Tazewell Thompson

American dramatist

Tazewell Thompson is an American theatre director, the former artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse (2006–07) in Westport, Connecticut and the Syracuse Stage (1992–95) in New York state. Prior to that he was an assistant director at Arena Stage in Washington, D. C. He is the Director of Opera Studies at Manhattan School of Music. Thompson has directed numerous independent productions, and since 2000, when he directed his first opera, Porgy and Bess for the New York City Opera, has been called on to direct more operas and musicals. His success led to invitations to direct productions of Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites for the Glimmerglass Opera and City Opera in 2002 and 2004, respectively, as well as other works. Thompson was nominated for an Emmy in 2006 as Best Director for the televised production of his Porgy and Bess produced at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. In August 2012, he directed Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars (1949) for Glimmerglass Opera, a musical based on the South African classic novel Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. As a playwright, Thompson has also received recognition, with numerous productions of his Constant Star (2002) about the activist Ida B. Wells. His play, Mary T. & Lizzy K., about Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley, premiered in Washington, D. C., at Arena Stage in 2013. Jubilee, an a cappella musical that he wrote and directed based on the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University, also had its premiere at Arena Stage, in 2019.

Tazewell Thompson was born in New York City. His childhood was difficult as his father, a jazz musician, frequently traveled. His mother had emotional problems and, after a fire in their apartment in which his three year old brother died, she grew unable to care for him. When Tazewell was eight, his paternal grandmother intervened to help him, placing him in a home run by the Sisters of St. Dominic in Blauvelt, New York. He lived with them for six years, and received the initiatory sacraments of the Catholic Church. He has fond memories of the sisters who encouraged his interest in theatre. He drew on his experiences years later in directing Poulenc's opera Dialogues of the Carmelites. and Checking Out (1976). He acted in numerous Off Off Broadway pop art plays by Rosalyn Drexler. He regularly informally greeted the audience after the plays and, early in his tenure, assured subscribers he intended to make the theatre's repertory more inclusive. In May 2006, he directed Porgy and Bess in Washington, DC. In August 2012, he directed Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars (1949) for Glimmerglass Opera, a musical based on Alan Paton's 1948 novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948). In July 2019, he directed Jeanine Tesori's new opera Blue for which he had also written the libretto, at Glimmerglass. The opera picks up the issue of African American teenage boys having become a prime target of police brutality in the United States.

Thompson has written and directed several plays, including Constant Star (2002), a musical drama about the life of the 19th century activist and journalist Ida B. Wells, first produced in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at City Theatre. It uses five actresses to play Wells, who also portray other figures in her life. Although primarily a drama, it includes about 20 negro spirituals sung by the actresses and used as transitions.

2006, Thompson won an NAACP Theatre Award for Director of a Musical for his production of Porgy and Bess. 2006, he was nominated for an Emmy as Best Director for the televised production of his Porgy and Bess.

Frank Rizzo, "Thompson in at Westport: Artistic director to begin new role Jan. 1", Variety, June 21, 2005