RON SIMONIAN
"I strive to create cinematic theater with an edge. I want my plays to be both entertaining and thought provoking, while still maintaining a unique perspective of the world as we know it.
Theater can be fun, exciting, and still challenging at the same time.
I love it when half the audience is crying and the other half is laughing.
It's amazing when we laugh and cry as one.
The goal is to have an audience discussing your play all the way home, and not just leaving it in the lobby."
ABOUT RON SIMONIAN
Ron Simonian is an Armenian American playwright who is a native of Los Angeles, but has made Kansas City
his home for the past 25 years. He attended the University of Kansas, where he majored in Theatre and Film. Ron is the Unicorn Theatre's most produced playwright with seven World Premiers. His work has
been seen Off-Broadway in New York at Alice's Fourth Floor, The Annex Theatre in Seattle, National Pastime
and Prop Theatre in Chicago, The Unicorn, The Off Center and The Living Room Theatre's in Kansas City as
well as in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
Simonian is a two time winner of the Unicorn Theatre’s National New Play Award, and has had two plays developed at the NNPN’s National Conferences. He has also had three plays developed at the Kansas City Repertory’s, Playwright’s Stage. His play THANATOS, which had an Off-Broadway run in New York, has been published by Plays on Tape. As a screenwriter, Simonian’s films have received many national festival
awards, including 1st Place Long Narrative, 1st Place Experimental Film, and Second Place Non-Narrative
at the KAN Film Festival.
Simonian's plays have often been labeled Cinematic Theater due to their strong cinematic elements, mixed
with the fact that no topics are ever off limits. Simonian has always believed that theater:
Should challenge audiences' preconceived beliefs.
Can sometimes be about normal people enduring extraordinary events.
Should ask questions but never answer them.
Simonian’s plays have maintained these rules by utilizing a strong sense of film and living stage structure, combined with rapid dialogue, rapid scene work, and multiple locations. All of these elements coming
together with a budget that is extremely theater friendly.