Lundeana Thomas (Director, AATP)

Associate Professor of Theatre and Director of the African American Theatre Program of the University of Louisville. She received her undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education from Youngstown State University. After studying at the University of London, she began teaching at East High School. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Theatre Studies at the University of Michigan and taught at Spelman College and Bowling Green State University before coming to UofL in 1996. Her article, “From Holistic Training to Liberating Rituals,” was published in Paul Carter Harrison’s Black Theatre: Ritual Performance in the African Diaspora and her book, Barbara Ann Teer and the National Black Theatre: Transformational Forces in Harlem has been reprinted by the Taylor and Francis Publishing Company.

She has directed numerous productions including, Steal Away, Black Nativity, From the Mississippi Delta, The Wiz, The Trial of One Short-Sighted Black Woman vs. Mammy Louise and Safreeta Mae; and The Lion and the Jewel. She adapted The New Harlem Renaissance Revue, which was invited to the University of Mississippi for the 40th anniversary of James Meredith’s integration, and Monsieur Baptiste, the Con Man, which was invited to the 1999 National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC.

She has received numerous awards including a Citation from the President of Brooklyn, Humanities Scholar of the Year by the Ekstrom Library, Recognition awards from the Black Theatre Network, St. Louis Cross Cultural Center, and the Black Achievers of Louisville. Dr. Thomas is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Minister of Drama of the More than Conquerors Christian Church.

Dr. Thomas is also a published poet and teaches History of African American Theatre History and Cultural Diversity in Performance.

Nationally, Dr. Thomas is a Past President of the Black Theatre Network and founder of the Black Theatre Association for the Theatre in Higher Education.