Thompson was nominated for an Emmy in 2006 as Best Director for the televised production of his Porgy and Bess produced at Arena Stage in Washington, DC.
In August 2012, he directed Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars (1949) for Glimmerglass Opera, a musical based on the South African classic novel Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.
[7] In New York, Thompson taught at St. Ann's School and mounted ambitious productions with its students, including Stephen Sondheim's Follies and Phèdre (in French).
While in Washington, Thompson discovered and directed early work of playwright Cheryl West, beginning with Before It Hits Home.
[7] He regularly informally greeted the audience after the plays and, early in his tenure, assured subscribers he intended to make the theatre's repertory more inclusive.
[8] In August 2012, he directed Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars (1949) for Glimmerglass Opera, a musical based on Alan Paton's 1948 novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948).
The opera picks up the issue of African-American teenage boys having become a prime target of police brutality in the United States.
Thompson has written and directed several plays, including Constant Star (2002), a musical drama about the life of the 19th-century activist and journalist Ida B.