Member Profiles
Eric Simonson
Biography
Eric's plays and adaptations at Steppenwolf include Fake, Nomathemba (written with Ntozake Shange and Joseph Shabalala), Carter’s Way, Slaughterhouse-five, Honest (for First Look) and most recently, Lindiwe. Other plays include Louder Faster, Bang the Drum Slowly, The Last Hurrah, Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright (with Jeffrey Hatcher), Moby Dick, The Only Thing and Speak American. Writing credits on Broadway include Magic/Bird, Bronx Bombers and Lombardi. His work has been produced in Japan and throughout the United States at theaters including The Huntington Theatre Company, L.A. Theatre Works, City Theatre of Pittsburgh, The Kennedy Center, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Arizona Theatre Company, Madison Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Crossroads Theatre Company. Eric has directed opera across the country and in internationally, but mostly at Minnesota Opera, where he directed premieres of The Grapes of Wrath, the Shining, Silent Night (2011 Pulitzer Prize) and The Fix (libretto also). His production of Steppenwolf’s The Song of Jacob Zulu received six Tony® Award nominations, including one for best direction. Television writing credits include film Hamlet (featuring Campbell Scott, for Hallmark), Killing Reagan (NatGeo), and television shows Homecoming (WGA nomination), The Man in the High Castle (both on Amazon) and Swagger (Apple TV). He has directed documentary films featured on HBO, including A Note of Triumph (Academy Award), On Tiptoe (Academy Award nomination), and Studs Terkel: Listening to America (Emmy nomination). Eric had received a 2005 Princess Grace Statue Award for sustained artistic achievement, and is the Artistic Director of DKAF, an Arts Festival he founded in Door County Wisconsin.
Watch & Listen
Credits & Awards
Film
Director: Hamlet (co-direction with Campbell Scott); On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom; Topa Topa Bluffs; Ladies Room L. A.; Hamlet; A Note of Triumph; Listening to AmericaTheatre
Playwright/Director The Song of Jacob Zulu (Steppenwolf, Broadway); Worksong (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre); Carter's Way (Kansas City Repertory Theatre); Speak American (City Theatre of Pittsburgh) Adaptor/Director Moby Dick (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre); The Last Hurrah; Bang the Drum Slowly (Huntington Theatre). Director The Secret Rapture (Steppenwolf); String of Pearls (Primary Stages); The Grapes of Wrath (Pittsburgh Opera); Anna Christie; Richard III (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre); La Boheme; Bokchoy Variations; The Magic Flute; Handmaid's Tale (Minnesota Opera); Kunckle; Coriolanus; The Normal Heart (Next Theatre); Othello (Court Theatre); Hamlet (Huntington Theatre)Television
Seinfeld (NBC); The Ben Stiller Show (MTV); The Untouchables (ABC).Awards
Princess Grace Award; NCCJ Award; Tony Award nomination (The Song of Jacob Zulu); Academy Award for A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin; Emmy Award nomination; IDA Achievement Award (On Tip Toe).Member Profiles
Eric Simonson