Denise Simone to Step Down at Company of Fools

By: Sep. 08, 2016
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

After 25 years helping to lead Company of Fools, founding member and Core Company Artist Denise Simone will step down from her full-time staff position on October 31, 2016. Simone is leaving to refocus her professional life away from day-to-day management in favor of more artistically focused projects.

"This feels like the right time for both me and Company of Fools," said Simone. "But I will still live in the Valley I love and will look forward to working with the Fools as an artist. John Glenn, my dear friend and colleague of over 28 years, will continue to lead the Company forward with purpose, grace and theatrical programming that touches our hearts and minds."

One of the founding members of Company of Fools in 1992 in Richmond, Virginia, Simone moved to Hailey with her family in 1996 and relocated the theatre company to Idaho. Under her leadership, Company of Fools has produced more than 150 plays and was the first theatre in Idaho to be awarded Constituent Theatre status by Theatre Communications Group (the national organization for the nonprofit professional theatre). The Company also received the 2004 Idaho Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and has been recognized myriad times for its many important contributions to the local community.

In one way or another, Simone has been integrally involved in nearly every Company of Fools production since the Company's inception. Local theatre fans will recall her memorable onstage roles at The Liberty Theatre in plays such as The Syringa Tree (in which she played 32 different characters), Shirley Valentine, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and Other Desert Cities. She has also directed more than 20 plays and readings for Company of Fools during her tenure, including Proof, Almost, Maine, Doubt, The Glass Menagerie,Distracted, A Christmas Carol, Frankie and Johnnie in the Clair de Lune and Dead Man's Cell Phone.

Over the years, Simone has touched the lives of innumerable Wood River Valley residents as an arts educator. Thousands of elementary schoolchildren throughout Blaine County have benefited from her instruction in Company of Fools' groundbreaking Stages of Wondertheatre arts and creativity program, and countless others have enjoyed her dynamic teaching style in the Company's adult acting classes and workshops. Simone's many contributions to the arts were recognized by the State of Idaho in 2014 when she was named recipient of the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.

"Denise's outstanding work over the last 20 years resulted in an awarding-winning theatre company that has made a profound contribution to this community," said Kristin Poole, Artistic Director at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, with which Company of Fools merged in 2012. "Her commitment to the arts in general has served as a model for many of us. We will miss her thoughtful voice but look forward to her continuing to share her superb talent as an actor and a director."

"I am so excited for Denise as she begins to take steps into her next adventure," added John Glenn, Simone's co-Artistic Director at Company of Fools, "and I'm thrilled she'll be continuing her journey as an artist with the Fools. I get excited knowing that we'll be seeing her on the stage here for years to come."

Some of Simone's near-term projects will include directing Constellations for Company of Fools in February 2017, writing a performance piece for The Center's 2017 BIG IDEA project on Contemplative Practice, and appearing in Boise Contemporary Theatre's April 2017 production of The Clean House.

On her upcoming professional transition, Simone reflected, "One thing that doesn't change is my deep gratitude and love for this community and for this family that is Company of Fools. For me, it has been a life-rather than work."

A national search for an Associate Artistic Director is currently underway, with more than 80 submissions received to date. The Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Company of Fools hope to announce the new member of the team by late October.



Comments

To post a comment, you must register and login.

 

 

Join Team BroadwayWorld

Are you an avid theatergoer in Boise? We're looking for people like you to share your thoughts and insights with our readers. Team BroadwayWorld members get access to shows to review, conduct interviews with artists, and the opportunity to meet and network with fellow theatre lovers and arts workers.

Interested? Learn more here.

 

Vote Sponsor


Videos