Since 1993, Simon has been the Producing Director/Dramaturg
for the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles.
His stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby inaugurated the Guthrie
Theater’s new theatre complex in July 2006, is in preparation for a commercial run in London, and was a Finalist for
the 2007 PEN Award in Drama.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer review: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/theater/292159_theater14.html)
His
critically-acclaimed production of What I Heard About Iraq, which he adapted and directed, was extended for
5 months at the Fountain Theatre where it was nominated by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for Best Adaptation; was
produced at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it won the Fringe First Award; has been read/produced in 45 cities
around the world; was produced as a radio play by BBC 4 Radio, May 2007; was produced at the 2007
Adelaide Fringe Festival where it won the Advertiser Weekly Fringe Award and was nominated for a Drama Critics Circle
Award; received a 30-city UK tour April-June 2007 that culminated at the Arts Theatre, London; and was the BBC's official
entry for Best Drama Adaptation in the 2008 Prix Italia.
(An Electronic Published Version of the play, What
I Heard About Iraq, is available for $10.00 at http://fountaintheatre.com/buytickets.html.)
His
current writing project, courtesy of the Tennessee Williams Estate, is a stage version of Tennessee's novella, The Roman
Spring of Mrs. Stone.
He recently produced for the Fountain Theatre the U.S. Premiere of Athol Fugard's new
play, Victory, which received unanimous rave reviews; and produced the West Coast Premiere of Bernard Weinraub's
The Accomplices which opened in July 2008 to rave notices, and will re-open April 2009 at the Odyssey Theatre,
Los Angeles.
He's directing Anna Ziegler's Photograph 51, which opened March 21st at the Fountain Theatre and
is Pick of the Week, L.A. Weekly.
In 2007 he re-mounted his Ovation award-winning production of Master Class
for Santa Barbara Theatre, and directed Tennessee Williams' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, winner
of a 2008 Back Stage West Garland Award for Direction.
In 2006 he directed Dael Orlandersmith in her one-woman
play, The Gimmick, for the Fountain Theatre, Critic's Choice, Los Angeles Times, and for which she won the L.A. OVATION
Award for Solo Performance.
In 2005 he directed Rupert Holmes’ Accomplice at the Colony Theatre, Critic’s
Choice in Back Stage West and recipient of 4 Back Stage West 2005 Critics List Honorable Mentions (Production, Direction,
Performance, Design).
Other recent shows he's directed include: Lynne Kaufman's Daisy in the Dreamtime, Uncle
Vanya for Actors Co-op, and Going to St. Ives (which went to the Edinburgh Festival). His critically-acclaimed
production of Terrence McNally's Master Class ran for 8 months and won the 2004 L.A. OVATION Award for Best Production.
He also directed Awake and Sing for International City Theatre in Long Beach, nominated by the Los Angeles Drama
Critics Circle for Revival of the Year.
He was the producer of the World Premiere of Athol Fugard's Exits and Entrances,
which ran for 7 months at the Fountain Theatre, and won 3 OVATION Awards and 5 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, including
Best Production and World Premiere Play; it premiered Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in April 2007, and was produced
at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
His adaptation of Gatsby, the first granted exclusive rights by
the Fitzgerald Estate since 1926, completes his Fitzgerald Trilogy of stage plays, which includes Tender is the Night
(winner of the PEN West Literary Award in Drama, 7 Drama-Logue awards including Best Production and Direction, as well as
numerous other awards, and has been published in the Modern American Literature Series, Prestige Books), and The Last
Tycoon (winner of 5 Back Stage West/Drama-Logue awards including Best Adaptation and Best Direction, and was nominated
for the prestigious Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Ted Schmitt Award for Original Play).
Other writing projects include,
A Noble Peace, based on the life of Nobel Laureate, Andrei Sakharov, and a contemporary adaptation of Ibsen’s
An Enemy of the People (A Modern Version for America); and he just finished Sessions with a Dead Poet, inspired
by Dr. Frederick Kurth’s book about the father of modern Japanese poetry, Hagiwara Sakutaro.
His one-act, Pink
Skin, was produced April, 2004 at the Bloomington Playwrights Project in Indiana, and at thesideproject in Chicago, June
2005. His one-act play, She-Who-Is-Made-Of-Clay, among its many awards, is in pre-production as a short film. His
one-act play, Vivian on the White Wall, was a finalist for the Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville.
His
directing and producing credits are numerous, over 85 productions in Los Angeles and San Francisco that have won more than
150 awards. Some of his other directing credits include: Night of the Iguana, Summer and Smoke, and Orpheus
Descending at The Fountain; the Off-Broadway premiere of James Mellon's Unfinished Song at the Provincetown
Playhouse; and award-winning productions at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, including Lynne Kaufman's The Couch.
Also in San Francisco he was the Founding Producer of the Playwrights Unit, One Act II, which specialized in new work
by local writers; became Artistic Director of the One Act Theatre Company where he produced and directed many award-winning
productions; and was general manager of San Francisco's hit revue, Beach Blanket Babylon.
He teaches Playwriting
at UCLA Extension, is a site evaluator for both the National Endowment for the Arts and California Arts Council, and is a
member of the Dramatists Guild, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, the National New Play Network, the F. Scott
Fitzgerald Society, PEN USA, and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, as well as a host of political, environmental,
and humanitarian advocacy groups.
slevymuse@aol.com
www.fountaintheatre.com
