Adam Seelig (born 1975) is a Canadian-American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, director, composer, and artistic director of the

One Little Goat Theatre Company One Little Goat Theatre Company is a theatre company devoted to modern and contemporary "poetic theatre". Founded by poet, playwright and director Adam Seelig in New York City in 2002, and based in Toronto since 2005, the company performs provocati ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Background and Education

Seelig's early experience in theatre included directorial apprenticeships at the

Arts Club Theatre Company The Arts Club Theatre Company is a Canadian professional theatre company in Vancouver, British Columbia, founded in 1958. It is the largest urban not-for-profit theatre company in the country and the largest in Western Canada, with productions tak ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

and the

Tarragon Theatre The Tarragon Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and one of the main centers for contemporary playwriting in the country.

in Toronto.Alex Kliner, ''Jewish Western Bulletin'', 30 Jan 1998, p.26. One of Seelig's early poems was published in

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; June 10, 1915April 5, 2005) was a Canadian-American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only write ...

’s and Keith Botsford's ''The Republic of Letters''. Born in

, Canada Seelig is the child of an Israeli father and an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

mother. As an undergraduate at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, Seelig studied

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

with John Felstiner,

Marjorie Perloff Marjorie Perloff (born Gabriele Mintz; September 28, 1931 – March 24, 2024) was an Austrian-born American poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry. Perloff was a professor at Catholic University, the University of ...

, and

Gilbert Sorrentino Gilbert Sorrentino (April 27, 1929 – May 18, 2006) was an American novelist, short story writer, poet, literary critic, professor, and editor. In over twenty-five works of fiction and poetry, Sorrentino explored the comic and formal possibili ...

, as well as theatre with Carl Weber, completing a BA in 1998 with a

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's original manuscripts. He also wrote and directed an early play entitled ''Inside the Whale'' (named after the essay by George Orwell). Seelig founded an organization known as the "Silly Society of Stanford."

Directing

Seelig founded the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and

in the early 2000s. With the company, he directed dramatic works by poet-playwrights

Yehuda Amichai Yehuda Amichai (; born Ludwig Pfeuffer 3 May 1924 – 22 September 2000) was an Israelis, Israeli poet and author, one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew language, Hebrew in modern times. Yehuda Amichai, the poet of everyday life, love, ...

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, poet and polemicist who is considered one of the most important German-language authors of the postwar era. He explored themes of death, iso ...

Jon Fosse Jon Olav Fosse (; born 29 September 1959) is a Norwegian author, translator, and playwright. In 2023, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable." Fosse's work spans over se ...

Claude Gauvreau Claude Gauvreau (August 19, 1925 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada – July 7, 1971 in Montreal) was a playwright, poet, sound poet, and polemicist. He was a member of the radical Automatist movement and a contributor to the revolutionary Refus Glob ...

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; ; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italians, Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ...

, as well as his own plays, which include reinterpretations of classic material. Seelig's work aims to create poetic theatre. This involves the concept of "" (combining an actor's onstage persona with their offstage nature), the "prism/gap" (between actor and audience), and

ambiguity Ambiguity is the type of meaning (linguistics), meaning in which a phrase, statement, or resolution is not explicitly defined, making for several interpretations; others describe it as a concept or statement that has no real reference. A com ...

."EMERGE''N''SEE: GET HEAD OUT OF ASS: '' and Poetic Theatre," ''The Capilano Review'', "Poets Theatre" issue, Spring 2010, pp. 32-52. Complet
essay online
His direction avoids Naturalism (theatre), naturalism
. In 2017, Seelig's direction of ''Smyth/Williams'', a dramatic recounting of a verbatim confession of Russell Williams (criminal), Russell Williams, was criticized by victims' families.

Writing

Beginning with the 2010 publication of ''Every Day in the Morning (slow)'', Seelig's writing combines poetic

lyricism Lyricism is a term used to describe a piece of art considered to have deep emotions. Its origin is found in the word ''lyric'', derived via Latin ' from the Greek ('), the adjectival form of ''lyre''. It is often employed to relate to the capab ...

with

concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct mea ...

. Written largely in the second person, the work uses punctuation to form what has been described as a "continuous concrete-lyric-drop-poem novella." Since 2010, Seelig's plays employ the same drop-poem technique where "words often align vertically, configured spatially." The format has been described by critics as "a musical score," a "poetry trick," Jacob McArthur Mooney, "Sam Is a Person: An Electronic Conversation with Poet and Playwright Adam Seelig," ''The Walrus Magazine'', 18 Feb 2011. Web. Accessed 21 Feb 2011. and "eye hockey." This format allows actors to "pace and emphasize the text" as they see fit.

Music

For ''Ubu Mayor'', "a play with music," Seelig wrote eight songs and played piano in the band for the production premiere. The play has been referred to as an "anti-musical." For ''Music Music Life Death Music: An Absurdical'', Seelig wrote seven songs and played a Fender Rhodes electric piano in the band for the production premiere. The sheet music for both of these plays is included in their print and electronic publications. Music is foregrounded (rather than being assigned to the background) in Seelig's productions. Music also plays a key role in Seelig's "drop-poem novella" ''Every Day in the Morning (slow)'', with particular emphasis on

minimalist In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

composers such as

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

Essays

* "Beckett's Dying Remains: The Process of Playwriting in the 'Ohio Impromptu' Manuscripts." * “The Anonlinear Aesthetic." * "Transcending Hyperspecificity." * "EMERGE''N''SEE: GET HEAD OUT OF ASS: '' and Poetic Theatre." * Contemporary Canadian poets Seelig has reviewed or interviewed include Gregory Betts,

Sylvia Legris Sylvia Legris (born 1960) is a Canadian poet. Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, she now lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alber ...

, Donato Mancini, Lisa Robertson, Jordan Scott, and playwright-novelist Sean Dixon.

Translation

Seelig has translated Hebrew works by modern Israeli poets

and Dan Pagis, as well as contemporary poets Navit Barel and

Tehila Hakimi Tehila Hakimi (; born February 27, 1982) is an Israeli poet and author. Writing Hakimi, who has a degree in mechanical engineering, began publishing her poetry in 2013, in the journals "Merhav" and " Ma'ayan", and in two anthologies – a coll ...

. With Harry Lane, he translated ''Someone is Going to Come'' by Norwegian playwright

References

External links

* Adam Seelig a
One Little Goat Theatre Company
* Adam Seelig a
Poetry Foundation
* Adam Seelig a
BookThug
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seelig, Adam Stanford University alumni Canadian theatre directors Poets from Toronto Jewish poets Jewish Canadian writers Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Jewish dramatists and playwrights 1975 births Living people 21st-century Canadian male writers