Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Freeman, Neil
Actor, director, educator, born in Southport, England February 1, 1941; died October 23, 2015. Neil Freeman graduated with an M.A. from the University of Nottingham, and studied theatre at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
A Shakespeare specialist, Freeman acted in fourteen of the plays, directed twenty-four, and coached them all many times. He played major roles at the Citadel Theatre, Stratford Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and created and directed for Bard on the Beach.
He was a member of Shakespeare & Company (holder of a Founder's Ring and the rank of Master Teacher); Text Consultant with Seattle Shakespeare and the newly founded Whole Actor Enterprise in California. He was a guest faculty member at more than two dozen professional theatre schools in England, the U.S. and Canada.
Neil Freeman taught at York University and the National Theatre School of Canada, lectured at the Shakespeare Association of America, and gave workshops for the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America, the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), and for the American division of the Shakespeare Globe Centre. He was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Theatre and Film, University of British Columbia.
His publications include: Shakespeare's First Texts (a guide to the First Folio and quartos); thirty-six individual Applause First Folio Editions (annotated modern print versions of the plays contained in the 1623 First Folio); and a series of three linked books of audition material entitled Once More Unto The Speech, Dear Friends, with annotated modern text and First Folio text versions of each speech, plus explanatory commentary.
Through his mentoring and publications, he influenced the careers of many young Canadian actors.
Last updated 2019-03-06
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The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia web site was originally conceived and developed in 1996 by Gaetan Charlebois—theatre critic, playwright, and actor.
