Blood Brothers - the show must go on

Year 11 English Literature - Blood Brothers

Head of English, Mrs Gidden, is bringing Blood Brothers to life even though pupils are unable to watch it on stage this year. 

Actor Michael Southern, who has played Mickey in the West End for more than 10 years, will do live reconstructions of the key scenes over Zoom for Priory’s Year 11 GCSE pupils as well as a question and answer session. 

“Most academic years we go to watch a production at the Preston Charter Theatre or we have been as far as Stoke and last year we were meant to go to Birmingham but lockdown stopped it," said Mrs Gidden.

“I knew this year we needed to do something different so we got in touch with Michael.

"He will act out live reconstructions of some of the key scenes and answer any questions from our pupils about the play in a session before Christmas.

“Willy Russell is the patron of Michael’s company so Michael knows him and knows the correct interpretation of the play. 

“It’s a struggle to have empathy with some characters such as Linda but the pupils will get the chance to find out why they should have sympathy with them, from the person who created them. 

“It’s tailor-made for GCSE pupils and it’s a much improved version of just watching a production on YouTube. They will get the chance to dig into the mind of an actor.” 

The event will be live streamed to all Year 11 English classes on Tuesday, 15 December.  The session will last for two hours.

Michael co-founded Stage-ed with Stephen Palfreman in 2012. Michael played ‘Sammy’ in Blood Brothers in the West End for 10 years, as well as a year on the UK National tour. On screen Michael has appeared in numerous short films, and also has feature film credits. Michael has delivered workshops across the UK and Europe and is regularly asked to design week long theatre courses to be delivered in schools, performing arts schools, and universities. In London Michael delivers workshops for London Theatre Tours and Pineapple Performing Arts School.