We are honored and delighted to have Dr. Parker working with our student performers at the College Audition Prep Weekend!
Dr. Harry B. Parker is the Chair of the Department of Theatre at Texas Christian University, and the Managing Director of the Trinity Shakespeare Festival at TCU. A native of Oklahoma City, Harry received a B.F.A. (magna cum laude) in Theatre from TCU, and from the University of Kansas in Lawrence he earned an M.A. in Theatre (Acting/Directing), and a Ph.D. in Theatre and Film. He has also served on the faculty of Westmar College in Iowa, and spent eleven years as the Director of Theatre at Emporia State University in Kansas. For seven summers Harry worked professionally as the Assistant Artistic Director at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, where he assisted in staging over 30 major musicals. He has directed more than 80 professional, community and academic theatre productions across the country including professionally at the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.); Stages Repertory Theatre (Houston); American Heartland Theatre (Kansas City); and Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City). In Fort Worth, he has directed professionally for Amphibian Stage Productions, Jubilee Theatre and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, as well as having directed 9 shows for Circle Theatre. His directing credits include Holiday, Antigone, South Pacific, The Importance of Being Earnest, Extremities, Godspell, The Miser, Charley’s Aunt, The Philadelphia Story, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Will Rogers Follies, The Comedy of Errors, Marvin’s Room, The King and I, The Matchmaker, The Laramie Project and The Taming of the Shrew. He has served on the TCU faculty since 2003.
At TCU, Harry has directed You Can’t Take It With You, Bus Stop, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and The Fantasticks, which were co-productions with Circle Theatre in Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth, the musicals Little Women and Oklahoma!, and the original musical revue We Need a Little Christmas.
Harry has written four original musical revues, featuring the music of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and others. He hosts a weekly radio show entitled “Curtain Up!” on KTCU, 88.7 FM (also available at www.ktcu.tcu.edu) featuring songs from the musical theatre. He is currently the immediate past National Chair of the Kennedy Center American Theatre Festival, and has previously served as the National Vice Chair, and as a Regional Chair for an 8-state Region in that organization. He is an Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and serves on the Board of the Live Theatre League of Tarrant County, and of Circle Theatre. Harry is married to Karen Parker, and they have two children. He is exceptionally proud of his current and former students, and their impressive accomplishments.