Dr. Harry B. Parker has been a Professor of Theatre since joining the faculty at TCU in 2003. He also served as the Chair of the Department of Theatre for 18 years (2003-2021), and as the Founding Managing Director of the Trinity Shakespeare Festival which was hosted at TCU for 10 years (2009-2018). A native of Oklahoma City, Harry received a B.F.A. in Theatre from TCU, and from the University of Kansas 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 Artistic Director Lyle Dye in staging more than 35 musicals.

He has directed more than 150 professional, community and academic theatre productions across the country including professional productions at the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.); Stages Repertory Theatre (Houston); American Heartland Theatre (Kansas City); Bishop Arts Theatre (Dallas); and Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City) and the Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre. In the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex he has directed professionally for Stage West (The Play That Goes Wrong, On the Exhale, First Date, An Act of God, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike), Amphibian Stage Productions (Hunting and Gathering), Jubilee Theatre (Permanent Collection, Company, Thurgood), Lyric Stage (Into the Woods) and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (Ellis Island: The Dream of America), as well as having directed over 15 shows for Circle Theatre (including My Name is Asher Lev, Hope and Gravity, Miracle on South Division Street, The Whipping Man, The Fantasticks, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and Over the Tavern, among others). For TCU his directing credits include Company, Sweeney Todd, Everyman, No, No, Nanette, Oklahoma!, Little Women, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and You Can’t Take It With You.  Since 2008, Harry has hosted a popular weekly radio show called “Curtain Up!” on KTCU, 88.7 FM (also available at www.ktcu.tcu.edu) featuring songs from the musical theatre.

He served a term as the National Chair for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and has twice been awarded the Kennedy Center Medallion of Excellence for his service to that organization. In 2013, Harry was awarded the TCU Chancellor’s Award as a Creative Scholar and Teacher. In 2018 the University of Kansas named him the first recipient of the Ronald A. Willis Scholar/Artist Award. He has served on the Board of both Circle Theatre and the Live Theatre League of Tarrant County. In 2020, was awarded the Elston Brooks Lifetime Achievement Award by the Live Theatre League. He is an Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.