John Stephen Hirsch (May 1, 1930 – August 1, 1989) was an Hungarian-Canadian theater director. He was born in Siófok, Hungary, and escaped Hungary during World War Two as a refugee orphan. Hirsch was the adoptive son of Pauline Shack who resided in Winnipeg who had two children of her own, Sybil Shack and Frida Shack Katz.^[1]

In 1957, Hirsch and Tom Hendry co-founded Theatre 77, which they combined with the Winnipeg Little Theatre in 1958 to form the Manitoba Theatre Centre (with Hirsch as artistic director). MTC was destined to be the model for regional theatres across Canada. He directed many productions at MTC, the Stratford Festival, the National Arts Centre, Toronto Arts Productions, Young People's Theatre, the Shaw Festival. His 1976 Stratford production of Three Sisters won great acclaim.^[2]

He was co-director at the Stratford Festival (1967-1969), head of television drama for the CBC (1974-1978), and Artistic Director at the Stratford Festival (1981-1985).

In the United States, Hirsch won the Outer Circle Critics' Award for Saint Joan at Lincoln Center, and an Obie Award for AC/DC at the Chelsea Theater in New York. In 1975, he won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for The Dybbuk at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, a play he translated and adapted. In 1967, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contribution to the performing Arts". ^[3]

Hirsch died after being hospitalized at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Ontario on August 1, 1989.^[1]

See also

• Stratford Festival of Canada
• The Time of Your Life

References

1. ↑ ^{a b} HIRSCH, John, Globe & Mail. August 3, 1989.
2. ↑ Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
3. ↑ Order of Canada

External links

• Manitoba Writers' Guild Inc. profile
• John Stephen Hirsch at The Canadian Encyclopedia

fr:John Hirsch