About

I am a theatre artist. I have worked across Canada as a theatre director, actor, devised theatre creator, producer, playwright, and educator. Born in Terrace, British Columbia and raised in Slave Lake and Edmonton, Alberta, I have trained and worked in Montreal, Toronto, New York City, Buffalo, and Regina, and currently reside in Vancouver where I am Assistant Professor of Performance Practice (Acting & Directing) in the Department of Theatre and Film at the University of British Columbia. I am a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Acting program and hold an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University, where I trained under Anne Bogart and Brian Kulick. I was awarded the 2020 John Hirsch Prize for Directing from the Canada Council for the Arts, and won the 2024 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Direction (Independent) for Access Me.

I am Artistic Producer of Architect Theatre (co-founded with Georgina Beaty), a Founding Member of both Saga Collectif and Boys in Chairs Collective, and was Artistic Associate with lemonTree creations (2008-2017).

Directing credits include: The Romeo Initiative (Persephone Theatre), Access Me (Boys In Chairs Collective), Salvage the Wrecked and Sycophant (National Theatre School of Canada), Orlando (University of Regina), The Tragedy of Macbeth (SUNY Buffalo State University), Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land) (Theatre Passe Muraille/Saga Collectif/Architect Theatre/Dora Award Nomination for Directing), Cabaret (Columbia University), and Black Boys (Buddies In Bad Times/Saga Collectif/Tour).

Acting credits include: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Ekstatika Stage & Screen), Body Politic (lemonTree/Buddies/Dora Award for Outstanding New Play), Liberation Days (Theatre Calgary/Western Canadian Theatre), A God In Need of Help (Tarragon Theatre), The Normal Heart (Studio 180/Buddies In Bad Times Theatre), and As You Like It (Citadel Theatre).

My devised collaborative theatre works have an emphasis on environmental and identity topics and are based on field research, autobiography, and the body. With Architect Theatre, I co-created and performed in two research-based works about resource extraction: Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show (Theatre Passe Muraille/Tour) and Like There’s No Tomorrow (SummerWorks), and directed This Must Be The Place: The CN Tower Show for Theatre Passe Muraille. I also co-created Charisma Furs with Mx. Katie Sly, which was published in Q2Q: Queer Canadian Performance Texts (Playwrights Canada Press), nominated for a LAMDBA Literary Award.

I wrote the Forward for Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho)’s Governor General’s Award nominated and LAMDBA Literary Award winner Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land), and Boys In Chair’s Collective’s Access Me was included in the anthology, Interdependent Magic: Disability Performance in Canada, both published by Playwrights Canada Press. My writing has also appeared in the Summer 2021 edition of the Canadian Theatre Review (“Room for failure was abundant”: A Personal Account of SummerWorks, 2006-2017) and in Theatre Passe Muraille: A Collective History (Playwrights Canada Press).

Through Architect Theatre, I am currently developing new plays with Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman (I Quit The Band) and Arthur Milner (Weyburn 1959).

Thanks for your interest in my work.

Jonathan [at] jonathanseinen [dot] com