Legendary farewells

Paying tribute to the past and supporting the future

Just days after the official beginning of the academic year in July 2019, John Sneden, the founding dean of the School of Design and Production, passed away at the age of 83.

Sneden served as the D&P dean for 32 years and was credited with bringing a highly respected and rigorous professional training program to the school, now recognized among the world’s finest of its kind. Current Dean of D&P Michael J. Kelley, a graduate of the scenic design program, had known Sneden as an instructor, mentor, colleague and friend. “He was the one person who can be credited with the success and prominence of the School of Design and Production,” Kelley says. “Everything we have achieved is testament to the strong foundation that he built.”

Norman Coates, who recently retired from UNCSA as head of the lighting design program, recounts how remarkable Sneden was and how much he admired him and his work.“He could quote ‘The Iliad’ in Latin or tell you the name of every student and their hometown. He was a friend and colleague to us all and shaped the lives of hundreds of students, faculty and guests who passed through the doors of Design and Production.”

In March 2020, the School of Drama lost a leading light of its own, Dean Emeritus Gerald Freedman. Freedman arrived on campus in 1991 and valiantly led the school for the next 21 years.

“The defining mission of Gerald’s life was the training of first-rate theatre artists,” says Isaac Klein, an alumnus and author of “The School of Doing: Lessons from Theater Master Gerald Freedman.” Published in 2017, the book is a tribute to Freedman, with half of its profits pledged to the Gerald Freedman Excellence Endowed Fund, a scholarship in the School of Drama.

Regarded nationally for productions of classic dramas, musicals, operas, new plays and television, Freedman was the winner of an Obie Award for excellence in off-Broadway theatre, and was the first American invited to direct at the Globe Theatre in London. Throughout his career, he directed celebrated actors including Olympia Dukakis, James Earl Jones, Stacy Keach, Sam Waterston, Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin, Jean Stapleton, William Hurt and many more.

Patinkin, whom Freedman taught at The Juilliard School, wrote the forward to Klein’s book. “I would not have been anything that I have become, in terms of whatever I’m considered as an artist, without Gerald Freedman,” he wrote. “He is my artistic DNA. He is my artistic father.”

Upon his retirement in 2012, Freedman was named dean emeritus, and the largest theater on campus was named in his honor. At the dedication celebration that November, Freedman said he was touched to have the theater bear his name. “The reputation of the School of Drama and the quality of the talent we produce yearly is what I am most proud of in my 60-plus years in the theater. I live in the work of my students,” he said.

In 2004, an endowed scholarship was established in honor of Sneden and his wife, Julia. The recipient of the John and Julia Sneden Endowed Award for Excellence embodies the standards valued by Sneden, including a record of artistic excellence and academic accomplishment, along with demonstrated qualities of leadership, collaboration, passion, generosity of integrity and artistic spirit. In 2005, an outdoor space near D&P was dedicated as Sneden’s Landing, and the space was renovated and enhanced in 2018.

The Sneden and Freedman scholarships—as well as the physical spaces on campus that bear their names—are enduring reminders of the impacts they each made on UNCSA and its students. More than that, the scholarships represent a path for emerging artists who seek to make their own indelible marks on the cultural and artistic landscape.