Stephen Lowe (born Stephen James Wright) is an English playwright, theatre director and co-artistic director of Meeting Ground Theatre Company*. He started his career as an actor. Alongside his theatre plays, Stephen Lowe has written extensively for film, television and radio. His work has been translated and performed throughout the world and twelve of his stage plays are published by Methuen.
Born in Sneinton, Nottingham in 1947, his father was a labourer and his mother, a machinist in Nottingham's Lace Market. He studied at Mundella Grammar School and graduated with a BA combined Hons (English/ Theatre Studies) from Birmingham University, where he also did post - graduate research. He took his mother's maiden name as a professional identity in 1976, when he joined Alan Ayckbourn's ‘Scarborough Theatre in the Round Company’, as an actor and writer.
Lowe's plays include wide ranging subjects. For example, the takeover of Tibet by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1959 ('Tibetan Inroads') to a dying DH Lawrence trying to find a publisher for Lady Chatterley’s Lover ('Empty Bed Blues'); from Donald McGill postcards ('Cards'; a theatre play adapted for BBC TV retitled ‘Kisses on the Bottom') to a play about the C16th great magician, Dr John Dee ('The Alchemical Wedding'). His best-known plays are 'Touched' (joint winner of the George Devine Award in 1977), about a group of working-class women in Nottingham at the end of the second world war; 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists', about a group of housepainters in 1906 (adapted from the novel by Robert Tressell); and Old Big 'Ead' in the 'Spirit of the Man', in which football hero Brian Clough comes back from the dead to inspire a playwright working on his latest play. His two mayor translation plays are Ostrovsky’s ‘The Storm’ for RSC and Schiller’s ‘William Tell’ for Sheffield Crucible.
Lowe has had plays produced by the Royal Court, Royal Shakespeare Company, Riverside Studios, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Hampstead Theatre, Joint Stock; and premiered at theatres across the country including Scarborough Theatre in the Round, Sheffield Crucible, Liverpool Playhouse, Derby Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, Salisbury Playhouse, Plymouth Theatre Royal and Edinburgh Lyceum. Many of his plays were commissioned and first performed in his hometown at Nottingham Playhouse and Lakeside Arts Centre and produced in collaboration with Meeting Ground Theatre Company.
Lowe moved back to Nottingham in 1985 to start Meeting Ground Theatre Company with a group of artists, including actress - partner, Tanya Myers. At the core of Meeting Ground’s work lies his philosophy of “The Politics of the Imagination” (SJL/7).
Meeting Ground is committed to reaching out to new audiences in order to create “astonishing” theatre and has produced theatre in a diverse range of styles exploring an array of themes. 'Paradise', a musical co-production at the Nottingham Playhouse; ‘Demon Lovers’ a co-production with Liverpool playhouse, 'Strive' (Regional Tour) and ‘Smile’ (Lakeside Theatre) – were productions written by Stephen Lowe.
Stephen gave dramaturgical support to other Meeting Ground work produced/written/directed by co-artistic director Tanya Myers – these works include: 'Pushing On' (large scale street choreography), ‘Dance for the Girls’, ‘Falling Angels’, ‘Shoes’, 'Small Waves' (Canada Tour), 'The Sale of the Demonic Women', 'Plaisirs Amours', and 'Night of the Great Season' (European tours with Polish Director Zofia kalinska) and ‘Inside out of Mind’ (UK Tours). Workshops and Research collaborations form the bedrock of every Meeting Ground production, illustrated by 'The Luddite Project'. Collaborations with other artforms and artists from around the world including War Stories (led by Jonathan Chadwick) in Sibiu, brought together theatre workers from Serbia, Algeria, Gaza, and Rumania.
Lowe has worked with leading directors including Bill Alexander, Alan Ayckbourn, Annie Castledine, Jonathan Chadwick, Anthony Clark, Stephen Daldry, Alan Dossor, Richard Eyre, Bill Gaskill, David Leveaux, Danny Boyle, Tadeusz O’Sullivan, Barry Kyle, Pip Broughton, Jonathan Church, Clare Venables, Matt Aston, Sue Todd, Maggie Ford. Theatre and television work has featured actors such as Bruce Alexander, Warren Clarke, George Costigan, Kenneth Cranham, Sharon Duce, Tanya Myers, Emma Fielding, Brian Glover, Nigel Hawthorne, Bill Paterson, Neil Pearson, Kathryn Pogson, Linus Roache, Colin Tarrant, Marjorie Yates, Harriet Walter, Rachel Weisz, Vicky McClure.
Lowe was ‘Senior writing tutor’ at Dartington College of Arts 1978 -1982, ‘Writer in Residence’ at London Riverside Studios from 1982 – 1984. He has led numerous writing workshops including: The National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, BBC Television, The Arvon Foundations, Liverpool Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse. MA tutor on the Playwriting Studies programme at Birmingham University, and lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, Charles University in Prague and at the Performance Art Academy in Sofia. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Nottingham in 2011.
Lowe has been a member of various theatre boards and advisory panels, including Great Eastern Stage Company. He was Chair of Arts Council East Midlands and a national member of ACE board. He is currently Honorary President of the historic subscriber’s library Bromley House in Nottingham.
As a writer, Lowe has particularly championed Nottingham, drawing on its radical history in his work and has long argued that Nottingham was not getting the recognition it deserved for its literary legacy. In 2015 Nottingham was officially named UNESCO City of Literature with Lowe as honorary president. The City of Nottingham named a tram in his honour.
