Create some magic this Winter for our Golden Fairytale Competition!

Magical beasts and fire-breathing dragons. A wolf in grannie’s clothing and a farmer with magic beans. A fairytale can be many things and this Christmas we’re challenging young writers across Suffolk to create their own for our Golden Fairytale Writing Competition. Taking inspiration from our Christmas show Rumplestiltskin we’re looking for the most imaginative fairytale in all the land, and there are some golden prizes up for grabs for two lucky winners!

The Eastern Angles Golden Fairytale Competition is open to children aged 7-12 living in Suffolk, submissions are open from Friday 20th October until Friday 24th November. The rules? Stories must be imaginative, and must feature something gold! Written stories can be up to 500 words, or you can choose to express your story through a narrative video recording (up to 2 minutes) or pictures (up to 2 pages).

Our judges will be crowning two winners, one aged 7-9 and another aged 10-12. Prizes include free tickets to see Rumplestiltskin at the Sir John Mills Theatre and an exclusive backstage tour of the theatre including the chance to meet the cast of the show, a free bag of books (thanks to Suffolk Libraries) and a £25 book voucher for Dial Lane Books.  

Meet the judges:

Kevin Dyer wrote Little Red (Eastern Angles’ show last winter). He has written and is directing Rumplestiltskin. He lives in an old old house at the edge of a forest. There are bats in the roof and spiders the size of mice. There is also, people say, a tunnel from his house to the castle the other side of the river. He has many faults. In particular, he can never resist a biscuit on a plate.

Martha Loader is an Ipswich-based writer, producer and actor. She won the Judges Award for the 2022 Bruntwood Prize for Playwrighting for her play Bindweed, as well as the ‘Award for Promising Young Playwright’ presented by Richard Curtis at INK Festival 2019. Martha is an alumni of the Mercury Playwrights, Soho Writers Lab and HighTide Writers programmes. 

Andrew Marsh is the owner of Dial Lane Books. He opened in March 2020 and then 21 days later Boris told him to close. It’s been an uphill struggle ever since. All he wants to do is sell books and that’s all he has wanted to do since he was about 9. He's passionate about books and reading and about getting youngsters interested in books. He loves nothing more than having a shop full of customers and talking about books and recommending them. He loves judging competitions and being part of the community however he can.

Jake Smith is the Artistic Director / CEO of Eastern Angles. He began his career as the Creative Learning Facilitator at Hull Truck Theatre before becoming Trainee Director at Chichester Festival Theatre. He has held positions as Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre, developing new work for the venue and was invited to the National Theatre Director Programme. He is passionate about excellence, ambition, pride and heart in the stories he creates.

A few tips from Rumplestiltskin Writer Kevin Dyer…

Every story needs three things: characters, things the characters ‘do’ (action) and the location where it happens. Make sure you choose exciting characters, really interesting things the characters ‘do’, and a special place to set your story.

Just get started and keep going and keep going until it’s all over.

Folk Tales are set in a folk tale ‘world’. Close your eyes and imagine that world… then let someone walk into it. What happens next?

Writers write about characters in trouble. Who is your character? What is the trouble they have to get out of?

How to submit your story:

Email it to emily@easternangles.co.uk – please include the story as an attachment, rather than in the body of the email

Post it to the Eastern Angles Centre, Gatacre Road, Ipswich IP1 2LQ

Drop it off in person to the Eastern Angles Centre

When submitting your story please make sure to include your full name, your age, and your contact details (parent/carer email address and phone number) – without this information we can’t give you any prizes!

All stories must be submitted by 12pm noon on Friday 24th November.

Thanks to Suffolk Libraries and Dial Lane Books for supporting the Eastern Angles Golden Fairytale Competition.