Fred Weiss went to Cal State Northridge to play freshman baseball for Dick Enberg, who became one of our most successful sports announcers. Fred, however, had trouble with the curveball and when, following a college production of Bye Bye Birdie, he was offered a scholarship to Eugene Loring’s American School of Dance he took it, studying for three years while earning his B.A. in Theater.

 

He went to work as a performer in Los Angeles, where he did TV, nightclubs, and theater. After a season of summer stock, he flew to New York and won his first audition, making his Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof, joining the cast in the sixth year of its original run.

 

Fred toured in a number of shows, spent a year as Stage Manager for the National Theater of the Deaf, and eventually returned to school for his M.A., which he got from Cal State San Francisco. He began his teaching career at Monterey Peninsula College in California, then went on to become Artistic Director for the Carmel Barnyard Theater and, following that, Artistic Director for the Hidden Valley Music Seminars in the Carmel Valley. During a years sabbatical from Binghamton University, he served as Artistic Director for the cabaret at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Fred retired from Binghamton University in 2010, a recipient of the University and the Chancellor’s Awards For Excellence in Teaching.  

 

He has directed more than 100 plays and musicals working with Peter Brooks, Theodore Bikel, Annette O’Toole, Tony Geary, Judy Kaye, and Hershel Bernardi, among many others. His 2002 Florida Studio Theater production of No Way To Treat A Lady won the Herald Tribune’s awards for Best Musical, and Best Director of a Musical.

 

These days he devotes his time to writing and hopes one day to publish.

 

Novels:

About Face.

The Bard, the Bible and the Buccaneer.

Running With Tyme

The Book of Dates

Dead Men Don’t Sweat

 

Plays:

The Road to the USO, Milwaukee Repertory Theater

Under The Hollywood Sign, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Barbara Anton Playwriting Award, Florida Studio Theater 

Those Who Play Clowns, (staged reading) American Conservatory Theater

The Hunting of The Snark, Binghamton University

Free Beer * Hot Sex * and the Weight of Gravity, Binghamton University

The Pursuit of Happiness

 

Screenplays:

Sunday Star

Lyle Knowles is Back on Earth

Running Away, Love

The Pursuit of Happiness