John Freed
DG Playwright
ABOUT ME
John Freed's Brief Biography
Pennsylvania native, the high point of his acting career occurred there at age seventeen playing the lead in “Kiss me, Kate.” He received a standing ovation for his fireman's carry of his co-star off the stage after her slap nearly knocked him out at the close of Act One.
Fast forward to teaching dramatic literature especially Shakespeare at Penn State as well as being the theater critic for the “Erie Daily Times” and the film critic for New York's “OneWorld Magazine.” During that time he adapted Richard Wright's novella “The Man Who Lived Underground” as a radio play and composed a “Tribute to W. H. Auden” after the poet's death both produced by the local National Public Radio station.
His theatrical play-writing evolved while teaching at the University of St. Thomas in Texas and at Brandman / Chapman University in the Bay area.
During this time he wrote “Love me, Fuseli: A Play about Mary Wollstonecraft and her Circle of Friends,” “Figaro's Follies” – a new adaptation/translation of Beaumarchais' plays and “The Merchant of Pittsburgh: A Comedy."
All of them have had staged-readings at the Tides Theatre in San Francisco sponsored by the Dramatists Guild and in Alameda by EastBay Players where he has also acted. “Love me, Fuseli" was featured in Portland, Oregon by The Reading Parlor.
He has just finished the book and lyrics for a musical entitled “Castle Happy: Love and Tomfoolery in Hearst's San Simeon” with composer, Jeff Dunn. The opening song from that musical received a workshop review by Tony-nominated Craig Carnelia in San Francisco and had its full production debut at the Altarena Playhouse in the SF Bay area in July 2017 -- https://brandmannews.org/?s=Castle+Happy .
Currently he is working on a concentrated adaptation entitled “William Shakespeare's Portia and the Merchant of Venice” and the prequel to "The Merchant of Pittsburgh" entitled "Two Parlors,"
John is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and teaches at the Walnut Creek campus of Chapman University. His wife, Stacy Alexander, is a mixed-media artist and organizational psychologist living in Portland, Oregon.