Simon Levy

Levy was born in Surrey, England and grew up in San Francisco. He graduated from City College of San Francisco with an Associate in Arts and San Francisco State University with a BA and MA in Theater, and began his theater career as an actor in San Francisco, primarily with the New Shakespeare Company and then The Alley Theater in Houston, Texas. Prior to studying theater, he was a music major, played the saxophone, and was a jazz and rock-and-roll musician. He made his debut as a professional stage director in 1980 at the One Act Theatre Company in San Francisco, where he focused on the development of new work, directing many of the plays of Michael Lynch, among others, and at the Magic Theatre, directing the plays of Lynne Kaufman, among others. He moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and joined the staff of The Fountain Theatre in 1993. He has taught playwriting at UCLA Writer's Extension and Chapman University, been a site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council, and is a member of numerous theater and humanitarian organizations, including the Dramatists Guild, Society for Directors and Choreographers, and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.

• What I Heard About Iraq—an anti-Iraq War play adapted from Eliot Weinberger's acclaimed prose poem and performed at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival,[2] among many other venues (2006)
• Levy's stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby,[3] published by Dramatists Play Service—authorized and granted exclusive rights by the Fitzgerald Estate—has had over 100 productions around the world and continues to be produced. The play inaugurated the Guthrie Theater's new theater complex, was subsequently produced at Seattle Repertory Theatre,[4] and was a finalist for the PEN Award in Drama.[5] (2007)
• Produced the premiere of Stephen Sachs' Bakersfield Mist (2011)
• Directed the award-winning[6] and critically acclaimed premiere of Stephen Sachs' Cyrano,[7] a co-production of The Fountain Theatre and Deaf West Theatre (2012)
• Produced the West Coast premiere of Ken LaZebnik's On the Spectrum at The Fountain Theatre (2013)
• Directed the Los Angeles revival of The Normal Heart for The Fountain Theatre, winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards Best Production (Revival), among numerous other awards (2013)
• Produced the Los Angeles premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brothers Size for The Fountain Theatre (2014)
• Produced the West Coast premiere of John Biguenet's Broomstick for The Fountain Theatre (2014)
• Directed the Los Angeles premiere of Zayd Dorhn's Reborning for The Fountain Theatre (2015)
• Produced the premiere of Stephen Sachs' stage adaptation of Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric for The Fountain Theatre (2015)
• Directed the West Coast premiere of Athol Fugard's The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek for The Fountain Theatre (2015)
• Directed the West Coast premiere of Tennessee Williams' Baby Doll for The Fountain Theatre (2016)
• Produced the premiere of Robert Schenkkan's Building the Wall for The Fountain Theatre (2017)
• Directed the West Coast premiere of Aaron Posner's revised adaptation of Chaim Potok's The Chosen for The Fountain Theatre (2018)
• Directed The Immigrant by Mark Harelik for Sierra Madre Playhouse, where it received rave reviews.[8] (2018)
• Produced the premiere of Stephen Sachs' play Arrival & Departure for The Fountain Theatre (2018)

Levy is the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's Milton Katselas Career Achievement Award in Directing.[9][10]

• Official website
• Simon Levy at IMDb