Stephen M Hornby
Stephen M Hornby was born in London, was raised in Hertfordshire and to date has completed four degrees: BA Hons in Drama & Theatre Studies at the University of Kent (1987-1991), MA in Social Work at the UEA (1994-1996), MSt in Criminology, Penology & Management at Cambridge University and an MA in Playwriting at the University of Salford (2014-2016). As of 2016 he is researching a PhD in "Writing inter-male sex/uality history plays" with funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council. In addition to his career in theatre, Stephen has worked as a Youth Worker, Probation Officer, and in various roles in Business Development for a FTSE 100 outsourcing company.
Stephen writes and/or produces Festival Theatre each year for LGBT History Month and has done so since its inception in 2015 to mark the tenth anniversary of LGBT History Month in the UK. Each piece is an original drama exploring the hidden history of the LGBT community in a historically literate way, working in collaboration with an academic adviser. Festival Theatre is consistently the most popular and best attended event in the LGBT History Month calendar, and has been supported financially by the Arts Council of England and by private patrons including Russell T Davies. Festival Theatre pieces include:
- 2015: A Very Victorian Scandal by Stephen M Hornby and Ric Brady, historical adviser Jeff Evans, which dramatises the largest raid by Police on an LGBT venue in the UK, which happened in Manchester in 1880.
- 2016: Mister Stokes: The Man-Woman of Manchester by Abi Hynes, historical advisers Prof Stephen Whittle and Dr Emma Vickers, which dramatises the life of a Victorian trans pioneer Harry Stokes who was found drowned in the River Irwell in 1859.
- 2016: Devils in Human Shape by Tom Marshman which dramatises Georgian sodomy trials from Bristol.
- 2017: The Burnley Buggers' Ball by Stephen M Hornby which dramatises a seminal public meeting about proposals to open the UK's first lesbian and gay centre in 1971 and Burnley's Lesbian Liberator by Abi Hynes which dramatises an important battle for LGBT employment rights in 1978.
