The Daily Bulletin Archive

Jonathan Seinen, assistant professor of theater, has received the John Hirsch Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. The biennial prize is awarded to “new and developing theater directors who have demonstrated great potential for future excellence and exciting artistic vision.” Directing primarily through independent companies such as Architect Theatre, Saga Collectif, lemonTree creations, and Boys in Chairs Collective, Seinen is also an actor, playwright, and producer. His work includes Black Boys, Access Me, and Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land), which was nominated for seven Dora Awards. He also directed Hamlet in a Calgary community hall and Deathwatch in a Toronto art gallery basement. He is a graduate of the University of Alberta, the National Theatre School of Canada, and Columbia University, where he earned his master of fine arts in 2020 and where he directed Cabaret, Our Town, and The Seagull. He will join the Buffalo State Theater Department faculty this fall.