Arterial Projects is the New York City-based producing practice of Adam Rodner and Ahmad Simmons. Focused on daring commercial works across theater, film, and digital media --- with emphases on new economic models, audience expansion and emerging tech integration --- our projects aim to break out of their proscribed spheres to reside at a nexus of next-gen media, performing arts, politics, intervention, and scandal.
Adam Rodner is a producer working across theater, transmedia, film, television, and dance. His theater producing work includes the Broadway productions of Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, Ivo van Hove's West Side Story, Kenneth Lonergan's The Waverly Gallery, Sam Gold's King Lear, Lucas Hnath's Hillary and Clinton, Taylor Mac's Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, The Lehman Trilogy, and The Music Man. Film and TV work includes FX's What We Do in the Shadows and Devs; A24's The Tragedy of Macbeth, Uncut Gems, First Cow, and mid90's. West End and touring credits include Hello, Dolly!, Book of Mormon, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Off-Broadway, interdisciplinary, and development work includes Annie Hamilton’s Looking for Papa, NY PopsUp State Arts Festival, To Kill a Mockingbird @ Madison Square Garden, Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’s musical Days of Wine & Roses, the 2021 revival of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and Clare Barron’s SHHHHH. From 2018 to 2021 he was a creative and lead executive at Scott Rudin Productions; he previously worked at Anthony Bregman's Likely Story and Jake Gyllenhaal's Nine Stories Productions. Awards include three Clio Awards for integrated advertising achievement (Bronze Winners, To Kill a Mockingbird & The Music Man; Silver Winner; Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus), Tony Award Nomination for Best Play (Gary), Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical (West Side Story), and an Outer Critic's Circle Honor for Best Musical Revival (West Side Story). Adam's BFA is in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied under playwrights Richard Wesley and Francine Volpe.
Ahmad Simmons is a producer, performing artist, director, and choreographer. Recent producing projects include Jay Armstrong Johnson’s I Put A Spell on You (three Telly Awards) and Annie Hamilton’s Looking For Papa. He was the co-founder/co-artistic director of the Chicago based dance theater company Pursuit Productions where he served as a producer and choreographer for The Boxer by Matt Lyle, a blues-infused adaptation of Lorca’s Blood Wedding, and original works Thirty Thousand One and THEM (recipient of a Chicago DanceMakers Forum Lab Artist Award. Ahmad is a founding member of Black Broadway Men (BBM) - a safe space for all black men in theatre that utilizes social and educational opportunities to build creative kinship and collective power. He currently serves as the executive production manager for the annual BBM Playwriting Initiative. He has appeared on stage and screen in Fosse/Verdon (FX Networks), Better Nate Than Ever (Disney+), Dirty Dancing (ABC), the Tony Awards, the Broadway companies of Hadestown, West Side Story, Carousel, Cats, Only Gold (Off-Broadway) and A Chorus Line (New York City Center). Other creative work includes co-directing the Live from Mount Olympus podcast series. Ahmad received his BFA in Dance from Point Park University.
New York