About
Theatre artist. Storyteller. Activist.
Jeanmarie Simpson is an American theatre artist whose life’s work centers women who challenge systems of power — political, religious, and cultural.
She works as a playwright, actor, director, and educator creating solo and ensemble works exploring memory, resistance, and grief.
Her best-known work is A Single Woman, a play about Jeannette Rankin, which premiered Off-Broadway at The Culture Project. Its film adaptation featured Judd Nelson, with voices by Martin Sheen and Patricia Arquette and music by Joni Mitchell. The play toured to 53 countries across five continents and won “Best Theatrical Surprise” from the Sacramento News & Review. She performed it at CalArts as a Surdna Distinguished Guest Artist.
Performance credits include Shakespeare’s Will (directed by Leonard Nimoy) and The Road to Mecca (directed by Tony Award winner Zakes Mokae). Global touring work includes Coming In Hot — embodying 19 U.S. military women — and HERETIC – The Mary Dyer Story (2011–2019). Current performance work continues through Arizona Theatre Matters and Universal Access Productions.
Recent original plays include Mackers, Lear – a solo adaptation, Ghosts of the Gilded Stage, Bambino Mio – Bright Little Flame (about Maria Montessori; Living History Foundation grant recipient), The Jewish Question (Jewish Plays Project Honorable Mention), Pineapple and Other Options (Pandora New Works Festival), and Even Unto Death (about Isabelle Romée, Joan of Arc’s mother).
The second-edition collection When Churchyards Yawn and Other Plays was published by Upstage Left Press in 2026.
Funding includes six Sierra Arts Foundation grants, twelve Nevada Arts Council grants, and multiple National Endowment for the Arts awards. In 2023 she served as an NEA Theatre Grants panelist.
She is the Founding Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Matters, amplifying underrepresented voices through live and digital performance. Her teaching experience includes workshops and residencies for artists of all ages and abilities. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and retired from Actors’ Equity Association, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and SAG-AFTRA.