Stephen John Sewell (born 13 March 1953) is an Australian playwright and screenwriter. Biography Born in Liverpool, New South Wales, Sewell's first theatre experience was in the 1970s in the fringe theatre while he was studying Science at the University of Sydney, where his first play was staged in 1975. In an interview in 2006 Sewell describes himself as an "angry writer" and a workaholic. Fascinated by the social world, his work ranges across many fields of study, from economics and politics to philosophy and psychology, and while he is considered a writer obsessed with dark themes, he is not himself a pessimist, saying, "No artist, no creator, ever sets forth without hope, even if the thing they create appears to be carved out of pitch black despair." On 15 October 2012, Sewell was appointed Head of Writing at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Awards Works Plays The Father We Loved on a Beach by the Sea (Currency Press) – first performed at Brisbane's La Boite Theatre Company in 1978; Playbox Theatre Company, Melbourne, 1983 Traitors (Alternative Publishing Co-operative, Nimrod Theatre Press, 1983) – first performed by the Australian Performing Group at the Pram Factory in Melbourne in 1979 Anger's Love The Blind Giant is Dancing (Currency Press, 1985, c. 1983) – first performed Adelaide 1982 Welcome the Bright World (Nimrod Theatre Press, 1983) Burn Victim – first performed Sydney 1983 Dreams in an Empty City (Currency Press in association with the State Theatre Company of South Australia, 1986) – first produced Adelaide 1986 Hate (Currency Press in association with Playbox Theatre Company and Belvoir St Theatre, 1988) – first performed Adelaide 1986 Miranda – first performed Adelaide 1989 Sisters (Currency Press in association with Playbox Theatre Company Melbourne, 1991) – first performed Melbourne 1991 King Golgrutha – first performed Adelaide 1991 The Garden of Granddaughters (Currency Press; Melbourne: Playbox Theatre Centre of Monash University, 1993) – first performed Melbourne 1993 Dust (Currency Press, 1997) – first performed Adelaide 1993 Identity By Helen Demidenko – first performed Adelaide 1996 The Sick Room (Currency Press in association with Playbox Theatre Centre, Monash University, 1999) Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America (2003) – One of Australia's most awarded plays, dealing with the War on Terror It Just Stopped – premiered at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, and the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney in 2006 and revived