Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Welcomes New Artistic Associate Stephen Brown-Fried

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey has announced the appointment of stage director and longtime company guest artist Stephen Brown-Fried as the Theatre's Artistic Associate & Casting Director. "I am thrilled to be back at this company. I do not know of another theatre that combines excellence in classic theatre and such a deep commitment to teaching. The combination of professional practice and educational training here is unparalleled," says Brown-Fried.

A native of Madison, New Jersey, Brown-Fried first became involved with The Shakespeare Theatre 23 years ago through an outreach program at the Madison Middle School when he was a sixth grader; Brown-Fried then began volunteering and taking classes at the company. Over the years, he has often returned to the Theatre as a Main Stage director (All's Well That Ends Well and The Comedy of Errors), educational touring company director (Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Coriolanus), and acting teacher. He holds a BA with honors in Drama and History from Stanford University, and an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama.

Artistic Director Bonnie J. Monte says, "Stephen embodies the mission of our institution; he began his relationship with the arts, and our company in particular, as a child in one of our school residency programs. All these years, he has been able to train and work his way up through our ranks, which helped prepare him for the professional arena. Through all his experiences, The Shakespeare Theatre has remained his artistic home base. It is truly exciting to welcome him back in this new and integral role and to have him working side by side with me on all matters artistic. He is a consummate professional and very talented artist."

Brown-Fried is also an Associate Artist with Trinity Shakespeare Festival, where he directed critically-acclaimed productions of Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, and Much Ado About Nothing. His production of The Merchant of Venice was named one of the best productions of 2012 by D Magazine, TheaterJones, and The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

From 2005 to 2008, Brown-Fried served as the Resident Assistant Director with Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., where he assisted directors Michael Kahn, Ethan McSweeny, Kjetil Bang-Hansen, Douglas C. Wager, and Stephen Wadsworth, and directed the Free-For-All remount of Kahn's Love's Labour's Lost.

Brown-Fried's extensive directing credits include productions at Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Shakespeare, National Asian American Theatre Company, New Worlds Theatre Project, Connecticut Lyric Opera, The New School for Drama, Columbia School of the Arts, Yale School of Drama, New York University's Tisch Graduate Acting, North Carolina School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University: Meadows School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, and University of Miami.

Brown-Fried is on the MFA Directing faculty at The New School for Drama. He has also taught at acting and Shakespeare at Marymount Manhattan College, National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Yale School of Drama.

The acclaimed Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is an independent, professional theatre company located on the Drew University campus. One of the leading Shakespeare theatres in the nation, serving 100,000 adults and children annually, it is New Jersey's largest professional theatre company dedicated solely to Shakespeare's canon and other world classics. Through its distinguished productions and education programs, the company strives to illuminate the universal and lasting relevance of the classics for contemporary audiences.

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