Coming Up Next
Thomas has a number of projects coming up in Spring of 2020:
- appearing with his wife Maegan McNerney Azar in Molly Smith Metzler’s Cry It Out at Lean Ensemble Theater in Hilton Head, South Carolina, playing March 19–29, 2020
- fight direction for She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen at Clemson University, playing April 13–19, 2020
- appearing as Bo in Appropriate by Branden Jacob-Jenkins at the Warehouse Theatre in Greenville, South Carolina, playing May 29–June 21, 2020
John Proctor Is the Villain
Thomas recently appeared as Mr. Smith in the 2019 Kilroy List play John Proctor Is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower, directed by Clemson University Performing Arts chair Becky Becker.
In present-day Appalachian Georgia, an English assignment becomes uncomfortably relevant when scandal swirls and old heroes are questioned. What does it mean to inherit centuries of trauma and come of age in a world that has always prioritized a man’s reputation above a woman’s experience? The line between witch and heroine blurs in this post-#MeToo examination of power, literature, and sex education. Plus there’s Lorde.
Recently
Thomas appeared as Mr. Darcy in Kate Hamill’s new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice at The Warehouse Theatre, directed by Jay Briggs (Clybourne Park, Important Hats of the Twentieth Century).
Thomas Azar’s Darcy is delightfully and comically rigid, stiff-necked, properly postured, and expertly unbending. This makes it only more hilarious in moments when he stoically grimaces through the pain after having hot rum punch on his groin, or moments when he must diffuse overt sexual advances of a drunken partygoer. Azar also perfectly builds Darcy’s inner conflict.
The cast is uniformly terrific. Thomas Azar [has] demonstrated dramatic and comedic chops many times on upstate stages, and with a play like this that can border on cartoonish at times, the fact that [he] can still conjure some human moments amidst the chaos is a wonder indeed.
Thomas made his debut at Lean Ensemble Theater in Hilton Head, South Carolina, as Paul in Barefoot in the Park, directed by artistic director Blake White.
“What a riot […] this work, start to finish, is explorative and through it all, entertaining.” – The Island Packet