MICHAEL HACKETT is a professor of directing and theater history and former chair of Theater in UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He has directed for the Royal Opera, Covent Garde, the Royal Theatre at The Hague, the Centrum Sztuki Studio and Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw, Santa Fe Short Story Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles Opera (children’s series), Getty Center and Getty Villa, Musica Angelica, Antaeus Company, the Geffen Playhouse, and fifteen radio productions for L.A. Theatre Works including Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest with Charles Busch (nominated for two Audie Awards).

He taught at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for three years, where he co-designed and instituted a music-drama program and gave a series of lecture/demonstrations for the Royal College of Music. He has also given workshops for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Since 1995, he has directed Greek chorus workshops and presentations for the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

Familiar to opera audiences in Southern California, he has lectured extensively for the Los Angeles Opera and, for these activities, was given the Fifth Annual Peter Hemmings Award by the Opera League of Los Angeles.