Willmar Sauter, Professor Emeritus in Theatre Studies at Stockholm University, has written on theatre history in Sweden and outside Sweden, from rock carvings to digital performances. A long-standing interest of audience and reception research has resulted in numerous publications in various languages. This includes empirical and theoretical studies of contemporary as well as historical performances and audiences. His theories of theatre as event are presented in The Theatrical Event (2000) and summarized in Eventness (2008). Together with David Wiles, he published The Theatre of Drottningholm Then and Now – Performance from the 18th to the 21st centuries (2014). Performance aesthetics, seen as reception strategy, with historical roots in the eighteenth century, is the focus of recent publications, among them the book Aesthetics of Presence: Philosophical and Practical Reconsiderations (2021). His present project concerns Yiddish Theatre – in Sweden, in the World.

Willmar Sauter has been the President of the International Federation for Theatre Research and he has served Stockholm University as Dean of the Humanities and as Chair of the Research School of Aesthetics.