Team Portway meet Mike Kenny the playwright of Derby Theatre's "Hansel and Gretel"

As part of our amazing “Hansel and Gretel” topic this term, the whole of Team Portway went to see Derby Theatre’s production of “Hansel and Gretel.” It was a very different production to the one the children have devised and will be performing on Dec 12^th and 13^th. We were very lucky to have the playwright Mike Kenny visit our school on Wednesday. He heard some of our original songs and talked to the whole school about “Hansel and Gretel” and his work as a playwright.

After assembly we had a press conference with Mike. He was interviewed by our arts ambassadors and party leaders.

Here are some of their reports:

“Mike Kenny stated that he made the character of the stepmother into a mother, because all step mothers aren’t evil”

“Hansel is his favourite character because he keeps eating and is scared of everything and that made him laugh”

“He used the characters of the rooks to move the story along and pad out the narrative”

“Originally the rooks were crows, but then he found out crows were loners, so changed them to rooks”

“The theme of ‘lost spectacles’ goes throughout the play as the characters can’t see what’s really happening”

“Sarah Brigham at Derby Theatre gave him the idea to do “Hansel and Gretel”

“Mike wrote most of the lyrics for the songs.”

“The characters of Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood, the three bears and the wolf, were introduced so the Youth Theatre at Derby could be involved.”

“The witch was played by a man, because Mike wanted to even up the parts for males and females, so women are not always the evil characters”

“I was interested in the talk with Mike Kenny as it helped me understand plays better”

“If Mike Kenny wasn’t a playwright he’d be a teacher”

“Mike Kenny has inspired me to write my own plays”

Welcome to the gallery! Please enjoy browsing our photographs.