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.
His stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby, the first authorized and 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).
His current directing project
is the World Premiere of Stephen Sachs' contemporary deaf/hearing retelling of Cyrano, a co-production with Deaf
West Theatre, which opened to rave reviews at the Fountain Theatre on April 28th. Currently running.
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.
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 was 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.
He just finished a new play, an updating of Ibsen's An Enemy of the
People - A New Version for the 21st Century; and is writing two new projects, A Noble Peace and The Canary
(working title). He also wrote 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
www.thegreatgatsbyplay.com
