The PlaySmelter Festival of New Works by Northern Theatre Creators is the only annual new works festival in Northern Ontario and is held in Sudbury. Starting in 2012, PlaySmelter has developed 10 original pieces by Northern creators, offered playwriting intensives for the community, and master classes with Emil Sher and Colleen Murphy (winner of the Governor General’s Award).

The Festival’s Public Staged Readings have fast become an institution, where food and drink are served alongside stimulating conversation about the process of theatre creation. New works presented to PlaySmelter’s enthusiastic audiences have included new plays based on northern landscapes, work in clown, works by aboriginal artists in addition to text-based plays.All dollars raised for PlaySmelter stay in Sudbury to support Northern theatre creators. In 2015, the PlaySmelterFestival hired more than 30 local Arts workers – all are compensated based on professional union rates.