Simón Hanukai

Simón Adinia Hanukai is theater-maker, director and educator who splits his time between New York and Paris. Originally from Baku, Azerbaijan, he spent the early years of his career in Oakland, California, where he was a founding member of headRush Crew and the Co-Artistic Director of the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company. Working with both companies for six years he was instrumental in creating original full-length dance theater pieces, which toured nationally and were seen by over 25,000 people per year. Highlights include sharing the stage with Desmond Tutu, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Neil Young, Alfre Woodard and Martin Sheen.

Simón’s New York and International directing credits include Creditors and Birthday Triage (Columbia Stages), Bumrush (2010 Hip Hop Theater Fest), The 6 Project (Brooklyn Arts Exchange), Brave Ducks (Living Theatre - FringeNYC), Phaedra's Cabaret (Flux Industries), One Heart for Two (Winkel & Balktick), Wilde Kane (New York Theatre Workshop) and Flying Ace and The Storms of the Century (Superhero Clubhouse, Odin Teatret, Denmark), The Fall (La MaMa/Flamboyán), Les Alibis (Paris). He has also had the privilege to assist William Forsythe on Selon (Hellerau Center in Dresden, Germany), Anne Bogart on the remounting of Death and the Ploughman (Skidmore College), Tina Landau on A Civil War Christmas (New York Theatre Workshop), and Robert Woodruff on directing Festen (Hungarian Theater of Cluj, Romania), as well as observe Robert Lepage work on Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (Metropolitan Opera).

Simón is the Talent Curator for Mass Bliss Productions, as well as an Adjunct Professor at the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education at CUNY and the department of Speech, Communications and Theatre Arts at BMCC in New York.

Simón is honored to be a recipient of the Dean’s Fellowship from Columbia University and the 2012-13 Emerging Artists Fellowship from New York Theatre Workshop. He holds a Masters degree in Education from the University of San Francisco’s Center for Teaching Excellence and Social Justice and an MFA in Theater Directing from Columbia University.