Professor Simon Williams, emeritus professor in the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an active director of both opera and spoken drama, is internationally recognized as an authority on the history of acting and Shakespearean performance, on opera as drama, and on the history of operatic staging. He has lectured worldwide on Wagner, served for several years as lecturer for English-speaking audiences at the Bayreuth Festival, and has spoken on a wide range of operas at both opera houses and opera guilds worldwide. He has authored four books on German theater (two of them on Wagner) as well as serving as co-editor of the first English-language History of German Theatre, chief editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting, and co-editor of the forthcoming (2026) Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Directors and Directing.
