James Kenworth is a qualified teacher, playwright and creative writing/drama workshop leader/devisor. His plays include Johnny Song, Gob, Polar Bears, issue-led plays Everybody’s World (Elder Abuse), Dementia’s Journey (Dementia), and site-specific plays When Chaplin Met Gandhi (Kingsley Hall), Revolution Farm (Newham City Farm) and A Splotch of Red: Keir Hardie in West Ham (Newham Libraries/Community Links). His play, Dementia’s Journey, won the 2015 University of Stirling International Dementia Award in the category: Dementia & the Arts. When Chaplin Met Gandhi has recently been published by TSL Publications.
James is a regularly commissioned playwright and has been the recipient of writing grants from London Borough of Newham, The Royal Docks Trust, The Arts Council and The Gandhi Foundation. His plays have been performed at various venues across the UK, including Warehouse Theatre, King’s Head Theatre, Soho Theatre, Harrogate Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Theatre Royal Stratford East (studio), as well as unique, one-off, site-specific venues such as Kingsley Hall, Newham City Farm and Newham libraries.
He has extensive experience of planning, preparing and teaching playwriting and creative writing programmes/workshops for a wide variety of age groups and learners including children, young people, students and adult learners. He has worked on a regular basis on the delivery of these programmes with leading organisations such as Spread The Word, Cardboard Citizens, Workers Educational Association, Newham Adult Learning Service, Newham Libraries, Soho Theatre, and University of East London and Middlesex University.
James will shortly be undertaking a PhD in Public Works with Middlesex University based on his output/work as a playwright.
James teaches on the following modules:
Writing and the Contemporary World, BA English
Language, Literature and Writing, BA English
Words and the World, BA Creative Writing and Journalism)
His key areas of teaching interest are:
Creative writing, new writing, playwriting, theatre, screenwriting, film theory/studies
Research Outputs and Interests
Performing Bloom’s Pyramid, National Association of Writers in Education Magazine, 2016
Revolution Farm Education Resource Pack, 2016
Performing Bloom’s Pyramid, CertEd/PGCE Research Conference, University of Westminster, 2016
When Chaplin Met Gandhi, TSL Publications, 2016
Revolution Farm seminar, Middlesex University, 2016
When Chaplin Met Gandhi Education Resource Pack, 2012
Tamasha/Mulberry School Writers’ Attachment Scheme, National Association of Writers in Education Magazine, 2011
Plays/Productions
A Splotch of Red: Keir Hardie in West Ham, 2016
Dementia’s Journey, 2015
Revolution Farm, 2014
When Chaplin Met Gandhi, 2012
The Last Story in the World, 2011
Everybody’s World, 2008
Polar Bears, 2006
Gob, 2003
Gob, 1999
Johnny Song, 1998
James is a Trustee of Royal Docks Trust, a charity providing community benefits to the Docklands side of Newham, and he is a Board Member of Talawa Theatre Company, the UK's primary Black led touring company. He was also an Associate Artist at Theatre Venture between 2009-11.
