how theatre is made — the event is an invitation to learn, connect and celebrate with some of the UK’s most exciting voices. The speakers are proof that major success can start in local places like Essex, inspiring early-career and midcareer artists facing today’s creative climate.
Mercury Theatre Artistic Director, Natasha Rickman said:
“The Mercury Creatives Festival is such an exciting time for us as a venue, and our Talent and New Work Producer Scott Hurran has curated a wonderful line up. To have world-class Essex artists sending the ladder back down, by sharing their experience and insight, is a very special and important thing. Mercury Creatives is an incredible advert for the exceptional talent we have here in Essex, and for the extraordinary contribution the arts makes – the pilot mentoring programme alone brought two million pounds of new revenue and business into the region as well as the many other benefits. An enormous thanks to Arts Council England, Essex County Council and Tendring District Council for recognising and supporting this programme.”
Panels & talks at the festival will include:
- Olivier Award winners Amy Trigg & Waleed Akhtar in-conversation on writing and performing your own work
- Jenny Sealey OBE from Graeae Theatre Company delivering the closing keynote speech
- Panel talk with writers, writing about Essex including Kenny Emson & Vickie Donoghue
- Panel talk with creatives about making musicals including composer, musical director and performer Frew and movement director Chi-San Howard
- UK leaders in devised verbatim theatre, The Paper Birds, discussing setting up and running a theatre company
The festival aims to be as accessible as possible, hosted in a relaxed environment with BSL interpretation. The day will also include practical workshops on tax, finance and self-promotion for creatives — giving tools to support practice sustainably.
Tickets for the festival are £30 and go on sale on Friday 4 July at 10am.
Find out more about Mercury Creatives
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