Faculty Leaders

Harry Elam

the Freeman-Thornton Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Stanford University

Professor Elam's scholarly work focuses on contemporary American drama, particularly African American and Chicano theater. He is the author of Taking it to the Streets: The Social Protest Theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri Baraka; The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson (winner of the 2005 Errol Hill Award from the American Society of Theatre Research) and the co-editor of several works including African American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader (winner of the 2001 Errol Hill Award from the American Society of Theatre Research).

In addition to his scholarly work, Professor Elam has directed theater professionally for over 20 years. Most notably, he directed Tod, the Boy Tod by Talvin Wilks for the Oakland Ensemble Company. For TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California, he directed Radio Golf by August Wilson, Jar the Floor by Cheryl West, and Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleague, which was nominated for nine Bay Area Circle Critics Awards and was the DramaLogue Awards winner for Best Production, Best Design, Best Ensemble Cast and Best Direction. He has directed several other August Wilson plays, including Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Two Trains Running and Fences, the latter of which won eight Bay Area “Choice” Awards.
 
Professor Elam received his AB from Harvard College in 1978 and his Ph.D. in Dramatic Arts from the University of California Berkeley in 1984.