Freddie Gershon

In the late 1950's, William S. Paley (who was founder and CEO of CBS) wanted to broadcast Young People's Concerts with America's "glam" emerging star, conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein. Columbia Records (a division of CBS) recorded Maestro Bernstein as well as the New York Philharmonic. Maestro Bernstein with his buddy, Roger...

Although I've never written, directed, produced or starred in a play or musical on Broadway, I received notice of this forthcoming honor a short time ago.

I have spent decades being an advocate for musical theater throughout the world and more specifically in our schools, even more specifically for...

This past January at the Broadway JR. Festival in Atlanta, approximately 2,500 young people from grade schools with their teachers and adjudicators were given constructive guidance, tips, suggestions and evaluations of JR. performances and JR. productions from 50 schools in 37 states. Eight remarkable teachers were selected as being profoundly...

If you drive in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area near the Mayo Clinic, there's a building unpretentious and elegantly simple in its exterior design. It is not a "statement" like the de rigueur museums we read about and see in Los Angeles, Berlin, Bilbao, etc. It is a desert treasure and the...

On the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the Broadway "JR" experience for NYC's middle schools, 600 children from 15 schools each performed a sample song from shows in the Broadway "JR" Collection. The children were welcomed by Master of Ceremonies Daniel Radcliffe (think Harry...

Charles Isherwood recently wrote a brilliant piece on the late Arthur Laurents in the New York Times, entitledScrappy Papa of the Ultimate Stage Momma.

I want to congratulate him for his piece on Arthur Laurents.

I want to thank him for him for his piece on...

In my blog "Look Papi... I Did It", I identified P.94 and their experience with disabled children who defied prognostication by breaking through and feeling better about themselves and (as they called it) felt "more normal".

The most recent blog I wrote had to do with financial cuts to The...

The Kennedy Center is a physical, tangible as well as an organic living reminder of the Kennedy years and a legacy of a President who brought idealism to a generation of Americans. It is known for The Kennedy Center Honors (an American institution and celebration) and is our equivalent of...

Disclosure:

I am the principal of a company (Musical Theatre International) which has Juniorized well-known stage musical theatre titles and you may think me biased, and I probably am. In an effort to educate myself, I attend performances, get feedback from teachers, principals, school boards, students and parents across the...

Did Martin Luther King, Jr. ever dream that in Atlanta at the Junior Theater Festival, on his celebratory weekend in 2011, more than 2,000 kids from around the United States, ages 7 to 15, would be gathered from 54 separate schools from across the U.S. with a make-up of white,...

Miss Cellophane died this week. Almost no one knew because she performed a rare but indispensable role -- one requiring her to be ego-free and always knowing that her greatest successes were when no one was ever aware that she had "pulled it off"... again.

Her name was Linda...

So Myrna and I are visiting Linda Dozoretz, high in the hills of Beverly...

Linda shows Myrna the Google home page with The Flintstones integrated into the Google art celebrating the "50th" Flintstones Birthday. Out flowed from Myrna cathartic (tears/laughter) stories of Ralph Cohn, nephew of Harry Cohn (Columbia...

Step right up, folks, 'cause right now it's National Arts and Education Week (September 12-18). The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution saying:

"Arts Education, comprising a rich array of disciplines including dance, music, theatre, media arts, literature, design and visual arts, is a core academic subject and an...

I'm a relatively new online blogger, although the "blogettes" I've submitted do reflect my thoughts and conversations. I generally consider myself a "gentleman blogger," not writing about anything controversial. Or, at least I thought I wasn't being controversial. My blog education continues.

Most recently, after writing about the arts, grade...

Two of the most-positive vehicles to promote the arts in schools have been based on comparing sports and arts. The Disney television movie, High School Musical (and the enterprise that resulted in TV, film, music and events), followed by Fox's hit series, Glee, both unite the super cool athletes and...

I'm a jaded New Yorker. I see all the big movies and plays and can talk a good game with anyone else who saw them. I admit, a Venezuelan documentary entitled Play and Fight would not be on my list of musts.

But I saw it...

I had the privilege of meeting eight young teachers over the weekend. They were all "winners" of the "Freddie G" (OK, I humbly admit it's the "me" award that others long suggested and interfaces nicely with my philanthropic aims). The winners were selected (no, not by me) out of a...

I think of Phil Ochs on July 4. Phil was a cult contemporary of Bob Dylan from the 60s and 70s (and with full disclosure I reveal was a friend and client of mine when I practiced law). And Phil wrote a song called "Another Country."* The lyric reads as...

When Francis Scott key wrote the lyrics, "And the rockets' red glare! Bombs bursting in air" in 1814, the rockets were a different. The bombs were different. They seem a lot less glorified and inspirational in the desert-like environment of today than that naïve, bygone era when "proudly we hail."

The Nebraska Cornhuskers' 2010 football season doesn't begin until September. By then, the 2,500 students visiting the University of Nebraska-Lincoln this week for the Thespian Festival will be back at their schools throughout the United States getting ready for their own Fall events.

But while the Nebraska Coaches Association All-Star...