ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
SIMON GODWIN
Simon Godwin has served Shakespeare Theatre Company as Artistic Director since 2019. His directing credits at STC include Uncle Vanya, All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain, Comedy of Errors, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Timon of Athens, and the 2024 production of Macbeth with Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma, which also played in Liverpool, Edinburgh, and London.
Between 2015 and 2025, Simon was Associate Director of the National Theatre of London. He made his debut there with Strange Interlude, followed by Man and Superman, The Beaux’ Stratagem, Twelfth Night, and a celebrated production of Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo. In 2020, Simon returned to the National to direct Romeo & Juliet, an original film for television (Sky Arts in U.K./PBS in U.S.) starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley.
He has directed at the Royal Shakespeare Company, including productions of Timon of Athens with Kathryn Hunter in the titular role, which was reimagined in early 2020 for Theatre for a New Audience in New York City and Shakespeare Theatre Company; Hamlet, which toured to the Kennedy Center, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
In 2019, Simon directed a Japanese cast in Hamlet for Theatre Cocoon in Tokyo. In 2023, he made his opera debut at the Washington National Opera directing Roméo et Juliette by Gounod.
Simon has previously served as Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic, and the Royal and Derngate Theatres in Northampton. In 2012, he was awarded the inaugural Evening Standard/Burberry Award for an Emerging Director. In 2023, Simon became the annual Harman/Eisner Residence Artist at the Aspen Institute.
Between 2015 and 2025, Simon was Associate Director of the National Theatre of London. He made his debut there with Strange Interlude, followed by Man and Superman, The Beaux’ Stratagem, Twelfth Night, and a celebrated production of Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo. In 2020, Simon returned to the National to direct Romeo & Juliet, an original film for television (Sky Arts in U.K./PBS in U.S.) starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley.
He has directed at the Royal Shakespeare Company, including productions of Timon of Athens with Kathryn Hunter in the titular role, which was reimagined in early 2020 for Theatre for a New Audience in New York City and Shakespeare Theatre Company; Hamlet, which toured to the Kennedy Center, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
In 2019, Simon directed a Japanese cast in Hamlet for Theatre Cocoon in Tokyo. In 2023, he made his opera debut at the Washington National Opera directing Roméo et Juliette by Gounod.
Simon has previously served as Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic, and the Royal and Derngate Theatres in Northampton. In 2012, he was awarded the inaugural Evening Standard/Burberry Award for an Emerging Director. In 2023, Simon became the annual Harman/Eisner Residence Artist at the Aspen Institute.