Events

Family show celebrates rising local talent

L-R: Ben Welch and Karr Kennedy in rehearsals at Nonsuch Studios – Photo Credit: Fraser Youngson

Nottingham Playhouse has unveiled the cast and creative team for its festive family show, Pinocchio – and it features new talent from across the city.

Pinocchio tells the tale of a wooden puppet who suddenly realises he is not a ‘real boy’ as he always thought. Struggling to fit in, he sets of on an adventure with his trusty sidekick Cricket to find out how to become a real boy –meeting a series of larger-than-life characters along the way.

The production is the Playhouse’s yearly show for children who are too young for pantomime – with a host of comical costumes, silly songs and delightful dancing. The audience is invited to move about, shout and laugh as much as they please.

Director Hannah Stone said: “Pinocchio is a classic tale that has been loved by families for generations, and we’re excited to give it an exciting new twist it this Christmas. We’re working together as a team to create something that will make kids giggle and really capture their imagination.”

The two-hander cast includes Karr Kennedy (Chelsea’s Choice, Alter Ego and A Matter of Race, Zakiya Theatre) in the title role of Pinocchio, who was in the community cast of Nottingham Playhouse’s Coram Boy in the summer of 2019. She is joined by Ben Welch (Mrs. Green, Nottingham Playhouse and Jack Rooke: Happy Hour, Soho Theatre), from Nottingham, who will be playing a host of fun characters including Gepetto, Felix Feline and the Blue Fairy.

This commitment to supporting the best local talent is continued with the creative team. Pinocchio is writer Sarah Middleton’s first professionally produced play. The writer, from Derby, entered the script for Pinocchio as part of an open-call to writers from across the East Midlands. Entries were made anonymously, and her play was selected by judges from Nottingham Playhouse following an overwhelming number of submissions. Designer Georgie White is a graduate of Nottingham Trent University, who won the opportunity to design the set as part of the annual Playhouse Prize competition (an annual collaboration with the NTU Theatre Design course).

Director Hannah Stone is originally from Derby and has lived in Nottingham for 12 years. She has a long-standing relationship with the Playhouse, having worked with them as a freelancer for the last decade. During 2019 she has helped with summer storytelling events, and was a producer of the Party Somewhere Else which took place at the Playhouse earlier in the year. Her company The Gramophones has also performed three different shows at Nottingham Playhouse.

Pinocchio will be performed between Wednesday 11 December 2019 and Saturday 4 January 2020 in Nottingham Playhouse’s Neville Studio. The production will subsequently tour to primary schools, which the Playhouse has been doing for the last forty years.

More tickets and information can be found at: nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/whats-on/family/pinocchio-2019/.

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