Meet the writers for Fresh Ink 2025

Middle Child are pleased to announce the eight writers commissioned for Fresh Ink: Hull Playwriting Festival 2025, coming to Hull’s Fruit Market from 19-20 July.

Ellen Brammar and Jim Norris will each write a 70-minute play, Noor Sobka and co-writers Samuel Sims and Jay Grainger a 30-minute piece and Sean Climie, Michelle Kelly and Laura Wilson a five-minute monologue.

They were selected from 127 entrants, who responded to an open call for writers with “a meaningful connection to Hull”.

Middle Child will work with the writers to develop two drafts of their respective scripts, to be performed in rehearsed readings at a pop-up venue on Stage@TheDock.

The Fresh Ink festival programme will also feature a series of workshops, talks and social events over the weekend of 19-20 July.

Ellen Brammar is a Hull-based writer, whose most recent play, Modest, toured the country and closed at the Kiln Theatre in London in 2023.

In her play for Fresh Ink, Keeper, Jess and Ben are on their first date. The air is sparking and their skin is tingling with anticipation, because when you know, you know. Or do you?

Ellen said: “Being commissioned for Fresh Ink feels truly significant, particularly in the current theatrical landscape, where maintaining a writing career often feels at best hard, at worst completely undoable.

“Fresh Ink has renewed my excitement and passion for my work and I’m greatly looking forward to sharing my new play with Hull.”

Jim Norris has lived and worked in Hull his whole life and started writing when he joined the Middle Child Writers’ Group in 2022.

This is his first full-length commission.

His play, No Scrap, No Chips, follows two rag and bone men in Hull, who reunite on the horse and cart a year since their father passed away.

Jim said: “Being commissioned has blown me away totally, this play is about a part of Hull many of us know but might not understand, so being staged here is properly amazing.

“I believe completely that everyone has a story to tell, a world to let others in on and, I know it's not easy, but we just need to find a way through to telling it.”

Samuel Sims and Jay Grainger are writers from Hull, who took part in the Middle Child and Hull Truck Theatre writing groups respectively.

They advocate for authentic queer representation and this is their first commission as playwrights.

Their play Everyone We Know Has Kids follows Jack and Dylan, a queer couple in their mid 30’s, who love being uncles to their hilarious niece, but now it’s time to start a family of their own.

They said: “We’re so excited to be commissioned to tell a story that reflects not just our own, but that of so many others who are just as confused and frustrated.

“Whilst this play isn’t about us, it is heavily influenced by our experience of being ready to start a family, but not knowing where to start.”  

Noor Sobka is a Libyan theatre maker who grew up in Hull, with a particular interest in comedy and telling stories about the global majority and the Middle East and North Africa.

In her play Colonel Gadaddy, a north African, British teen’s life is flipped upside down when a dictator from her home country flees to the UK claiming to be her father.

Noor said: “I’m overjoyed to be given the opportunity to create and stage work in such a special place.

“I’m also really excited to see all the other amazing work that has been commissioned.”

Sean Climie is a drama graduate of the University of Hull, originally from near Glasgow.

In his monologue, The Pull Up, Hamza has been training, lifting heavier and heavier each week.

But when his high school bully walks in, Hamza is going to have to dig deeper than he’s ever dug before to overcome his enemy and the war raging inside of himself.

“I learned a lot from attending Fresh Ink 2024 and put the things I learned at the workshops into practice, so it’s nice to see the impact it’s had on my writing since.

“The opportunity to share the idea with a city who’s gym community has been so welcoming to me fills me with excitement.

Michelle Kelly is an actor, voice actor and singer who is passionate about storytelling through a queer, neurodivergent lens and platforming the work and talent of people of colour.

This is her first professional writing commission.

Her monologue Roll to React asks what is the right way to respond to a racial microaggression? Do you speak up or stay silent? Does the right way to respond even exist?

Michelle said: “I was over the moon to learn that I have been commissioned to create a piece of writing for Fresh Ink.

“Showcasing local talent and voices is such an essential part of theatre-making and Middle Child incredibly committed to this goal. It's an honour to count myself among those voices.”

Laura Wilson is a writer from Hull and local business owner, who is about to graduate with a degree in creative writing.

In her monologue, Meet You at the Corner, two Hull girls meet at Sunday School in the early nineties and became Best Friends Forever. 

Navigating difficult home lives, hormones, and self-doubt, they team up, to giggle their way through boys, bullies, love, and disaster. 

Laura said: “Working with Middle Child is an absolute honour. For my work to be read, enjoyed and then chosen amongst so many other talented writers is a privilege.

“I want to touch as many hearts and minds as I can through storytelling.” 

The 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 began in 2024 with a two-day festival in Hull’s Fruit Market, featuring six new plays alongside workshops and talks from the likes of David Byrne, Travis Alabanza, Yolanda Mercy and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.

This post was first published on the Middle Child website in January 2025.