university of florida

JUDITH WILLIAMS
THEATRE AND DANCE Professor

T: 352-273-0511
F: 352-392-5114
E: jwbw@ufl.edu
Office Address:
210 McGuire Pavilion, P.O. Box 115900
Gainesville, Fl 32611-5900

DR. JUDITH W.B. WILLIAMS served as Chair/Artistic Director of the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Florida from 1989to 1997. Professor Williams, a University of Michigan PhD, is an internationally recognized producer, director, actor and teacher. She taught acting and/or directing at the Universities of Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Vermont and West Virginia before coming to the University of Florida in 1989. From 1981 to 1985, Dr. Williams served as Producer/Artistic Director of the Champlain Shakespeare Festival, in Burlington, VT. She has been actively involved on a regional and national level with the American College Theatre Festival since 1969. Professor Williams received the Amoco Gold Medallion for “Excellence in American Theatre” in 1985 and the Kennedy Center Medallion in 1986 for “Outstanding Service to American Theatre.” Dr. Williams is a former member of the Board of Directors of American Theatre in Higher Education, as well as having had a leadership role in ATHE’s Forum for Theatre Chairs and Deans. Williams continues to serve ATHE in her eighth year as Chair of the Committee to select the Outstanding Teacher of Theatre in Higher Education. She has been a member of the National Association of Schools of Theatre and recently served as chair of the Committee on Ethics. Williams has directed over 75 professional and university productions, in addition to several productions and directing colloquia in London, Winchester, and Yorkshire, England, as well as Austria, Scotland, the Netherlands, Russia, Greece, and South Africa.

Since coming to UF, she founded the popular improvisational theatre troupe, “Theatre Strike Force,” a cabaret troupe, “Formal Attire,” and the International Production Program. Dr. Williams was elected as a member of The College of Fellows of the American Theatre in 1997 along with playwright Edward Albee. As of fall 1997, Professor Williams returned to teaching full time in the areas of acting, directing, and ballroom dance. In March 2000, Dr. Williams served as one of three faculty members for the prestigious Salzburg Seminar in Austria for a weeklong seminar on American Drama, which included professionals from 27 countries. Having directed Agnes of God in 1994 and performed in Love Letters in 1995, Dr. Williams returned to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a dance drama adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie in August 2003. She continues to serve as Coordinator of the International Production Program and most recently directed a production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, which toured to Athens and Spetses, Greece. In 2005, Dr. Williams was invited to tour an aerial production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novorossiisk, Russia.

School of Theatre and Dance

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