William Floyd Wolfgang, Ph.D. (University of Warwick), is a full-time lecturer in the Department of English, History & Humanities at Stevenson University in Owings Mills, Maryland, specializing in pedagogy surrounding Shakespeare, Theater History, and first-year writing. He also serves as the Faculty Director of Service Scholars for Stevenson University. As a community-based theatre practitioner, Dr. Wolfgang has produced nearly all of Shakespeare’s plays with the OrangeMite Shakespeare Company in York, Pennsylvania, and has also directed and adapted productions with Merced Shakespearefest and Shakespeare in Yosemite while lecturing at the University of California, Merced.
Dr. Wolfgang completed the first major study of community-based Shakespeare performance in the United States in 2021. While conducting this research, he served as a special researcher for Shakespeare’s creative and global legacies at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) in Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom. Dr. Wolfgang’s publications include an article entitled “Grassroots Shakespeare” in Shakespeare Bulletin and essays in Bloomsbury Arden’s Lockdown Shakespeare and Palgrave’s Inclusive Shakespeares. His research interests include rural and community-based arts, Shakespeare’s role in the Little Theatre Movement, and early modern literature in bilingual performance.
Trade Books & Monographs
The Hidden History of Kinsley, co-written with Joan Weaver, The History Press, 2025.
Fairies in the Short Grass: Charlie Edwards and Community Shakespeare. In Progress.
Peer-Reviewed Essays
“Grassroots Shakespeare: ‘I love Shakespeare, and I live here’: Amateur Shakespeare Performance in American Communities.” Shakespeare Bulletin, vol. 39 no. 3, 2021, pp. 355-373.
Edited Essay Collections
“‘I am a Free Man Again:’ Deploying Shakespeare as Public Redemption at the Turn of Twentieth Century.” Criminal Shakespeares: Adaptation, Influence, and New Interpretations, edited by John Garrison, Kyle Pivetti, and Vanessa Rapatz, Palgrave Macmillan, Forthcoming, 2026.
“‘El español puede ser todo:’Bilingual Grassroots Shakespeare in Merced, California.” Inclusive Shakespeares: Identity, Pedagogy, Performance, edited by Sonya Freeman Loftis, Mardy Philippian, and David Houston Wood, Palgrave Macmillan, November 2023, pp. 79-95.
“Ricardo II: una producción bilingüe de Merced Shakespearefest.” Lockdown Shakespeare: New Evolutions in Performance and Adaptation, co-written with Erin Sullivan, edited by Gemma Kate Allred, Benjamin Broadribb, and Erin Sullivan, Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare Series, July 2022, pp. 161-170.
Academic Book Reviews
“Della Gatta, Carla. Latinx Shakespeares: Staging U.S. Intracultural Theater. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2023.” Kritikon Litterarum, vol. 52, no. 3-4, May 2025.
Other Publications: Newspaper & Local Media
“Shining a Light on the Past: ‘Lafalot’ with Ila Taylor in the Sandhills.” The Sentinel, Kinsley, KS, 8 Mar 2023.
“Local History’s Mysteries, Bread Crumbs, and Rabbit Holes: Identifying Three Unknown Men in an 1890 Kinsley Cabinet Photo.” The Sentinel, Kinsley, KS, 30 Jan 2023.
Community Arts Uncovered 