The Modern Narcissus

Steven Hopley is a writer, director, producer and actor based in Sydney, Australia. His short stories have been published by Verbatim and Islet, and his plays have been performed around Australia, as well as at the Edinburgh, Glastonbury and Brighton festivals in the UK, in Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and even translated for performance in Finland. He founded the Central Coast Shakespeare Company in 2001, and directed several productions for the company including Romeo & Juliet as a four-hander, an outdoor Twelfth Night on Twelfth night, and an epic Macbeth on Terrigal Beach with a cast of 35. He was the winner of the Best New Writer award at the Short + Sweet festival in 2004 for Spots, and Best Director the following year for his next play Paradise. He wrote and directed the highly-acclaimed Fear, about the Howard Government's anti-terrorism laws, which played in the Crypt Theatre in 2006. In 2007, he ran the inaugural Short + Sweet Central Coast, and was Artistic Director of the late-night Grand Guignol horror show Theatre of Blood at the Newtown Theatre from 2009 to 2010. In 2011, he co-founded Hot Room Theatre, for which he directed The Shape of Things; and also the Sydney Shakespeare Company, for which he is Artistic Director, and has directed and created new editions for Othello, Romeo & Juliet, The Merchant of Venice and Hamlet on Fort Denison. He has had several full-length plays produced, including Loneliness, The Manor Comedy, William Shakespeare's Reservoir Dogs, and Monopoly, the last of which is published online with Australian Plays Transform. Since 2013, Steve has been writer-in-residence for Convict Footprints, researching and writing immersive performances for heritage locations, including Convict Footprints on the Old Great North Road at Wiseman's Ferry, as well as Convict Footprints at the Farm and Convict Footprints: Through the Years at Bella Vista Farm, winners of several NSW Tourism Awards and National Trust Heritage Awards.