Gerald Alan Freedman, director of theater, opera, and television, was born on June 25, 1927 to Barnie B. and Fannie Freedman of Lorain, Ohio. As a senior at Lorain High School young Freedman wanted to make painting his career, but he also found time to study music. Upon graduation from high school Freedman entered Northwestern University, where he came under the tutelage of the renowned acting coach, Alvina Krause, who inspired him to continue his work in the theater. Freedman received his B.A. in speech in 1949 and his M.A. in 1950. Following graduation from Northwestern University, Freedman attended the Cleveland Art Institute, the Oberlin Conservatory, and the Mannes School of Music.
Later in New York Freedman directed his first off-Broadway production, The Red Robe, and assisted in the direction of the television series Robert Montgomery Presents. After accepting a contract with Columbia Pictures in Hollywood, he worked with George Cukor and Stanley Kramer from 1953 to 1957. He was the dialogue director for several movies, among them It Should Happen to You and The Caine Mutiny. He directed six television films for the series Celebrity Playhouse including “Deborah,” “More Than Kin,” and “No Escape.”
In the mid-1950s Freedman also returned to New York to assist Jerome Robbins at the New York City Center with productions of Gypsy, Bells Are Ringing, and West Side Story. In 1957 he restaged Bells Are Ringing at the Coliseum in London, and in 1964 he restaged West Side Story for the New York City Center.
In 1959 Freedman directed a successful revival of On the Town and a year later directed an off-Broadway production of Molly Kazan's Rosemary and The Alligators. This was followed by his direction of the Broadway production of The Gay Life in 1961. A year later he staged Arthur Kopit's Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad for the National Company.
In the early 1960s Freedman also began a collaboration with composer John Morris on a musical version of the Pied Piper, entitled Take One Step. They also composed and wrote a musical adaptation of Richard Llewellyn's novel, How Green Was My Valley, under the title A Time for Singing.
In 1960 Freedman became associated with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival as a director. His first production, The Taming of the Shrew, won an Obie Award. From 1966 to 1970 he was the Shakespeare Festival's artistic director, and staged more than twenty productions including Hair, Hamlet, Peer Gynt, The Tempest, Henry IV Parts I and II, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus, and A Comedy of Errors.
Freedman's musical background has enhanced his versatility as a director. In 1971 he directed Beatrix Cenci, the first opera to be staged at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has also directed Die Fledermaus (1974) and Idomeneo (1974) at the Lincoln Center in New York, and Death in Venice (1975) with the San Francisco Opera Company.
Other Broadway productions include Colette (1970), The Incomparable Max (1971), Arthur Miller's The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), The Au Pair Man (1974), and The Robber Bridegroom (1975).
Freedman has won an Obie for a production of Macbeth with the New York Shakespeare Festival. He was also the first American director invited to direct at the Globe Theatre in London.
In addition to his work in the theater and opera, Freedman has directed Antigone for the Public Broadcasting Service (1972), several episodes of the Adams Family Chronicles for WNET-TV (1973), and an episode of Hot L Baltimore (1975).
From 1991 to 2012, Freedman was Dean of the School of Drama, at the University of North Carolina, School of the Arts. A 350-seat theater on campus was named in his honor in 2012. He also taught at Yale and The Juilliard School. He serves on the Kennedy Center New Play Committee and is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. He is a participant in the Oomoto Institute, Kameoka, Japan.
