Simon Stephens is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

.

Hailing originally from Stockport

Stockport

Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...

, Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

, he is now an increasingly significant voice in English theatre. His plays are often humane explorations of family life. Whilst his writing is frequently brutal, within lies an optimism and an authenticity that sets him apart from many of the In-yer-face theatre

In-yer-face theatre

In-yer-face theatre describes drama that emerged in Great Britain in the 1990s. This category coined by British theatre critic Aleks Sierz is the title of his book, In-Yer-Face Theatre, first published by Faber and Faber in March 2001...

  generation.

He graduated from the University of York

University of York

The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...

.

Until 2005, Stephens worked in the literary department of the Royal Court Theatre

Royal Court Theatre

The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...

 in London. While there, he held a leadership position in the Court's Young Writers' Programme.

His play, Pornography, received its UK premiere at the Traverse theatre in Edinburgh as part of the 2008 Edinburgh Festival.

Punk Rock was a nominee for the upcoming 2010 TMA Awards

TMA Awards

The TMA Awards, established in 1991, are presented annually by the Theatrical Management Association in recognition of creative excellence and outstanding work in United Kingdom theatres...

 best new play.

Stephens is an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith

Lyric Hammersmith

The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on King Street, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which takes pride in its original, "groundbreaking" productions....

.

Plays

• Bluebird (1998)
• Herons (2001)
• Port (2002)
• One Minute (2003)
• Christmas (2004)
• Country Music (2004)
• On the Shore of the Wide World
  On the Shore of the Wide World
  On the Shore of the Wide World is a play by English playwright Simon Stephens. It opened 18 April 2005, at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, under the direction of Sarah Frankcom...
  
  (2005)
• Motortown (2006)
• Pornography (2007)
• Harper Regan
  Harper Regan (play)
  Harper Regan is a two act play by Simon Stephens that premiered at the National Theatre in 2008.-Setting:Set in UK, Autumn of 2006 : from Uxbridge to Stockport to Manchester and back.-Synopsis:...
  
   (2007)
• Sea Wall (2008)
• Punk Rock
  Punk Rock (play)
  Punk Rock is a play by the British playwright Simon Stephens which premiered at the Royal Exchange in 2009 and transferred to the Lyric Hammersmith directed by Sarah Frankcom...
  
  (2009)
• A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (with David Eldridge and Robert Holman) (2010)
• Marine Parade
  Marine Parade (play)
  Marine Parade is a musical play by the playwright Simon Stephens with music by Mark Eitzel. It was premiered in the 2010 Brighton Festival....
  
  (2010) (with music by Mark Eitzel
  Mark Eitzel
  Mark Eitzel is a musician, best known as a songwriter and lead singer of the San Francisco band American Music Club.-History:Eitzel spent his formative years in a military family living in Okinawa, Taiwan, Ohio and the United Kingdom. He moved to America in 1979.He started making music while he was...
  
  )
• The Trial of Ubu (2010)
• 'T5 (2010)
• Wastwater (2011), Premiere: April 2011 at the Royal Court Theatre
  Royal Court Theatre
  The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
  
  
• English language version of I Am The Wind by Jon Fosse
  Jon Fosse
  Jon Fosse is a Norwegian author and dramatist.Fosse was born in Haugesund, Norway and currently lives in Bergen. He debuted in 1983 with the novel Raudt, svart . His first play, Og aldri skal vi skiljast, was performed and published in 1994. Jon Fosse has written novels, short stories, poetry,...
  
  (2011)
• Three Kingdoms (2011)

External links

• Simon Stephens blog
• Time Out interview (04/2006)
• Simon Stephens' Guardian Blog page
• Guardian review of 'Pornography' at Edinburgh Festival 2008 (04.08.08)
• Current production of Simon Stephens' One Minute on in London

Telegraph review http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/3557508/Pornography-the-most-shocking-play-of-the-Edinburgh-Festival.html

• for a scene in "Harper Regan" perceived by some as antisemitic, produced at the Theatre du Rond Point in Paris, France