| William Whitaker has been associated as a director and actor with many professional theatres: City Players, The Washington Stage Guild, The Round House Theatre, The Arena Stage, The Folger Theatre and New Playwright's Theatre, to name a few. He has a special interest in directing the classics and style plays such as Shakespeare, Shaw, Wilde, Schnitzler, Lorca and Moliere. He is also interested in directing new plays as well as established contemporary plays. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Performing Arts Department at Washington University, where he teaches directing and acting. This academic year (2007/8) he directed The 1940’s Radio Hour, and last year he directed two world premieres for the University: Marisa Wegrzyn’s Hickorydickory and Henry I. Schvey’s Kokoschka: A Love Story. Whitaker holds an MA in Dramatic Literature from The Catholic University of America and an MFA in Theatre from Florida Atlantic University where he was the Joshua Logan Fellow. He studied directing and acting with Robert Whitehead and Miss Zoe Caldwell, and co-directed Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa with Ms. Caldwell at The Crest Theatre in Florida . He has taught at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London for over eight years as part of Washington University’s summer program there. For his acting work Whitaker has been nominated for the Helen Hayes award and was winner of the Eisner Prize for Acting at the University of California at Berkeley. |
