Gerald Freedman Excellence Endowed Fund

Scholarship benefitting students demonstrating outstanding talent and potential in te School of Drama.

Gerald Freedman served as Dean of the UNCSA School of Drama from 1991 until 2012 and leaves behind both a legacy and a landmark. At a gala celebrity event on Nov. 15, 2012, the school named its largest theatre on campus in his honor. The Proscenium Thrust, a 350-seat theatre located in the Performance Place on the UNCSA campus, is now The Gerald Freedman Theatre. He was an Obie Award winner and the first American director invited to direct at the Globe Theatre in London. He is regarded nationally for productions of classic drama, musicals, operas, new plays and television. Freedman served as leading director of Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival from 1960-71, the last four years as artistic director. He was co-artistic director of John Houseman’s The Acting Company from 1974-77, artistic director of the American Shakespeare Theatre during 1978-79 and artistic director of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1985-1997. Freedman has staged 26 of Shakespeare’s plays, along with dozens of other world classics. He has directed celebrated actors such as Olympia Dukakis, James Earl Jones, Stacy Keach, Julie Harris, Charles Durning, Sam Waterston, Patti Lupone, Mandy Patinkin, Jean Stapleton, William Hurt, Carroll O’Connor and Kevin Kline. He made theatre history with his off-Broadway premiere of the landmark rock musical Hair, which opened the Public Theatre in 1967. His Broadway direction includes The Robber Bridegroom; The Grand Tour with Joel Grey; the revival of West Side Story, co-directed with Jerome Robbins; the premiere of Arthur Miller’s The Creation of the World and Other Business; and Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession with Lynn Redgrave and Edward Herrmann. Productions for the Great Lakes Theater Festival include Shakespeare’s King Lear with Hal Holbrook, which went to the Roundabout Theatre in New York City. He directed opera productions for the Opera Society of Washington (Kennedy Center), the San Francisco Opera Company, and New York City Opera. For New York City Opera, he directed revivals of Brigadoon and South Pacific. Before coming to the School of the Arts Freedman taught at Yale and The Julliard School. A native of Lorain, Ohio, he received both his B.S. and his M.A. (summa cum laude) from Northwestern University. He trained for the stage with Alvina Krause, voice teacher Emmy Joseph and at the Actors Studio. He served on the Kennedy Center New Play Committee and was a member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. He also participated in the Oomoto Institute, Kameoka, Japan.