Simone Yehuda

Simone is a writer of immense talent, imagination and creativity. She's willing to push the envelope on both the front of fantasy and reality, confronting intense moral and political issues in both arenas. This, and her collaborative spirit make her the writer to work with.

JERUSALEM ROAD has become a powerful and beautifully written screenplay. The opening pulls us right inside the heart of the crisis and into the family who loses that girl who detonated the bomb in the soda can. A brilliant choice.

A play born of the New Playwrights Program at the Attic Theatre premiered full bloom tonight. WILLING is a play to watch. Simone Press’ play is like a Michigan farmhouse: fine, well-built, rough hewn. Under Randall Forte’s direction, WILLING, named for a town wooing the Michigan Central Railroad in 1908, is strongest as a play when the integration of set, lights, costumes and quilts are conspiring to reveal the story of a telegraph man who found the WILLING women aptly named and was dispatched to his maker. . . If you’re serious about theatre in Detroit, you must see this production. . . a mighty story told with power and drive.

Throughout the years, I have had the pleasure of working on numerous new scripts, both as an actor and a director. But my collaboration with Simone Press on her play, WILLING, stands out as one of the highlights of my theatrical experiences. . . Simone is a gifted writer, a poet; a sensitive, intelligent woman; an insightful human being with a grand sense of humor. . . It was this director’s paradise to work in a situation so closely with the playwright, especially such an eager, prolific talent. But it is her mastery of language that I must applaud. Simone possesses this unique talent whereby she creates an emotionally charged situation and then dramatizes it with the simplest, most believable dialogue.

Simone is a passionate writer who has written a unique and wonderful play. THE SIGN OF A FREE MAN is one of the most dimensional and rich plays I've found. It was amazing how open Simone was to my notes and how quickly she began to clarify her plot points and complex characters' personal histories. The reading was the most valuable part of our work together. What at first had attracted me to the play — a fascinating story with truly compelling characters — is exactly what held up.

Should this play, LUCY MOONE or THE SIGN OF A FREE MAN, ever get a production, I would like to direct it. . . Simone represents all sides of an issue with equal force and clarity, an especially difficult task considering the issues at the core of the play. I love the use of humor in the piece. She doesn’t write jokes, she writes humor. She uses humor as a method of dealing with problems: the only way to go.

Simone Yehuda is a gifted and first rate storyteller. I have been fortunate to work with Simone on numerous projects through the years. She is an enormous talent and committed collaborator. Working with her on WILLING is one of my fondest artistic memories. I am proud to have been associated with both the work and the writer.