sebastian michael - writer
Sebastian was born in Manchester, UK, into a Swiss family. He grew up in Basel, Switzerland, where his first two plays, Sentimental Breakdown... and Dialog were staged while he was still at school and university.
Since moving to London at the age of 21, he has written several stage plays, among them The Power of Love, Love Hurts and Time After Time, which together now form the Love Trilogy and each of which individually reached the shortlist, long list and final ten respectively of Soho Theatre's Verity Bargate Award in separate years. Top Story received a first outing as a rehearsed reading at the ICA as part of the Accidental Festival 2008 and his latest play Elder Latimer is in Love premiered at Arcola Theatre in September 2009. Earlier plays of Sebastian's were seen on the London and Edinburgh fringe and include QED, Sisters and All the World. He also wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Monstersound which made it into the final round of the Musical of the Year Competition in Copenhagen and the book for Alvaro's Balcony, which was shown at the Landor Theatre in 2008. Sebastian has written and directed two short films: Twenty-Six Takes on Life without Allen, which was screened at festivals in Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Lisbon and Padua, and The Study of Bunkers & Mounds in a Temperate Climate (Relatively Speaking) which was in the official selection for the International Film Festival Locarno 2007. His first feature film The Hour of Living was completed in February 2012 and has since been nominated ‘Best Feature’ at the 2012 Basel Film Awards in Switzerland, prior to receiving its Festival Premiere at the XVIII Film Festival della Lessinia in Italy and its North American premiere at the New York City Independent Film Festival. Sebastian has also written a novel, Angel, and he is the writer of Genius Planet, a collaboration with Prof Ludger Hovestadt and Vera Bühlmann of ETH Zürich which postulates a radical roadmap from energy scarcity to abundance and is due for publication in 2013. Sebastian's latest play Baur au Lac is in development towards production at the new Park Theatre in Finsbury Park.. |