Black Boys

Nominated for the 2017 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Ensemble – General Division

Saga Collectif (2016)

A multidisciplinary devised work exploring the intersection of race, gender and sexuality for three queer Black-identified individuals. Monologue, verbatim scenes, and movement/dance sequences speak to these three people in their quest for a liberated imagination.

Co-produced in Toronto by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Black Boys toured Canada in 2018.

“You might expect a director to step into a collective creation like this and help it find unity – but Seinen seems interested in the failure of form. At the SummerWorks Festival last year, he was involved in a theatre production about the Northern Gateway pipeline based on extensive interviews that were then all thrown out but one; a documentary show ended up a dance show. / If there's a connection between the two works, it's that when words confuse, bodies might help clarify – and, indeed, Griffith's impressive body-highlighting choreography is the glue that brings Black Boys together.”
– J. Kelly Nestruck, The Globe and Mail
“Black Boys seems to move at a brisk pace, thanks to the magnetism of the performers and the direction of Jonathan Seinen, but the production will likely start to sink in after you’ve left the theatre…. This show has a unique point of view, the guts to make it heard and a message that needs to be heard right now.”
– Carly Maga, Toronto Star