Tuesday, 23 April 2019 at 7:00 pm – Tuesday, 23 April 2019 at 9:30 pm

Simon Stephens Presents…

Date: Tuesday 23rd April 2019

Time: 7pm - 9.30pm

Location: Royal Exchange Studio Theatre

Tickets: £13 / £11 – Available on the Royal Exchange website: https://www.royalexchange.co.uk/how-to-book 

Tony-Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens presents an evening of exciting new work from Manchester Metropolitan University where he is Professor of Scriptwriting. The series will feature scripts for stage, screen and radio by students of the Manchester Writing School performed by actors from the Manchester School of Theatre’s conservatory repertoire. Simon will also introduce performances of work by special guests, including Manchester Met’s own Alistair MacDowell and Anjum Malik. Hosted by Manchester’s iconic Royal Exchange Theatre.

Simon Stephens joined Manchester Met as Professor of Scriptwriting in 2017. Stephens is perhaps best known for his stage adaptation of the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play. Stephens has staged close to three dozen plays over two decades, including the critically acclaimed Pornography (2007), Punk Rock (2009) and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2012), which premiered at the National Theatre and later toured on the West End and Broadway. It went onto win seven Olivier awards, then the equal record for a single play. Many recent works, including The Funfair (2015) and Fatherland (2017) have premiered in Manchester theatres. Stephens also currently works as Artistic Associate at the Lyric Theatre and Associate Playwright at the Royal Court.

The writers and researchers at Manchester Met, based in the Manchester Writing School, are always exploring two distinct paths within their work; how creative writing might serve as a mode of enquiry into the world and how such research might be disseminated outside of the academy in order for it to have the greatest impact. Our Writers at Manchester Met series allows us to interrogate the very best contemporary writing and continue to explore new ways in which it might reach wider audiences.