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 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 is a modern translation/adaptation of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People: A New Version
for America.
Plans for 2010 include: directing the Los Angeles Premiere of Michael Hollinger's Opus, which
opened to glorious reviews on June 19th (running until July 25th); directing the West Coast Premiere of Tennessee Williams'
last play A House Not Meant to Stand; and producing the U.S. Premiere of Athol Fugard's latest play The Train
Driver.
He recently produced the West Coast Premiere of Athol Fugard's Coming Home, and the U.S.
Premiere of Fugard's Victory, both of which received unanimous rave reviews, awards and nominations; he also produced
the West Coast Premiere of Bernard Weinraub's The Accomplices to rave notices, which was remounted at the Odyssey
Theatre in 2009.
In 2009 he directed Anna Ziegler's Photograph 51, which was Pick of the Week, L.A. Weekly,
received OVATION Award nominations for Best Season/Best Production/Lead Actress, received L.A. Weekly Award nominations for
Ensemble/Lead Female Performance/Lighting Design, and is the recipient of several awards.
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 taught Playwriting at UCLA Extension, was 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
