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Producer and CTI Founder Fred Vogel Passes Away

By: Nov. 30, 2005
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Frederic B. Vogel, the noted producer and founder of Commercial Theatre Institute, has passed away; he died in his apartment as a result of complications from lung cancer.

Vogel's career as a producer encompassed a number of Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Vogel, who got his feet wet in theatre at the age of 9, started out as a performer in Romeo and Juliet and in Take a Giant Step. His Broadway producing credits included Marlene and Enchanted April, while he produced The Cover of Life, Warp and R & J off-Broadway. He also invested in more than 50 New York productions.

Vogel also established two organizations to support theatre artists and producers. In 1970, he founded The Foundation for the Extension and Development of the American Professional Theatre (FEDAPT); he also headed FEDAPT for 17 years. in 1982, he created The Commercial Theatre Institute. With the latter organization, he founded the first workshop to train prospective producers for a career in commercial theatre; he also served as its executive director.

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Today, CTI offers 14-week workshop programs that "present hard, factual information on all aspects of commercial theater producing, including Broadway, Off-Broadway and productions for the road, with special emphasis on the relationship between not-for-profit and commercial theater." These workshops have included as seminar leaders the major Producers, General Managers, Theater Owners, Press Agents, Literary Agents, Theatrical Attorneys, and others , in the commercial theater. Over 50 participants in these programs have gone on to produce successfully On Broadway and Off.  Vogel also wrote extensively on not-for-profit theatre management, and his book Producing for the Commercial Theatre will be published posthumously next year.

Vogel was also one of the founders of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. He was the chair of the Broadway Cares Grants Committee which from 1988 to May, 1992 distributed over $1 million to scores of AIDS service providers in New York City and across the country. With the merger of Broadway Cares and Equity Fights AIDS in May, 1992, he joined the BC/EFA Board of Trustees and continued in his role as chair of the BC/EFA National Grants Committee until his death. Over the last 13 years, as chair of the grants committee, Vogel was intrumental in BC/EFA making over $25 million in grants to hundreds of AIDS and family service providers and advocates in 48 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico.

"Fred's passion for the theatre was embodied in his tremendous commitment to identifying and training emerging producers and encouraging them to produce work they were passionate about...He will be sorely missed," stated Victoria Bailey, the executive director of the Theatre Development Fund.

Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, who worked extensively with Vogel, commented, "As I cast my eye across the commerical and not-for-profit theater, there is only one person who has traversed both industries with grace and integrity, and that is Frederic B. Vogel."

Vogel, who is survived by niece Kathie Packer of Chicago, nephews Daniel J. Zitin of New York and Gary M. Zitin of Philadelphia, sister Naomi V. Zitin and brother-in-law Williard Zitin of Philadelphia, requested that there be no funeral. A memorial service will be held in January, and contributions to BC/EFA can be made in Vogel's name.




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