Since 1993,
Simon has been the Producing Director for the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles.
He is the recipient of the 2011 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's
Milton Katselas Career Achievement Award in Directing.
In 2011, his production of the West Coast Premiere of Tennessee Williams' last play
A House Not Meant to Stand was a critical success at the Fountain Theatre and is the recipient of numerous awards
and nominations, including being named by the Huffington Post as one of the Top L.A. Theater Productions of 2011.
In 2010 he directed the Los Angeles Premiere of Michael Hollinger's Opus, which received rave reviews, was
extended twice, and was the recipient of numerous awards and nominations, including the OVATION, Los Angeles Drama Critics
Circle, LA Weekly, and Back Stage Garland awards for Best Production, Best Direction, and Best Ensemble, among others.
His stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby,
the first granted exclusive rights by the Fitzgerald Estate since 1926 (Finalist for the PEN Literary Award in Drama), completes
his Fitzgerald Trilogy of stage plays, which includes Tender is the Night (winner of the PEN 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).
He has produced the U.S. Premiere of Athol
Fugard's The Train Driver, the West Coast Premiere of Fugard's Coming Home, and the U.S. Premiere of Fugard's
Victory, at the Fountain Theatre, all 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; and is the producer of the 2011 World Premiere of Stephen Sachs' Bakersfield Mist, currently running
at the Fountain.
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 selected
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.
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, Theatre Communications
Group, the National New Play Network, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, and the Society of Directors and Choreographers, as
well as a host of political, environmental, and humanitarian advocacy groups.
slevymuse@aol.com
www.fountaintheatre.com
