About
John Fraser Deaderick, Adjunct Professor in Theatre Arts at Sierra College, CA, since 1985. SAG / AFTRA member since 1990. Playwright, actor, and director of more than 250 productions, toured with composer Terry Riley across the USA and to France and Switzerland, and directed in Scotland at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014. Studied Improvisation with multiple Academy Award winner Alan Arkin.
Recipient of two California Arts Council Artist in Residence Grants, worked with the otherly-abled, the incarcerated, and students of all ages. National Endowment for the Humanities Study Fellowships for Greek Tragedy; Samuel Beckett. American Antiquarian Society Fellowship recipient. Author and Producer of many (unpublished) theatre works. Written dozens of theatre and music reviews for the local press. 20+ years as a radio announcer.
Featured Work
Make Sweet the Minds of Men: Early Opera and Tragic Catharsis
An exploration of the philosophical, musical, and social forces that led to the invention of a dynamic new musical form later to be known as opera.
Opera began in Northern Italy as an attempt to recreate the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Aristotle's application of the term catharsis gets a reexamination.
