Assistant Director, University Fellows Experience
Ten years after joining The University of Alabama as a member of the inaugural Fellows cohort, David Bolus has returned to the Honors College as Assistant Director of the University Fellows Experience. The bearer of a MFA in Theatre from the UA Department of Theatre and Dance, David is a playwright, director, and actor with a long list of roles from Hamlet to Einstein to Atticus Finch; his original plays have been published and produced, and his poetry has appeared in the Marr’s Field Journal.
David has worked closely with the Habanabama Theatre Company and has performed at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Most recently, his original one-act Malaisia was given a reading at UA’s Allen-Bales Theatre. Tuscaloosa theatre-goers may recognize him from the UA stage going back to 2008, including the plays Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Blood Wedding, The Birthday Party, and Moby-Dick—and they may have become acquainted with his more recent work behind the scenes in shows like Equivocation and Arcadia.
So how does one reconcile theatre and the production of good citizens? (Hush up, Tertullian, we all know you think that’s impossible.) David has always found himself pulled to theatre and Fellows for the same reasons: you are forced to walk around in someone else’s shoes for a while, and you are continually given the opportunity to learn new and unexpected skills. In plays, as in Fellows, a passion for Chinese can dovetail with 1920s dance styles, or the outcome of a fencing match may require understanding of physics and history. And most importantly, a good play and the University Fellows Experience alike find their strength in community—reflecting a community, identifying strengths and needs in a community, and of course, building new and stronger communities out of shared values and experience.
