Nottingham schoolgirl designs winning Cinderella shoe

One lucky panto lover had the chance to meet Cinderella and Prince Charming backstage at Nottingham Playhouse, after winning the shoe design competition to find Cinderella a new shoe.

The theatre launched the competition last month, giving aspiring artists and designers the chance to get creative and design a new glittering shoe for the princess, which would then be made into a real pair of shoes and exhibited at the Playhouse over the panto season.

Lylah Wright, aged nine from Richard Bonington Primary School in Arnold, was the successful winner who chose to go against the traditional glass slipper, opting for a deep purple Doc Martin, complete with glitter, sequins and velvet laces.

She said: “I’m really excited to have won the competition! I put a lot of hard work into my design and I spent a lot of time making it look neat and pretty. I chose the design because I really like Doc Martins and I wanted to include as much detail as I could – including the ugly sisters, a pumpkin and a carriage.

“The best bit about winning was meeting the Cinderella and the Prince backstage and seeing my shoe in real life was really special. It is a perfect match with Cinderella’s dress too – I wasn’t expecting that so it made me happy!”

Kenneth Alan Taylor, director and author of Cinderella, judged the competition, along with Kelly Agredo, who is playing the role of Cinderella.

Kelly said: “We are delighted to announce Lylah as our winner for the competition. We had so much fun looking through all of the designs and it was obvious how much effort and time had gone into making the designs stand-out.

“We want to say a big thank you to everyone that entered, and hope that all the designers had as much fun drawing as we did choosing. We saw some really creative, inventive and sparkly designs and each child who entered the competition now has a chance to see their design on display for a limited time at the Playhouse.”