Jeanmarie Simpson

@JeanmarieSimpson

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Jeanmarie Simpson is an American theatre artist whose work centers women who challenge power structures—political, religious, and psychological. Her solo and ensemble plays often explore grief, justice, memory, and resistance, using theatrical language that blurs the sacred and the personal. She is best known for A Single Woman, a two-hander about Jeannette Rankin that premiered Off-Broadway at The Culture Project, was filmed with Judd Nelson and the voices of Martin Sheen and Patricia Arquette (featuring music by Joni Mitchell), and ultimately toured to 53 countries across five continents. The piece earned “Best Theatrical Surprise” from Sacramento News & Review and was presented at CalArts, where she was a Surdna Distinguished Guest Artist. Other performance highlights include The Road to Mecca, directed by Zakes Mokae, and Shakespeare’s Will by Vern Thiessen, directed by Leonard Nimoy. Her original works include Coming In Hot (in which she portrayed 19 military women), HERETIC – the Mary Dyer Story, and The Jewish Question, which received Honorable Mention from the Jewish Plays Project. Her recent plays deepen her turn toward spiritually-inflected and memory-haunted work: Even Unto Death, a six-character passion drama through the eyes of Joan of Arc’s mother Ghosts of the Gilded Stage, a theatrical meditation on mortality and legacy Lear: A Solo Adaptation, which reimagines the king’s last moments as a hallucinatory unraveling Her work has been supported by six Sierra Arts Foundation, twelve Nevada Arts Council, and multiple National Endowment for the Arts Theatre grants. In 2022, she was awarded a Living History Foundation grant for Bambino Mio – Bright Little Flame, about Maria Montessori. She served as a panelist for the NEA’s 2023 Theatre Grants for Arts Projects. She is Founding Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Matters, a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and retired from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Actors’ Equity Association, and SAG-AFTRA. Jeanmarie writes from a threshold space—between faith and disillusion, between fire and silence—where the ghosts of history ask to be heard.

Artist Statement

I write plays to entertain in the truest sense of the word: to give serious attention to people, questions, and histories that are too often pushed aside. My work is rooted in memory, conscience, and the ways people resist silence—whether in public or private life. I'm interested in how individuals face power, and what it costs them to tell the truth. I often write plays that are spare in staging but rich in emotional and poetic language. Some are solo performances; others are ensemble works. Many are based on historical figures or moments, but I’m just as drawn to imagined characters who carry such weight. My structures tend to be non-linear, centered on memory, ritual, and direct address rather than traditional narrative arcs. During the COVID era, I began experimenting more with ensemble storytelling, absurdity, and theatrical metaphor. In my recent work, I’ve focused more closely on grief, aging, and mortality—but always through the lens of presence, humor, and heart. I write to invite attention—to what’s been forgotten, to what still needs to be heard, and to what we might learn if we listen closely.