Jason Koski/University Photography

Director Neal Freeman works with Michael Ladd during a recent rehearsal for "Vincent in Brixton" in the Schwartz Center's Black Box Theatre. Copyright © Cornell University

Neal Freeman has accomplished something rare: He has supported himself in the theater as a director, actor and playwright since graduating from Cornell in 1997. He is now back on campus to direct the regional premiere of "Vincent in Brixton," a play based on Vincent Van Gogh's years in England, in the Schwartz Center's Black Box Theatre.

"Much of what we know of Van Gogh comes from his letters," says Freeman. "He struggled to understand himself. I love that the play is about real characters and has a strong authenticity about it. Our involvement as an audience is enhanced by the fact that we're witnessing something that could have happened."

Set in 1873, when the 20-year-old Van Gogh was working for a London art dealer and renting a room in Brixton, south London, the play, written by Nicholas Wright, examines the seeds of genius and madness that lead to Van Gogh's enduring art and his suicide at age 37.

"This is very much a character study, not a history lesson," Freeman says of "Vincent," which won Britain's 2003 Olivier Award for Best New Play. "You're watching real people struggling. You look ahead to the genius of his artwork, and then you look to the despair and madness of his personal life. It's really about the coexistence of genius and madness. The play asks: Do you have to be somewhat mad to be a truly great artist?"

Freeman, who majored in theater and English, returned to his native Baltimore after graduation, where he directed, acted and wrote plays. His work has received strong reviews, and he won the 2003 Baltimore Playwrights' Festival competition. Two years ago he moved to New York City, where he has directed three off-Broadway shows in the past year.

"It's great as a graduate to feel like I have something to give back," he says. "I felt that I took a lot from my training here, and I've been able to apply it to my own work.

"I wanted a school where I could study theater intensively but at the same time have a broad base in liberal arts," Freeman notes. "This is a relatively small department where there's a lot of student involvement and a lot of professional skill in the teaching, design and technical staff. It was a perfect fit for me. Part of the beauty of this program is that you get professional-level training without that conservatory kind of feel. It's run like a regional theater. The facilities are fantastic."

Freeman says that as a director, he is organized and reliable. "I bring some sense of stability as well as the passion and the understanding of the art.

"As an artist in any discipline, the broader your life experience, the broader your art. It's not as simple as taking a history class and having a better understanding of Vincent Van Gogh. It's being exposed to different philosophies, writers, views of the world. They broaden your ability to see those viewpoints in a particular work of art."

At 31, Freeman has navigated hurdles of rejection and unemployment that can dash hopes of a theatrical career. "When you get to be my age, you have to make the commitment to swim against the stream or give up," Freeman says. "I have no intention of doing that. I've been poor for so long that it doesn't scare me to continue to be that way."

"Vincent in Brixton," which runs Feb 1-5 and 8-11, says Freeman, "is really the beginning of Van Gogh's journey." And that's something Freeman can understand. Of his career, he says, "I feel I'm on the threshold of something bigger right now, standing at the doorway, not quite fully in the room yet."

George Lowery is projects manager in the Office of Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.