Chad Allen Thomas
Chad Allen Thomas, PhD
Director of Women's & Gender Studies Program
Associate Professor of English
University of Alabama in Huntsville
278M Morton Hall
Huntsville, AL 35899
256/824-6323
Background & Research Interests
I came to the English Department at UAH in January 2011 after a Lectureship at the University of Michigan, where I completed my dissertation, “Performing Queer Shakespeare,” in the Department of English Language and Literature in 2009. While at Michigan, I won numerous fellowships and travel awards, and I was the inaugural recipient of the Distinguished Undergraduate Teacher Award given by Michigan’s Undergraduate English Association in 2005. At UAH, I was given the Outstanding Faculty Award for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences in 2021.
Positing a connection between subjectivity and spectatorship, my research attempts to theorize the manifold responses cross-gender casting elicits from audiences and critics, especially regarding performance ability to open the modern stage to a historical consciousness. My scholarship has been published in Shakespeare Bulletin, Comparative Drama, Theatre Topics, 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Period, and the essay collection Shakespeare on the Campus Stage (published by Cambridge University Press.) As well, I have presented papers at a number of academic conferences, including the Shakespeare Association of America, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Renaissance Society of America, the American Popular Culture Association, and Queer Studies Now.
Before UAH, I earned a BFA in Theater Performance from the University of New Mexico, and I completed advanced degrees from the University of North Texas in Theater (M.S., 2000) and English (M.A., 2002). While at North Texas, I co-founded Impulse Productions, a theater company in which I acted, directed, and dramaturged. Additionally, I acted for three seasons with Shakespeare in Santa Fe, playing Tybalt, Lysander, and Leontes. Since moving to Huntsville, I co-founded Huntsville Shakespeare in 2019 with Amy Guerin. We are dedicated to bringing innovative and boundary-pushing Shakespeare performance to the Tennessee Valley
Current and Upcoming Teaching Assignments & Creative Projects
Fall 2021
EH 350: Introduction to Literary Studies
EH 660: Critical Approaches to Shakespeare's Later Plays
Spring 2022
EH 242: Mythology (online)
EH 440/54: ST: Paula Vogel and her "Children"
Directing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) with UAH Theatre
Summer2021
EH 242: Mythology (online)
Directing As You Like It with Huntsville Shakespeare
Prospero and Caliban (Raye Bonham Carter) in The Tempest (2019)
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (Amy Pugh Patel) in Macbeth (2016)
Katherine (Megan Tompkins) and Baptista in The Taming of the Shrew (2014)
Joe Keller in All My Sons (2013)
Jaques in As You Like It (Brno, Czech Republic, 2000)
Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in Santa Fe, 1994)
Creative Activity
Producing
Othello. By William Shakespeare. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2021.
Hamlet. By William Shakespeare. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2020 and 2021.
The Tempest. By William Shakespeare. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2019.
Spirits to Enforce. By Mickle Maher. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2019.
Twelfth Night. By William Shakespeare. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2018.
Macbeth. By William Shakespeare. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2018.
Acting
Everyman. The Summoning of Everyman. By anonymous. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2021.
Prospero. The Tempest. By William Shakespeare. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2019.
Tobias. Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom. By Jennifer Haley. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2018
Doctor Faustus. Doctor Faustus. By Christopher Marlowe. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2017.
Robert. Proof. By David Auburn. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2016.
Leonato. Much Ado About Nothing. By William Shakespeare. Rocket City Shakespeare. 2016.
Macbeth. Macbeth. By William Shakespeare. Rocket City Shakespeare. 2016.
Touchstone. As You Like It. By William Shakespeare. Rocket City Shakespeare. Huntsville. 2014.
Baptista. The Taming of the Shrew. By William Shakespeare. Rocket City Shakespeare. Huntsville. 2014.
Joe Keller. All My Sons. By Arthur Miller. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2013
Orestes. The Electra Project. Graduate Student Collective. University of Michigan. 2003.
Jacques. As You Like It. By William Shakespeare. University of North Texas. 1999.
Young Man. Veronica’s Room. By Ira Levin. Impulse Productions. Denton. 1999.
Dr. Rance. What the Butler Saw. By Joe Orton. University of North Texas. 1998.
Leontes. The Winter’s Tale. By William Shakespeare. Shakespeare in Santa Fe. 1995.
Tybalt. Romeo and Juliet. By William Shakespeare. Shakespeare in Santa Fe. 1994.
Lysander. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. By William Shakespeare. Shakespeare in Santa Fe. 1993.
Directing
Othello. By William Shakespeare. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2021.
Hamlet. By William Shakespeare. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2020 and 2021.
Spirits to Enforce. By Mickle Maher. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2019.
The Trojan Women. Adapted by Ellen McLaughlin from Euripides. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2019.
Macbeth. By William Shakespeare. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2018.
R & J. Adapted by Joe Calarco from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2018.
Grounded. By George Brandt. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2017.
The Laramie Project. By Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2015.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. By William Shakespeare. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2015.
Picasso at the Lapin Agile. By Steve Martin. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2014.
The Tempest. By William Shakespeare. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2012.
The Comedy of Errors. By William Shakespeare. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2011.
Laughing Wild. By Christopher Durang. Impulse Productions. Denton. 2001.
Dramaturgy
Twelfth Night. By William Shakespeare. Huntsville Shakespeare. 2018.
The Threepenny Opera. By Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2017.
Doctor Faustus. By Christopher Marlowe. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2017.
Proof. By David Auburn. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2016.
Eurydice. By Sarah Ruhl. University of Alabama in Huntsville. 2016.
Richard III. By William Shakespeare. Rocket City Shakespeare. Huntsville. 2015.
As You Like It. By William Shakespeare. Rocket City Shakespeare. Huntsville. 2014.
The Electra Project. By Graduate Student Collective. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor. 2003.
Hot N Throbbing. By Paula Vogel. Impulse Productions. Denton. 2000