Since 1993,
Simon has been the Producing Director for the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles.
He recently launched
The Great Gatsby Play website - www.TheGreatGatsbyPlay.com
In
2011 he was the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's Milton Katselas Career Achievement Award in Directing.
His trilogy of F. Scott Fitzgerald stage adaptations
- The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, and The Last Tycoon - are being
published by Dramatists Play Service. They are the
first authorized adaptations that have been granted exclusive rights by the Fitzgerald Estate.
The Great Gatsby was a Finalist for the PEN Literary Award in Drama, and has been produced across America, with productions in Canada and Ireland. Tender
is the Night won the PEN Literary Award in Drama, as well as 7 Drama-Logue awards including Best
Production and Direction. The Last Tycoon won 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's currently finishing 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,
Dome and The Canary (working titles).
He will be directing the Los Angeles Revival of Larry Kramer's acclaimed play, The Normal Heart, for the Fountain Theatre in Fall 2013.
His last directing project was 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 28, 2012 for a 4-month sold out run. It recently won 4 Los Angeles
Drama Critics Circle Awards, including Best Production, Best Adaptation, Best Direction, and
Best Actor.
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.
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.
He has produced the following plays by Athol Fugard at the Fountain Theatre: U.S. Premieres of
The Blue Iris, The Train Driver, and Victory, the West Coast Premiere of Coming Home, and the World Premiere of Exits and Entrances, all of which received rave reviews, plus numerous 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;
was the producer of the 2011 World Premiere of Stephen Sachs' Bakersfield Mist; and is the producer
of the West Coast Premiere of Ken LaZebnik's On the Spectrum, scheduled to open at the Fountain Theatre in March, 2013.
His directing and
producing credits are numerous, over 85 productions in Los Angeles and San Francisco that have won more than 150 awards.
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
