MANUEL SIMONSWRITER / DIRECTOR / ACTOR / EDUCATOR

Stories that make
room for a more
human world.

I write, direct, teach, and perform at the intersection of theatre, memory, identity, and social imagination.

Explore
the work↓
[ BEGIN WITH A QUESTION. DISTRUST THE OBVIOUS ANSWER. ]
A SERIOUS
PRACTICE
WITH ROOM
FOR JOY
PLAYWRITING ✦ TEACHING ✦ DIRECTING ✦ PERFORMANCE ✦ DRAMATURGY ✦

Selected work

Projects in the spotlight.

Plays, performances, and collaborations that turn lived experience into shared inquiry.

01New play · In development

The Makeup Artist

An autobiographically rooted, formally adventurous drama about memory, a mother and son, and the difficult work of making a self from what we inherit.

  • Family
  • Queer identity
  • Memory
  • Transformation
02Play

Queer in the USA

A theatrical inquiry into queer life, public identity, and the stories through which a nation recognizes—or refuses to recognize—its people.

  • Queer theatre
  • American stories
  • Performance
03Interactive devised theatre

Trailblazers, Champions, & Changemakers

An environmentally staged, interactive gallery of lives where audiences encounter people whose courage, imagination, and resistance changed the world.

  • Devising
  • Living history
  • Audience encounter
04The 365 National Festival · The Public Theater

365 Days/365 Plays

Seven plays by Suzan-Lori Parks, seven nights, and seven distinct directorial visions—part of a yearlong national experiment in making theatre everywhere.

  • Suzan-Lori Parks
  • Faux-Real
  • Public performance
Manuel Simons smiling on a beach

About Manuel

Curiosity is a
creative practice.

Manuel Simons is a playwright, director, screenwriter, actor, and theatre educator whose work has been seen at national and international venues.

Across the rehearsal room, classroom, and page, Manuel creates experiences that invite people to examine how identity is performed, how memory shapes us, and how art can make difficult conversations possible.

Manuel is Assistant Professor of Acting and Performance at the University of Florida, where their teaching joins literature, cultural inquiry, embodied practice, and student-authored work.

98%of recent students reported stronger critical and creative engagement
$10KCreative B Catalyst Grant for interdisciplinary collaboration
K–16experience in arts education, curriculum, and educator learning

A connected practice

One question.
Many forms.

How might a story help us see ourselves—and one another—more fully?

01

WRITING

Plays and screen stories rooted in queer identity, family, memory, and transformation.

↗02

DIRECTING

Ensemble-centered work that makes literature immediate, embodied, and alive.

↗03

TEACHING

Experiential learning that joins rigorous inquiry to creative risk and public expression.

↗04

ACTING

A national and international performance practice across theatre, film, and television.

↗

Selected creative & educational touchstones

American Alliance for Theatre & Education
Distinguished Dissertation AwardLiterature to Life
Associate Director of EducationUniversity of Florida
Assistant Professor

The next conversation

Have a story to tell,
a class to transform, or
a room to activate?

Reach out to me for writing, directing, teaching, coaching, curriculum, and collaborative projects.