Stephen dramatises archives for stage and screen, revivifying the past and finding forgotten stories that demand to be heard. He is the Artistic Director of Inkbrew Productions, his multiple award-winning creative company based in Manchester. They specialise in making LGBTQ+ heritage performances working in theatres, galleries, museums and embedded in communities bringing the queer past to life to illuminate the present.
Stephen is the first National Playwright in Residence to LGBT+ History Month, a post he has held since 2014. He has completed successful writing residences and commissions with Islington Museum, the People’s History Museum and Bolton Museum. He worked for fifteen years as a Probation Officer, is a trained Rogerian counsellor and groupworker and also has a M.A. in Social Work (UEA, Norwich) and a M.St. in Criminology (Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge) where he won the Radzinowicz Prize for research excellence. He was awarded a PhD in Playwrighting in 2021.
He is under commission to Routledge for a full-length book Writing from Archives for Stage & Screen, due late 2024. His latest work is The BBC’s First Homosexual a commission from BBC & AHRC Fellow Dr Marcus Collins to dramatise a lost radio documentary on homosexuality for the BBC 100 celebrations. After an initial script-in-hand performance, the piece is booking a full production tour nationally for 2025. He currently has two projects in paid screen development and has completed Writers’ Rooms with Rope Ladder Fiction for other screen projects.
Research Interests
Screenwriting, playwriting, writing from archives, LGBT+ films and plays, British theatre, queer history
Writing Modules I Lead/Teach
Introduction to Screenwriting, Playwriting, The Writer’s Practice (Introduction to Playwriting), Performance Research Project, Making Performance for Social Media