Simon is a dramatist and theatre director.
Born and brought up in Swansea, Simon studied English at University College, London and originally trained as an actor at RADA. Until 2007, Simon was Artistic Director of the national company for new writing in Wales – the multi-award-winning Sgript Cymru, which he then followed with participation on the prestigious Clore Leadership Programme – one of only a small number of theatre directors to be involved so far.
As a dramatist, Simon’s first original play Badfinger premiered at The Donmar Warehouse and was nominated in The Most Promising Playwright category of The Evening Standard Drama Awards in 1997. He then went on to write Wales>Alaska for The Royal National Theatre Studio and Garageland, which toured Wales and England with the Steel Wasps. Subsequent commissions include Milk and Honey for Soho Theatre Company and Mog’s Rock – a comedy series for Presentable Productions/BBC Wales.
In 2000, Simon founded Sgript Cymru and began work as its Associate Director. He became Artistic Director in 2001, responsible for over twenty new productions and a rolling programme of writer development.
His directing work for Sgript Cymru includes Franco’s Bastard by Dic Edwards (Best New Play TiW Awards 2003), past away by Tracy Harris, Indian Country by Meic Povey (Best Actress and Best Newcomer TiW Awards 2004), Gary Owen’s Ghost City (Best New Play and Best Actress TiW Awards 2005), which took the company to New York for the first time, Crossings by Clare Duffy, which played in Wales, London and Edinburgh, and Meic Povey’s Life of Ryan… and Ronnie (Best Production and Best Actor TiW Awards 2006), which featured in a BBC Wales documentary and will soon be a major new film for S4C. Acqua Nero by Meredydd Barker was his seventh and final production for the company before its successful merger with The Sherman Theatre, Cardiff’s main producing theatre.
His other directing credits include Forever Yours Marie Lou (BAC), Nothing to Pay, which he also adapted from the novel by Caradoc Evans (BAC and tour), The Dresser (Plymouth Theatre Royal) and Badfinger (Swansea Grand Theatre and tour).
Simon was also the first Welsh Fellow on The Clore Leadership Programme, graduating in October 2007.
His recent projects have included a short film called The Good Soldier commissioned for the ITV network, an episode of Crash – a new series about junior doctors – for BBC Wales and Red Planet, devising and directing a new version of The Princess and The Pea with Likely Story, masterclasses at Sherman Cymru, The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and The University of Glamorgan.
He has also been awarded a Creative Wales Award for innovative theatre in 2009.
