Artistic Director
Civic Ensemble
Godfrey L. Simmons Jr. is artistic director of Civic Ensemble, a community-based theater in Ithaca, New York, co-founded with Sarah K. Chalmers and Jennifer Herzog. He is also a senior lecturer in acting at Cornell University.
For Civic, he appeared in Athol Fugard’s “My Children, My Africa,” he directed Eugene O’Neill’s “All God’s Chillun Got Wings,” and co-produced Judy Tate’s “Slashes of Light.” Godfrey was producing artist in charge of New Artist Development for Off-Broadway’s Epic Theatre Ensemble, appearing in “A More Perfect Union,” “Widowers’ Houses” (which Godfrey co-adapted with Ron Russell), and “Measure for Measure,” among other plays.
At Epic, Simmons co-wrote and starred in a documentary play about the election of President Barack Obama, “Dispatches From (A)mended America.” In addition to Epic, he has appeared in new plays and classics at several Off-Broadway and Regional theatre companies, including Primary Stages, Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, People’s Light, Syracuse Stage, Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center.
Simmons is a 2012 TCG/Fox Fellow and a participant in the SPARK Leadership Program, funded by American Express, The Joyce Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group. He has also taught acting at Marymount Manhattan College and Binghamton University. He is a lifetime member of Ensemble Studio Theatre.