Academic Writing

Dr. James Kenworth is a theatre practitioner/playwright and academic. He is Senior Lecturer in Media Narrative at Middlesex University. His research interests/specialisms include the contemporizing of biographical and historical drama in new writing for the stage; localized or ‘remixed’ adaptations of literary classics for a specific community/location; use of theatre in non-traditional/alternative performance spaces. Recent/current creative practice includes a sextet of localist-based, East End plays utilizing unexpected and unconventional theatre spaces in the community: When Chaplin Met Gandhi, Revolution Farm, A Splotch of Red: Keir Hardie in West Ham, Alice in Canning Town, Elizabeth Fry: Angel of the Prisons, Myrninterest: The Outside/Inside Life of Madge Gill.

James’s professional practice in site-local/responsive and locally engaged/driven new writing for the stage is attracting wider attention in the academic and higher education community. He has presented numerous papers/talks on the Newham Plays and has been invited to talk and inform peers/educators about the Newham Plays at Creative Writing Conferences abroad and in London. He has written about his creative practice for peer-reviewed journals Critical Stages/Scenes Critique and RiDE Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance.