January's Author Spotlight Presents .... Herb Freed

January's Author Spotlight Presents ....
Herb Freed
Author of Rabbi, Have I Got a Girl for You!

Author Herb Freed as been it all. He started his adult life an ordained Rabbi and became the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Lake Mahopac, New York. At the same time, he produced and directed three shows at the Maidman Playhouse in New York City. "In fact, religion and drama are similar in many ways. Both are revealed through stories," Freed says. "The transition from the chapel to the stage isn’t as unusual as it sounds."

Freed then resigned his pulpit to become a movie director. He has directed and produced fifteen feature films. "The fact is that most of my films have psychological, spiritual and/or social themes and are not 'horror/slasher-type' movies. As the commercial market would have it, however, my most successful films - in financial terms - are “Graduation Day” a horror film and “Tomboy” a teenage romp," says Freed.

Rabbi, Have I Got a Girl for You! is Freed's first novel. The book follows the earnest, if occasionally misguided, exploits of young Rabbi Ben Zelig as he valiantly tries to balance the sometimes tragic and often bewildering demands of his calling. How hard was it going from directing to writing a book? "The most difficult part of writing a book is the isolation required of an author. It is also the most enjoyable," Freed replies. "Writing is an individual effort, whereas making a movie is a communal one. One of truly enjoyable aspects of making a movie is the community of talented people that comes together to realize a common vision. The nightmarish part of that process is the fact that each of the hundred or so people in front of, and behind the cameras has a different take on what that vision is and how to achieve it."

Freed’s first wife, Anne Marisse, a celebrated actress who played Tzeitel in the Broadway production of “Fiddler on the roof”; Dulcinea in “Man of LaMancha” and many others, died twenty years ago. For the past eighteen years, Freed has been married to Marion Segal, a gifted writer and artist and renowned film editor. In addition to the five movies she made with Freed, Marion has worked on over thirty feature films, including “Days of Heaven” and “Fun With Dick and Jane”. Marion and Herb are partners in every sense of the word. Marion writes the screenplays, Herb produces and directs and Marion edits and completes the films. “In my work and in my life, Marion is the wind beneath my wings.”

For more information about Herb Freed, please visit
http://www.indb.com
or http://www.bookmasters.com/marktplc/01311.htm