Fred Sternfeld, director of the respected and highly popular Fairmount Performing Arts Camp, known affectionately by campers as "FPAC," will add a whole new component to the camp this summer:  Production opportunities for youth (2nd grade – college) called  FPAC PRESENTS!.

"I began my directing career doing work in youth theatre," said Mr. Sternfeld during a recent interview.  "For the last 20 years my directing work has been at adult professional theatres.  While I have often had young people in my productions, I haven't focused my energies specifically on developing a youth or teen theatre. Starting this summer, and throughout the coming years, FPAC will be extended into a full year round youth conservatory program with a range of training and production opportunities. We'll draw on some of the top theatre artists in the region to work with our young actors – and present a range of challenging plays and musicals."

As a director, Fred is well known by theatre artists and audiences for his ability to bring truth and humanity to a production.  The critics have noticed – honoring Fred with awards for a myriad of productions, including Ragtime, the musical, A Shayna Maidel and Man of La Mancha at the JCC; Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Of Mice and Men, and Saturday Night at Beck Center and Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music and Oliver at Cain Park.   "It is true that I try to develop the world of the play and the logical human action within it, but the ability to bring this to fruition depends largely on the training and ability of the actors.  I rely on them to have the skills to bring the vision to life." 

How does one do that with young people who haven't had that much training?  The question must be asked, 'can a director expect fine acting from a young, inexperienced ensemble?'

Mr. Sternfeld is thoughtful for a moment and replies with a bit of a chuckle,  "Yes of course.  The advantage I have is that I also oversee the school!"  He is referring of course to the FPAC Professional Training Workshop.  "We have a great training program with a superb "dream team" of instructors - Carol Pribble, Mitchell B. Fields, Dudley Swetland, Dana Hart and George Roth.   Now we're aiming to have a great performance program as well.  Our program is structured to include dynamic actor training in the process.  Students cast in the shows will have trained most of the day before attending the rehearsals. They will immediately be able to apply everything they are learning in full scale productions."  

"Over the last few years our students have spread out all over the region and shined on numerous local stages.  They comprised most of the children in A Christmas Story at The Cleveland Playhouse the last three years, many have appeared in A Christmas Carol at Great Lakes Theatre Festival, FPAC alumni comprised the winner and the two alternates in the recent City-Wide ESU High School Shakespeare competition and scores have appeared in productions at many other local theatres like Carousel Dinner Theatre, Beck Center, JCC, Kalliope Stage, Actors Summit, Dobama, Ensemble, and others.  Now they will have a chance to shine on our stage as well."

Tom Fulton, Executive Director of Fairmount Center for the Arts, the umbrella organization that established and administers FPAC, supports Fred on his approach.  "Fred's approach to training and performance is directly in line with Fairmount's vision of an arts conservatory.  His robust and award-winning background in theatre, as a director, producer and educator brings a tremendous credibility and strength to all aspects of our school of theatre and professional performance program.  We feel that Mr. Sternfeld is the perfect person to lay the foundations of our future for FPAC and in our new theatre at Mayfield Village Performing Arts Center."

The productions this summer will be William Shakespeare's tragic love story, Romeo and Juliet, and the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  

Fred has this to say about Joseph …  "My first contact with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was in 1973 as a kid in the audience at Camp Wise. Bebe Weinberg Katz was directing a group of children in the play. What those kids did was so amazing and moving that I decided to try theatre for the first time that autumn in the youth theatre at JCC. There was no turning back - I was hooked!"

"The writing of Joseph… suggests to me a stylized production that mixes the contemporary with the biblical. The core of the story is a moving play about favoritism, betrayal and redemption. In Joseph…there are modern musical styles like country, reggae, French cabaret and ragtime and the characterizing of the Pharaoh as Elvis.  How to merge that with the story?  We will make it an 'illustrated children's bible come to life as seen through the eyes of children..'  If we are seeing it through their eyes than anything goes, so besides the Pharaoh as Elvis I'll look for every opportunity to mix in other pop and rock icons in the characterizations, and contemporary references in the staging."

In addition to being on the staff of FPAC's Professional Training Workshop, George Roth will direct Romeo and Juliet.  George embarked on his professional acting career 23 years ago when he graduated from the three-year actor's training program at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.  During his eight years in England he appeared in the Royal National Theatre's West End production of Brighton Beach Memoirs and at many other venues around the UK,

Mr. Roth has appeared in a number of productions at regional theaters across the United States as well as locally at The Cleveland Play House, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Cain Park, the Mandel Jewish Community Center, Beck Center for the Arts, Dobama Theatre and Cleveland Public Theatre.

During a recent interview, Mr. Roth spoke about doing Shakespeare with young people – "When I was a sixth grader, my school put on Shakespeare's The Tempest and I had the best time of my young life playing Caliban, the miscreant son of Sycorax, the witch.  It was a seminal moment in my life, the birth of my passion to be an actor and theater artist.  Even in the cut-down script, the poetry and imagery were like jewels dropping from the mouths of babes."

"Romeo and Juliet holds a special place in my heart.  It was the second Shakespeare play I ever performed.  And while it's been many years since I played Friar Laurence to the Romeo of Michael Cerveris' (Tony Award, Assassins) and the Nurse of Myra Lucretia Taylor (Broadway revival of Nine with Antonio Banderas) when we were all at Yale University, I remember it as if it were yesterday: the beauty of the language and the deep loves and passion that drive all the behaviors, both good and bad."

"I'm thrilled to be working with the talented young artists of Northeast Ohio on Romeo and Juliet.  I worked with many of the area's talented young people last summer in Oliver at Cain Park and the level of talent and dedication I saw was inspiring.  I know we'll learn a lot together, but above all, we'll have fun doing it."

Both productions will have runs at Fairmount Center for the Arts' new theatre in Mayfield Village in July.  Students interested in joining FPAC this summer should view the FPAC website at www.fairmountcenter.org/fpac08 .  Or they can call 440-338-3171.