Stephen Unwin
Stephen is a British playwright, translator, director, writer and campaigner. He has written eight books on theatre and drama as well as translations of Ibsen, Brecht and Schnitzler. He has also written five original plays, including ALL OUR CHILDREN (Jermyn Street Theatre, London and Sheen Center, New York) and LAUGHING BOY (Jermyn Street Theatre and Theatre Royal, Bath).
Stephen is currently working with a US producer on a film adaptation of ALL OUR CHILDREN and is and is under commission for a screenplay based on the life of a significant disability campaigner. For stage, he is translating THE STOWAWAY, a re-discovered masterpiece by German writer Maria Lazar.
As a director, Stephen spent much of the 1980s at the Traverse in Edinburgh where he directed Scottish and European plays with some remarkable young actors, including Tilda Swinton, Simon Russell Beale, Alan Cumming and Ken Stott. Many of his productions transferred to London theatres, including the Royal Court, the Donmar and the Almeida.
In 1993, he founded English Touring Theatre, for whom he directed more than 30 productions of classical and new plays, and, in 2008, he became Artistic Director of the Rose Theatre in Kingston, which he ran until January 2014.
He’s directed more than 20 operas at the Almeida, Garsington, Buxton, ENO, the RCM and the Royal Opera House.
Stephen’s books include the very popular Pocket Guide to Shakespeare’s Plays, So You Want to be a Theatre Director? and A Guide to the Plays of Bertolt Brecht. He has taught in universities and drama schools and given public lectures, conference keynotes and open workshops.
Stephen is a former Chair of KIDS, a national charity which provides a wide range of services for disabled children, young people and their families.