In Black America; Four Times Tony Award Winner Ron Simons, Part I

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. I think I kind of fell into acting. I don't even remember why I decided I was going to audition for Phineas Rainbow. I decided I did, and of course I got the politically incorrect role of sharecropper number two because the play is set in the time period if you don't know it's a musical where racism was in abundance. And so I got casted sharecropper number two, but I just wanted to be on stage, so I didn't question it. But then I got demoted because I couldn't understand because I had been on stage before, but the director would say, come down right. I didn't know down right or up. I didn't know what that meant, so I kept walking around the stage hoping that he'll tell me where I am or whatever. So that's how it began.

But once I started to see how much entertainment that people got, even from a high school performance, that's when I said, this is something I need to look into, because it's fun. It actually I found fun in being an actor and a show in even in high school, so that's where that's part. Ron Simon, Tony Award winning Broadway producer. With over two decades of experience and a running count of five nominations and four Tony Awards to his credit, more than any other African American Broadway producer in history, Simon, president, and CEO of Simon Says Entertainment, has been a pioneering force in bringing diversity to the stage and behind the scenes, and is leaving the efforts to tell stories of African American history, culture, and experience. The Detroit native is the first African American producer to lead three black ways to Broadway. He's also produced the first black show with women of color as creative leads, and is presently producing for 2021. The first two black Broadway shows the feature of black writer, producer, director, and black cast.

Never to be outdone, Simon is a noted worldwide speaker and workshop instructor on the strategic planning and development of theater, film, and television. In his spare time, he's also an actor who has appeared on stage and on the big and small screen. I'm Johnny O'Hanston, Jr. and welcome to another edition up in black America. On this week's program, four-time Tony Award winning producer, Ron Simon, in black America. Well, it began at home because my mother used to tell me all the time. There's no such word as can't, right? And my grandmother used to say something that later I would hear and it's relatively similar incarnation, which is if your mind can conceive it and your heart can believe it, then you can achieve it. So it was pumped into my head from a very early age that you can have whatever you wanted to if you were willing to work hard enough to get it, right? And so that was, and I think that the reason why that was is because I'm sure that my family, my mother and my grandparents,

realized that for me to be successful, they have to arm me with a self-confidence to go out in the world and make my success. Because I was the first person in my family to graduate from college, right? So that was a big thing in my family that we now have a college graduate. So when I graduated and went into white collar positions, you know, software development engineers, I didn't have family at home who could help me understand how to navigate the obstacles and corporate America. Believe it or not, Ron Simon has a BA degree in English and information systems from Columbia College and an NBA from Columbia Business School. His first job at the college was that you would pack a working as a software engineer. He also spent time at IBM and Microsoft. Born and raised in Detroit Mission, Simon is a four-time Tony Award winner, making him the highest African American Tony Award winning producer of all time. In 2009, he founded Simon Serger Entertainment, a film brought away in television production company.

Simon Road to becoming a top notch producer wasn't as auspicious as one may think. When he signed on his associate producer and hopes of working alongside a more seasoned professional to learn the craft, his lead finance share backed out. He lost his mentor and had to figure it out on his own. And boy did he figure it out. His first play, Porky and Bess won him, his first Tony. Recently in Black America spoke with Ron Simon. Understand we were born and raised in the same city. That city is the motor city Detroit Michigan tell us what was life like growing up in the deep. Let me tell you, I had the best childhood in the deep. I was just not two days ago talking about the good times that I would have at Bell Isle. For those of you who are not from Detroit is an island that's right off of Detroit that many, many residents go to at least we did on the regular through the summer having barbecues, picnics and cookouts and all kind of things like that. Having the family and friends out there together was amazing. I also was a big fan of music. So I discovered late in high school with Baker's keyboard lounge, which was on eight mile Illinois where I it looked like it was still open when I drove past it before yesterday.

Right. And I hope it still is. I went to you of the high. So I wanted to go to cast tech, but my mother was not having that. So compromise that you have the high. And I had a great education there had a good time made life long friends, you know, and it was just the music, the culture, the food growing up in Detroit was amazing. I remember the dark times I remember standing on the corner of my grandma, my house doing the riots and people walking by with TVs and radios and I remember looking up on the distance and the scene, you know, the yellow and red of the fires burning and the smoke and an army tanks rolling down. And I also remember this particular moment when I think he was holding a TV or radio. I don't remember which. But he was walking by and he tapped me on the head and said, well, you look like you're a good looking and have a good day. And I and but it was so good to be a good guy to me that that was coming out of what I saw to be a huge tragedy of what was going on in my neighborhood. Right. Because the place that I used to go to where I was an old Jewish man ran a little what we would call bodega here in New York. And I would go down there for 25 cents. I can get a little brown bag full of cookies and candy and so forth.

And the day after I went down there, his store was completely gutted and burnt to a crisp. So that hurt my feelings. But other than that, though, I love Detroit. I actually cut my teeth there. Now in Detroit, I don't know if they still doing today, but just something about the arts and I mentioned earlier, you know, I attended purging. So we had we had a vibrant art class theater drama, whatever. Looking back, what was it about you of the high school that actually nurtured you to want to become a part of the theater? That's a good question. I think I kind of fell into acting. I don't even remember why I decided I was going to audition for Phineas rainbow. I decided I did. And of course, I got the politically incorrect role of sharecropper number two, because the plate is set in the time period. If you don't know, it's a musical where African where racism was in abundance.

So I got caught cast as sharecropper number two, but I just wanted to be on stage. So I didn't question it. But then I got demoted because I couldn't understand because I've been on stage before when the director would say, come down right. I didn't know down right or up. I didn't know what that meant. So I kept walking around the stage, hoping that he'll tell me where I am or whatever. So I, that's how it began. But once I started to see how much entertainment that people got even from a high school performance. That's when I said, this is something I need to look into because it's fun. It actually I found fun in being an actor and a show in even in high school. So that's where that's part first began. Other things flamed it or fan the flame going down my line of in the years. You mentioned in English and information system now computer technology. Why those two majors and why Columbia College?

Well, I should have surprised to me because I took a programming class in high school and I hated it. I just hated it. It had this old machine that was a typewriter and and and then the printout was on pieces of paper tape. That's how you store it. That's how old I am. But anyway, so when I got to college, I took computer science, kind of on a flu programming. And I loved it. I just thought now because it was easier for me to store information back then at college instead of paper. So we had IBM cards and they were punch cards that you would feed into what was called compiler. And then that would run in in the main frame. Of course, that kind of technology and power is in our laptops today. So that shows how long ago that was. But that's why I developed my love for technology. And then I became my love for theater arts continue to most of my English classes were in theater arts. So I was able to continue my love and study of arts through my acting classes and theater classes while in college. So when I came out, it was a tough choice because I wanted to both go to acting school and I wanted to develop software.

And so I sent out applications to a bunch of places to be a programmer software development engineer and I applied to the Yale School of Drama, but I didn't finish the application. So, and then I decided that I'm going to take the job at HP because there's no way I was going to get to Yale because it's, you know, it's Yale. And I don't have the money to go there, even if I did get in and then don't you know a week after I took that job at HP. I got this call on the phone and said, hello, is this Ron Simons? I said, yes, she says, this is Kathleen blah, blah, blah. She's a director of admissions at the Yale School of Drama and I was like, oh, okay, hello. And she said, as you know, the deadline has passed for applications, but we were so enthusiastic about the part of your package we'd received. We'd like to extend the deadline for you. And I was like, what? I didn't say this, but I was like, what?

But, you know, no one ever extends anything for me. I was like, you're, then my mind started racing. Oh my God, maybe I could get in. Yeah, I could get in. Well, yeah, but you still got a money. That's like a very similar. You can't, you got to go school. You can't take out a bunch of loans. You already got $10,000 already in debt from the loans that you already took out blah, blah, blah. Anyway, long story short, at the end of the day, I stopped talking and telling her what I was doing and why. And she told me she wished me good luck and hung up the phone. And I decided that that was a call from the university, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day, you will go into the arts. And 19 years later, I did it. Now, how did you get into acting professionally? Well, I went to a university of Washington's professional actor training program. And like any other actor training program, when you come out, you're especially to go start acting. And I moved to New York and I started acting throughout the city. I became a company member at the classical theater of Harlem. I did a number of shows with them. And then eventually in a couple of years, I got an agent so that I started doing television and film.

And it was kind of interesting to me because I always thought I was, I was a theater snob. I was like, oh, I'm not going to act on television or film. That's, that's below me. I am a theater actor and actor is acts for the sale agent. And then I got those paycheck. I was like, oh, wait a minute now. No, no, no, no, hold on. This is actually a good gig. And I just started enjoying doing work for the big and small screen. And I still love doing it. And I still do it. In fact, I have to put myself on tape this weekend after this phone call. Now, when one started acting, how does that translate into you becoming a producer? Well, I'm really thankful for how it had the acting career as a producer because what we are trained to do as actors is to understand story. Right. We can dissect the story and we can see and appreciate what the character arcs of each individual character in a piece, which is to say, who is she before? Or the film begins and who is she when the play ends? Same thing with the story arc. I understood what's quality. I could be able to understand how pacing feels from a particular script or play. Is it too slow? Is it too fast? You know, is it clear?

Are the voices individualistic? Are they particular to that particular person? Or does everyone kind of sound the same like they all wrote on the same block? Which sometimes is useful, but other times that's not the case when you use particularly for films where people often in a film come from various different backgrounds, cultures, education, et cetera, et cetera. So for me, acting sent me a really well so that I can assess what a good piece of property is or not. The business life that I spent before in corporate America gave me the technical and feels to be able to read a spreadsheet know, you know, what is the health of this institutional organization or film or what have you and so forth. You know, I understood how and learned how to negotiate contracts, which is always used as a producer as your hiring talent or you know, working with companies and so forth and so on. So I think I was, I was unaware of, unaware of me. I felt like I got the training I needed in both education and work experience to best propel me to be a successful producer for filming and Broadway and soon television.

So the transition you made from film to Broadway, why so? Well, I was planning to see it at first, but what happened was that I put it out in the universe. I'm a producer. I read a book. I didn't know nothing, okay, but I just put that out there in the universe. I am a producer. And projects are coming to me and I remember I got this script from a school made of mine, this brother and I went to school at University of Washington. And he sent me the script. He said, you need to read this. And I said, okay, so I read it and I fell in love with it. That show was called string bean and Marcus when I got my hands on it and it had been already through the Sundance directors and writers fellowship like 10 years before. I even was introduced to the project and I just fell in love with the story, you know, and it was a story about this, this, this couple who got together in 70s Philadelphia, who were former Black Panthers.

And these, this triad of forces that were trying to pull them apart while they are trying to get together to become a family unit with her daughter. And so when I came on the project at the time, the roots were already connected to do the music. We had two different actors and the leads that for different reasons couldn't do the show. But at the end of the day, we got Anthony Mackie and Carrie Washington, who are much bigger names now, then they were when I first produced that film. In fact, that's tell folks if I had sat on that film for about five years. And it's sort of coming on TV. That movie would have made a lot more money. Okay. So yeah, it was, it was just the happenstance. I just, I'm driven by story and the best story I read first just happened to be a film. Understanding that you're from Detroit. So I understand. But what gave you the impetus to know that I can do this?

Well, it began at home because my mother used to tell me all the time. There's no such word as can't. Right. And my grandmother used to say something that later I would hear and relatively similar incarnation, which is if your mind can conceive it and your heart can believe it, then you can achieve it. So it was, it was pumped into my head from a very early age that you can have whatever you wanted to if you were willing to work hard enough to get it. Right. And so that was, and I think that the reason why that was is because I'm sure that my family, my mother, my grandparents realized that for me to be successful, they have to arm me with a self confidence to go out in the world and make my success. Because I was the first person of my family to graduate from college. Right. So from that was a big thing in my family that we now have a college graduate. So when I graduated and went into white collar positions, you know, software development. I didn't have family at home who could help me understand how to navigate the obstacles and corporate America because, you know, all of my family were in the automotive industry, right.

Mechanics and my mother worked on a lot of Chrysler General Motors. So we did, we as a family had no experience in corporate America or even financing like the best we knew about financing was having a savings account. We didn't know anything about money markets, reach or any other vehicles that are popular today for investment. We had zero understanding. We were not uncommon in my neighborhood because I grew up on what I like to call up and up or lower class neighborhood. But that's how it began. And, you know, I was a smart kid. Sometimes too smart for myself, but, you know, sometimes I lacked a bit of common sense, but could figure some tells a lot of them in a matter of a minute or two. Investing in a Broadway production is to say the least of rich, the endeavor. How did you go about convincing others that what you want to produce was viable.

The first thing I want to convince people of is that stories that I tell are told to change the world. I'm working to change the world one project at a time. So if you just want to invest in a show that's going to bring you a ton of money, I would say there are other shows that you can get on where that might be the hope though even shows like Rocky, which was 10s of millions of dollars with a brand name and you had to raise a million dollars to be a producer on that show, which is like quadruple what often other shows have for you to be raised to be a part of a producing team. And they lost all their money, right? So there's just because something looks and smells like gold doesn't mean it's going to deliver the goal. So the first thing I make people understand is the stories that I'm telling about changing the world. The second thing I explain to people is that you should look at investing and brought with the same way you look at art's patronage. So when you write a check to the symphony or you write a check to, you know, the ballet or the museum, are you expecting a return in your investment at the end of the year or two or five or seven years.

So you're investing your money in that institution because you believe in the work that they do and it's the same thing for Broadway. You invest in a Broadway show because you believe in the project. It should speak to you for whatever reason because it's aligned with your value system. It's aligned with your career. It's aligned with your growing up or you just like the area of study that that is explored in the play. It's important to recognize that it's very much akin to arts patronage because you know, if you lose all your money in Broadway, well, then you can attack production. But there's a chance you could actually get your money back. In fact, as a chance, you can make money and you can't make money by giving your money to other arts organizations like the symphony and the ballet and so forth. But here you could get your money back. And yes, I also address the risk factor. Investing in Broadway is kind of like venture capital as well, right? Because in the venture capital world, venture capital is invested in 10 companies and they know the two or three of them are going to go belly up. They know that two or three are going to get maybe a little under recruitment, a little over recruitment.

And they hope that one in that portfolio, too, if you're really lucky, will take off and make up for the rest of that portfolio. So that's why I'm putting together a fund so that you can invest your money in multiple shows at the same time, but I do have investors who invest in all of my shows. And so they do the same thing by diversifying your portfolio, you decrease your risk. That's the first thing I learned when I was at my MBA program, right? That if you want to lower your risk, you increase the diversity of the portfolio. If you're just joining us, I'm Johnny Johansson, Jr. And you listening to In Black America from KUT Radio, and we speak with Ron Simon, four time Tony and War, winning Broadway producer and president and CEO of Simon Says Entertainment. Ron, what are some of the projects you currently working on? Oh, man, I've got some really hot properties right now, I have to say. Well, I was one of the first ones is called Blue, and it is a play with a lot of music.

It was supposed to premiere on Broadway, but then 9-11, put the caboch on that and the leading lady, Felicia Rashad, is now directing the revival, and we're going to bring that to Broadway for his Broadway premiere. It's very funny, engaging, it has all the good stuff that Roma is supposed to have, you know, it's got intrigue, it's got suspense, and it has this killer score from known Hendrix that is beautiful to listen to. While it's not a musical, there is such an amazing amount of great music in the show. It is written by African-American man, Charles Randolph, right, and along with Felicia, the creative team includes on stage, Lin Whitfield, Leslie Eugum, Michael Brennan Hall, who if you used to watch, God friended me on CBS, he played the lead in that show. And so it's got a great pedigree, right?

So I'm really excited about that project because it is highly, highly commercial. I have a play called For Color Girls, which as probably many people know, particularly black women, should know that it is the seminal work by the writer into Zaki Shange, who wrote this, and it first premiered about over 40 years ago on Broadway. Now it is finally making its return to Broadway as a revival. And if you haven't seen the film or watched a recording of it, you're doing yourself with this favor because it is a beautiful piece that gives voice to black women of all ages and different backgrounds. And what I love most about that in addition to being just really great theater is that it is also couldn't be more timely because the same issues that black women were dealing with when she wrote that play 45 years ago, black women are dealing with to this day. It still remains relevant. And I love also that all the creative leads are women of color. That's a story. There's never been a play on Broadway where all the creative leads from the set designer, the sound designer and the production and, and, and the director and all the actors and everyone who was a creative lead on this show is a woman of color.

So we're breaking down some barriers in a big way. So I'm really excited about that. I have another show called Thoughts of a Color Man, which I think is ironic that both of them happen to be in my portfolio at the same time. Thoughts of a colored man is a play written by this young brother. He spent a lot of time in DC doing spoken word. He actually grew up here in New York and he wrote this play about seven black men who we follow over 24 hour period in New York City. And for me, it's a critically important piece of work because as we are now, you know, in the shadows of yet more and more black men be taken out by police, it really gives a voice to Africa African American men. It really allows the rest of the world to hear what our loves and challenges, adventures, trials, populations and celebrations and all of the things that make up who we are is not all of them, but many of them are explored in this show.

So it's a celebration of the African American man. I'm a huge proponent of the writer. He's a big starboard forward. So that's coming to Broadway as well. It could be, in fact, in the same season, they could be a play all about black men and a play all about black women in the same season. That also would be historic and amazing and phenomenal. So we're in the process of casting that and that on have another piece, which is called Turn Me Loose, which is a story about Dick Gregory. And if you know, to name, you probably know most of the comedians, some don't even know that he was a iconic civil rights leader as well. He, we did the show off Broadway in 2017 at this website theater and I'm happy to say that the star of the show, which of course is, you know, the man of the hour was actually able to attend the play. And I'm going to tell you some of those moving moments is when you did Gregory say to you, you know, I thought I was going to die in obscurity, but because of the work that you guys did, I know that I won't. Man, I'm telling you that that made every trial and tribulation all the challenge and the gray hairs that I grew over the time to develop that show and others, it made it worthwhile.

I felt like, you know, if I don't produce another play in my life, I'm good. I'm good. But now we want to bring it to Broadway to the next level. So even more people can see it's starting Joe Morton, who is a revelation in this piece when I tell you, that's by the way, Papa Poe from scandalous. Right. This man acts his ass. Oh, I'm sorry, should I not cross action, but he is when I tell you he is a study of acting, it is spectacular. It is, I can't even have enough superlatives to describe his performance in this. This is one man show there's another character, another actor, but it's predominantly Joe Morton and he delivers us on a scale that you have to see to believe. Ron Simon, four time Tony award winning Broadway producer. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, ask your future in black America programs, email us and in black America at kut.org.

Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and follow us on Facebook. You can get previous programs online at kut.org. Also, you can listen to a special collection of in black America programs at American Archive of Public Broadcasting. That's American Archive.org. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin until we have the opportunity again for technical producer David Alvarez. I'm Johnny Oh, hence in junior. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in black America CDs KUT radio 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard Austin, Texas 78712. That's in black America CDs KUT radio 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard Austin, Texas 78712. This has been a production of KUT radio.