Gerald Freedman

Gerald Freedman (June 25, 1927 – March 17, 2020) was an American theatre director, librettist, and lyricist, and a college dean. He was born in Lorain, Ohio.
Freedman was leading artistic director (1960-1967) and artistic director (1967-1971) of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival, artistic director of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio (1985-1997), and co-artistic director of John Houseman’s The Acting Company (1974-1977). 
He taught at Yale School of Drama and the Juilliard School.
He was Dean of the Drama School at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (1991-2012). He was the first American ever invited to direct at the Globe Theatre in London. He was a member of the Kennedy Center New Play Committee and the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. He participated in the Oomoto Institute, Kameoka, Japan. 
He died on March 17, 2020 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina of kidney failure, aged 92.