John R. "Jack" Freimann papers
Scope and Contents
The Jack Freimann papers contain correspondence, scrapbooks, audio visual recordings of Harper Joy Theater productions, scripts, playbills, and other ephemera from Freimann’s life spanning from 1944 to 2018. The majority of the collection covers Freimann’s time as theater professor at Whitman from 1962 to 1992. However, some outliers exist, such as playbills from 1923 to the 1940s and a costume plate from the 1800, that Freimann likely collected.
Correspondences... from individuals that appeared frequently or were mostly together when donated have been given their own folders under the correspondence series. Other correspondences are organized by decade, with postcards separated from letters.
The following is a list of the individuals with dedicated folders in the collection:
Dirk Benedict ‘64: Actor on Broadway and in film, best known for the Battlestar Galactica film (1978) and television series (1978-1979).
Steve Brady ‘78(?): Actor in Detroit, Michigan. He attended the California State University Long Beach Master of Fine Arts program.
Scott Campbell ‘84: Actor in Los Angeles throughout the late 1980s, worked temporary jobs and wrote from office computers, auditioned for off-broadway in NYC, friend of Dana Williams (Whitman ‘83), studied in London post-grad.
Mark Chamberlin ‘77: Actor in New York City, performed on Broadway, died at age 55 after falling off his bike in Seattle in 2011.
Ray Chapman ‘83: Seattle actor, affiliated with the Annex Theater (Seattle’s oldest fringe theater).
Robert Hegland ‘63(?): Military service member that sent yearly Christmas letters about travels.
Frank Lott ‘82: Traveling actor and stage manager, Lott wrote many postcards from around the world.
Christina Mastin ‘84: Actor who wrote a letter from backstage in a theater production on a paper towel.
Sheila McClure ‘90(?): Producer for television in Los Angeles beginning in the mid-1990s, world traveler/reporter, currently lives in England and writes romance and mystery novels.
Scott Renderer ‘79: Actor in New York City throughout the 1980s and 1990s, founded Upper Jay Arts Center in upstate New York in 2005.
Mark Scott ‘84: Designer, writer, and ukulele musician, associated with the LGBTQIA+ community on campus, studied in the Netherlands at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Letters discuss the personal impact of the AIDS crisis.
Dana Williams ‘83: Set designer, professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, MFA at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.
Dates
- Creation: 1962 - 1992
Creator
- Freimann, John Raymond, 1926-2018 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Biographical / Historical
John (Jack) Raymond Freimann was born November 10, 1926 and was raised in Selah, WA. He graduated from Tieton High School in Tieton, WA in 1944. His senior yearbook listed “Ambition, to be an actor.” He earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University in 1951 and a Master of Fine Arts from Fordham University in 1956. He also studied at the American Conservatory Theater and the British Drama League. Freimann did his first professional set design... in 1952 for a production of Gigi. Before joining Whitman in 1962 as an assistant professor of dramatic arts and designer and technical theater director, Freimann worked in Broadway and off-Broadway productions and taught at New York University. In 1986, he was awarded the Whitman College Town Gown Award for his contributions to the community. He retired from Whitman in 1992, spending many years in New York with frequent trips to Europe. His collection of theater posters can be seen decorating the hallways of Harper Joy Theater. The Freimann Studio Theatre in Harper Joy, also commonly recognized as Whitman’s black box theater, is dedicated to Freimann. He died in Huntington Beach, California on January 3, 2018 at the age of 91.
The majority of this collection contains the decades-long correspondences Freimann maintained with former students who became close friends. Some were professional actors, like Dirk Benedict, and show revealing details about the acting world from the 1970s into the 2000s. At times, it seems as though he fostered a tough love relationship with some of his former students who he believed could do more for themselves in acting. From these letters, it could be inferred that Jack took on a long-term role in his students’ lives, both as a career coach and elder figure. Many letters describe the young lives of struggling actors, working temporary jobs or in the corporate arena while trying to get their break in theater or on screen. Other correspondences illuminate the experiences of gay men during the AIDS crisis and the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. A strong place to begin understanding Jack’s impact is his 1992 retirement scrapbook. Whitman alumni and friends were asked to provide a “Jack” story and its pictures, letters, and programs span many years.
Extent
8.2 Linear Feet (10 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Jack Freimann was a drama teacher at Whitman from 1962 to 1992. He was promoted from associate professor for Dramatic Art and Speech to Director of the Whitman Theater in 1967. His collection contains letters from colleagues and many former students, as well as audiovisual recordings of Harper Joy Theater productions, photographs of sets and actors, and playbills from Jack’s early career.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The materials in this collection were mailed to the Whitman College and Northwest Archives by Jack Freimann in 2017. The accession number associated with this donation is 2017-042. There is no deed of gift.
Processing Information
Greeting and holiday cards with no determined historical value were deaccessioned. For correspondence, general correspondences were organized by decade into folders while correspondences with recurring people were processed into separate folders.
- Title
- Guide to the John R. "Jack" Freimann papers
- Author
- Genevieve Vogel
- Date
- 2024
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the Whitman College and Northwest Archives Repository