Susan Simpson
Los Angeles, CA
ssimpson_la@yahoo.com
(213) 503-2425
Education
California Institute of the Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Film May 1999
Brown University, Bachelor of Arts, Honors in Visual Art May 1993
Current Employment
Faculty September 1999 - present
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
Co-Director of Automata 2003-present
A non-profit dedicated to puppet theater and other forgotten and neglected art forms,
operating a performance and exhibition space in Chinatown (www.automata-la.org)
Artist in Residence Huntington Library and Art Collections October2012-present
Performance
Exhibit A
Writer, Director, Designer July 27-29, 2012
NOW Festival, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
Firewatch
Director, Designer
The Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles, CA July 15-16, 2011
Ineffible Sustenance November 11, 2010
Director
Let Them Eat LACMA
LA County Museum of Art
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Peterburg
Co-Director, Theatre Pokoleniy, St Petersburg, Russia November 22-30, 2010
Exhibit A workshops
Writer, Director, Designer
Forum for Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, CA February 7, 2010
Rio Hondo College, Whittier, CA March 10, 2010
Links Hall, Banners and Cranks Festival, Chicago, IL May 7-9, 2010
Concrete Folk Variations 3 April 17-26, 2009
Writer, Director, Designer
The Manual Archives, Los Angeles, CA
Concrete Folk Variations 2 October 10-19, 2008
Writer, Director, Designer
The Manual Archives, Los Angeles, CA
Concrete Folk Variations 1,
Writer, Director, Designer
The Manual Archives, Los Angeles, CA March 2-27, 2008
Santa Monica Museum, Santa Monica, CA July 25, 2008
International Toy Theater Festival, Saint Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn May 25-26, 2008
Frankenstein: Mortal Toys
Co-director and Designer
HERE Art Center, New York, NY January 2008
The Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles CA, December 2006
The Museum of Jurassic Technology, Culver City, CA, May 2004
Lead Feet and Nothing Upstairs a History of the Lifelike June 7-23, 2007
Writer, Director, Designer
The Manual Archives, Los Angeles, CA
Sunset Chronicles: January, 2005-2007
Director Episode1-3,
Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles, CA
Il Corral, Los Angeles
C-Level, Los Angeles, CA
Noah Purifoy Foundation, Joshua Tree, CA
Spit Shine Glisten November 2003
Writer, Director, Faculty production
Cal Arts, Valencia, CA
Pseudoflora December 2001
Director and Scenic and Puppetry Designer
The Museum of Jurassic Technology, Culver City, CA
Film
Boll Weevil Days, Director/Designer
Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2005
Seattle International Film Festival, 2006
MadCat Film Festival 2006,
OutFest Los Angeles 2006,
Yerba Buena Center, SF, April 2008
Solo Show
Dreamers,Thank You. Come Back Again Jan 20-Feb 23, 2008
Sheehan Gallery, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA
Group Shows
The Future Imaginary , Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College, Los Angeles Jan 24 - March 28, 2009
Homesick For the World, collaboration with writer Janet Sarbanes posted 2009, ongoing
Home and Garden, Viralnet Curatorial Project
Grants and Awards
Center for Cultural Innovation and Durfee Foundation Matching Funds Grant 2012
Jim Henson Foundation Project Grant 2009
Center for Cultural Innovation Investing In Artists Grant 2008
Multi-Arts Production Fund 2007
Durfee Foundation The Artist Completion Grant 2001, 2005, 2007
Creative Capital Performing Arts Grant 2006
The California Community Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship 2003
The Richard E. Sherwood Award 2002
Press
Stage and Cinema, August 1, 2012 “Best Be On Your Avant-Garde”, Tony Frankel, http://www.stageandcinema.com/2012/08/01/redcat-now/
Flaunt, Issue 106, Fall 2010, "Radical Puppeteers: Susan Simpson, Janie Geiser and The Experimental Theater Art of Automata" Interview by Sylvia Sukop
The Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2009, “Puppet Masters are not Toying Around” by Holly Myers
L.A. Weekly, March 14, 2008, "Concrete Folk Variations: Death of a Sugar Daddy" by Amy Nicholson
New York Times, Jan 14, 2008, "Down Sized: Eerie Tale Of a Man and His Monster"
by Rachel Saltz
Los Angeles Times, Dec 15, 2007 “Expressive Puppetry Bring 'Frankenstein' to Life” by David Ng
L.A. Weekly, December 13, 2007 “Frankenstein (Mortal Toys): Small Wonder” by Holly Willis
Backstage West, June 13, 2007 "Lead Feet and Nothing Upstairs", by Jennie Web
Los Angeles Times, June 14, 2007, “Mythmaking for Adults” by Kathy Foley
Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2007, "Propagating Puppets" by Diane Haithman
American Theatre, February 2005, “Size Matters” by Melinda Barlow
Los Angeles Times, June 2005, “Thinking Really Small Pays Off” by Brenda Rees
Los Angeles Times, January 8, 1998, “Puppetry for a New Age” by Dade Hayes
Recent Writing
“Profile: Who’s Hungry – Santa Monica” Spring 2012
Ecumenica Vol 5.1
“Playing with Matches: Laura Heit Explodes our Sense of Scale”
Puppetry International Spring 2007
and
Double Magazin Winter 2008
Bochum, Germany
”Haunting the Collaboration” 2008
TrenchArt Tracer
Les Figues Press
Panels, Papers, Workshops
Theater Communication Group Conference June 2011
Panel Member
Tangible Ephemeral: Performing Objects in a Virtual Era
Member of the Conference Organizing Committee April 2011
Puppetry and Post Dramatic Performance: An International
Conference on Performing Objects in the 21st Century
Panel Member
Stillness and Fracture/Making Space for Disaster: Puppetry and Genocide April 2011
Paper presentation: “Fatality Toys” An exploration of non-linear state of play and fractured trauma narratives in the works of Hank Willis Thomas and Hotel Modern
Puppetry and Post Dramatic Performance
Panel Member
New Dramaturgies: Puppetry, Video, and the Miniature May 2008
Great Small Works International Toy Theater festival