Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. was most recently Senior Lecturer in the Performing and Media Arts department at Cornell University. He has also taught and directed at Binghamton University, UConn-Hartford, Fairfield University, John Jay College, and Marymount Manhattan University.

He is Artistic Director of HartBeat Ensemble, Hartford’s Public Theatre. In Hartford, he appeared in HartBeat’s production of My Children! My Africa!, and Hartford Stage’s production of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Radio Play. This October he will be appearing in HartBeat’s production of Kyle Bass’ new play Possessing Harriet. Godfrey also co-founded Civic Ensemble, a community-based theatre company in Ithaca, NY. For Civic, he directed Eugene O’Neill’s All God’s Chillun Got Wings and The Next Storm, and appeared in My Children! My Africa!, Fast Blood and his adaptation of Mike Daisey’s The Trump Card.

Godfrey was Producing Artist in charge of New Artist Development for Off-Broadway’s Epic Theatre Ensemble, appearing in A More Perfect Union, Widowers' Houses (which Godfrey co-adapted with Ron Russell), and Measure for Measure, among other plays. At Epic, he also co-wrote and starred in a documentary play about the election of President Barack Obama, Dispatches From (A)mended America.

Additional New York theatre credits include The Old Settler (Primary Stages-Audelco Award), Betty’s Summer Vacation (Playwrights Horizons), Free Market (Working Theater), Leader of the People (New Georges), and microcrisis (Ensemble Studio Theater). Godfrey is a 2012 TCG/Fox Fellow, a participant in the TCG SPARK Leadership Program, and a lifetime member of Ensemble Studio Theatre.