Established with the generous support of alumna Penny W. Stamps, the Speaker Series brings respected emerging and established artists/designers from a broad spectrum of media to the School to conduct a public lecture and engage with students, faculty, and the larger University and Ann Arbor communities.

Simon McBurney is an actor, writer, director, and co-founder of the innovative theater company Complicite, where he has created and acted in more than 30 productions. In 2009 Shun-kin earned him the Yomiuri Theatre Award Grand Prize for Best Director, which he was the first non-Japanese artist ever to win. Other recent work includes The Magic Flute for De Nederlandse Opera, The Master and Margarita, A Dog’s Heart, A Disappearing Number (UMS 2008), Measure for Measure, A Minute Too Late, The Elephant Vanishes (UMS 2004), Pet Shop Boys Meet Eisenstein and Strange Poetry. Other directing credits include All My Sons on Broadway and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui with Al Pacino. As an actor, McBurney has appeared in films including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Jane Eyre, The Duchess, and The Last King of Scotland. He was the recipient of the 2008 Berlin Academy of Arts Konrad Wolf Prize for Outstanding Multi-disciplinary Artists. In 2012 he was Artiste Associé at Festival d’Avignon.