SCHOOL OF THEATRE
Fred Sternfeld , Director

Fred Sternfeld, an experienced theatre director, is passionate about the training at the Fairmount School of Theatre. “Our programs foster teamwork, discipline, commitment and support, lessons that will resonate in all areas of our student ’s lives, long after they leave us,” said Sternfeld. “I have spent most of my professional life as a director of theatre. I love it. One of my greatest pleasures is teaching young people what a wonderful and life-changing experience theatre can be.”

Fred Sternfeld has a vast background in the performing arts and in camping. In addition to serving as camp director for FPAC’s highly successful first three seasons, he has directed performing arts camps in Seattle and Dallas, was drama director at a resident camp for two summers, and ran a youth theatre at the Cleveland JCC in the late seventies. He also has many years of resident camp experience in a variety of non-theatre positions: Supervisor of day camp directors at the Seattle JCC, Unit Supervisor at Camp Tamarack in Michigan, Counselor-In-Training Supervisor, Outdoor Education Specialist, Camp Counselor and Staff Assistant at Camp Wise.

Additionally, he serves as Theatre Producer of the Cleveland Jewish Community Center’s Arts & Culture program.  Previously, he served as Cultural & Performing Art Director / Artistic Director at the Seattle & Dallas Jewish Community Centers and as Artistic Director at Lakewood Little Theatre - Beck Center for the Arts.

Fred is a free lance director in the Cleveland area, garnering numerous honors and awards. His recent "highly acclaimed production" (Plain Dealer Top Picks) of Disney's Beauty and the Beast at Beck Center received 7 "Times Tribute Awards for Outstanding Theatre" and made the "Best of 2005" lists of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland Scene, The Chagrin Valley Times and Free Times. South Pacific at JCC / Tri C made the Best of 2005 list of the Cleveland Scene.  Ragtime, the musical at JCC/Tri C was honored with two "Critics' Choice Awards" from the Cleveland Theatre Collective - Best Local Musical and Best Director, as well as being named "Best Musical" by The Cleveland Scene.  Additionally Ragtime was honored on five "best of 2004" lists in the local media: The Plain Dealer, Cleveland Scene, The Free Times, Times Newspapers and The Cleveland Jewish News and won an honorable mention for an "Award of Achievement in Theatre" from Northern Ohio Live Magazine. Fiddler on the Roof at Cain Park received six ‘Times Theatre Tribute 2003’ awards and a mention as one of the best productions of the year in Cleveland Scene; The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife at Dobama Theatre was named ‘best production of 2003’ by critic Herb Hammer; Man of La Mancha at the JCC Halle Theatre received five ‘Times Theatre Tribute 2002’ awards; Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night at Beck Center was honored with a Cleveland Scene ‘Best of Cleveland 2002’ Award as ‘Best Musical; The Sound of Music at Cain Park received a ‘Times Theatre Tribute 2001’ award for direction and The Cleveland Scene honored Fred as ‘Best Theatrical Dynamo’ in 2002. Fred also was honored by Northern Ohio Live Magazine in 1988 as one of Cleveland’s “best and brightest baby boomers under 40” and by Seattle's Eastside Week Newspaper in 1991 as an “outstanding young professional under 40.”

Over the span of his career, he has directed over 70 productions, including: The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek at Dobama Theatre, Bad Seed at Ensemble Theatre, The Man Who Came to Dinner at Berea Summer Theatre, Mass Appeal at Cabaret Dinner Theatre, Amadeus at Willoughby Fine Arts, Broadway Bound, The Diary of Anne Frank & A Shayna Maidel at Center Stage / Seattle JCC, The Time of Your Life at Karamu, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at CVLT, All My Sons, Milk and Honey & Enter Laughing at the Dallas JCC, On the Town, Of Mice and Men, La Cage aux Folles, Children of a Lesser God, Foxfire, Side by Side by Sondheim, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Noises Off, Peter Pan, The Importance of Being Earnest & Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Beck Center, The Immigrant, Crossing Delancey, Beau Jest, The Twilight of the Golds, Fiddler on the Roof, Conversations With My Father & Rags at the JCC Halle Theatre, Underneath the Lintel at Cesear’s Forum and Proof at The Geauga Lyric Theatre in Chardon.

Fred's upcoming directing projects are an encore presentation of Disney's Beauty and the Beast for Beck Center; Modern Orthodox and Jolson & Company for the Jewish Community Center of Cleveland at Cuyahoga Community College Eastern Campus Theatre Arts.

You can see pictures and reviews for any of these productions by clicking on the links above.

Complete information about Fred Sternfeld is available at his professional web-site http://www.fredsternfeld.com.