DEMENTIA MANAn Existential Journey
Written and Performed by Samuel A. Simon
“The performance offers a hopeful, uplifting, and heartening vision about living with cognitive impairment…”
— Broadway World
Thursday, September 24 | 7:30pm
In Partnership with Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts
AMFA Performing Arts Theater
501 East Ninth Street, Little Rock, AR 72202
TICKETS: $35
After decades as a tireless advocate for justice and social change, Samuel A. Simon faces the most personal fight of his life: the slow, undeniable progression of cognitive decline. When the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease comes, he refuses to fade quietly. Dementia Man – An Existential Journey is an award-winning autobiographical story that peeks into the head and heart of the struggle with a broken medical system and a personal and family challenge. Is it possible to believe in a meaningful future with a neurocognitive disease?
2023 Dementia Arts Impact Award
Literary Titan Book Award
Winner, International Impact Book Awards
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: Free, accessible parking is located in the AMFA parking lot off Commerce Street and along Crescent Drive off Ninth Street. Upon arrival at AMFA, please proceed to the Theater entrance in the Atrium on the Lower Level. For wheelchair access, please utilize the south entrance to the Theater from the Atrium (near Park Grill).
Check-in at the desk to let us know you’ve arrived and proceed to AMFA’s Performing Arts Theater. ACANSA’s performances are typically “open seating” (no reserved seats).
Concessions are available for purchase at the show, or you are welcome to enjoy a meal at Park Grill beforehand. Reservations are recommended – please secure a table online at parkgrillatamfa.com.
You are also welcome to arrive early and explore the art on view in the Galleries or shop for mementos in the AMFA Museum Store.
The reality described is indeed REAL. The future imagined is ASPIRATIONAL. The invitation is for you to MAKE THAT FUTURE COME TRUE.
SAMUEL A. (SAM) SIMON
WRITER & PERFORMER
Samuel A. (Sam) Simon started his career in Washington, DC, as a lawyer for Ralph Nader’s first advocacy group. He then spent 25 years as head of a public affairs firm. In that work, he was often in the news, appearing on Face The Nation, Phil Donahue Show, Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, and many more. Samcalls his playwriting and theatre work his 4th Age. His first play, The Actual Dance, Love’s Ultimate Journey Through Breast Cancer, was later turned into an award-winning memoir.
In 2021, Sam was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s. Despite the enormous challenges of this diagnosis, Sam has become “Dementia Man,” a powerful advocate through theater, using his own experience as inspiration to reshape the narrative surroundingcognitive decline. With his newest play Dementia Man, An Existential Journey, Sam defies stereotypes and inspires audiences. Sam lives in Mclean, Virginia, with his wife Susan. They have two children and four grandchildren.
THADD MCQUADE
DIRECTOR
Thadd McQuade has been a director, teacher, and performer for 40 years, splitting his time between classical and Greek theater and new experimental works. He has worked internationally with the Odin Teatret and Teatr Gardzienice and has produced multiple shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His work there has been nominated for a Total Theatre Innovation award and won a BBC Most Innovative on the Fringe award. For the last 4 years, Thadd has been working on ways to expand the work of theater to incorporate neuro-diverse voices and artists.
GABRIELLE MAISELS
DRAMATURG
Gabrielle Maisels has served as Dramaturg to the playwright and was an essential collaborator in the development of the show. She has also served as acting coach to Sam Simon. She is an actor, playwright, and acting coach, and the writer/performer of two solo shows, Two Girls and Bongani, inspired by her family’s experiences in South Africa. Gabrielle studied Political Theory at Harvard and Columbia, acting with Carol Fox Prescott, and playwriting with Matt Hoverman. New York theatre includes: Solo shows in Fringe NYC 2010 and 2011, Clear Cold Place by Caroline Prugh, Agnes in Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day, Esther in Kushner’s Terminating, Rocky in Men of Clay (Off-Broadway, with Matthew Arkin, Danton Stone, Steven Rattazzi). Member Actor’s Equity.
“Sam’s story offers a raw, unfiltered view into the challenges one faces when beginning to lose cognition, including the fear of the unknown; the urgency of the decisions that have to be made; and the tribulations of navigating a broken healthcare system all while balancing the desire to live a full life, a comfortable lifem and a life of service to others.”
SUSAN SIMON
COGNITIVE NAVIGATOR
Susan holds a master’s degree in special education from George Washington University and served a career as an elementary school teacher. She also served as an elementary school counselor. Susan then received a certification in eldercare from George Mason University and served as the director of admissions and marketing at Tall Oaks of Reston, an assisted living community, for 14 years. Susan and Sam are in their 58th year of marriage. They have two adult children and four grandchildren. Susan has served on the board of the Fairfax Education Association, Jewish Council on the Aging, and is a past President of Temple Rodef Shalom.