Fonds consists of the personal papers of John Hirsch, organized in the following series: personal material and education; financial material; correspondence; production and subject files, including series on the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Stratford Festival; manuscripts by Hirsch; manuscripts and scripts by others; theatre programmes; clippings and printed material. Fonds also consists of a photographic series and an art material series documenting the life and career of John Hirsch.
Fonds also consists of 20 architectural drawings that relate to the following theatrical productions: The Alchemist, Coriolanus, America Dreams, Lost and Found, You Can't Take it With You, and You Know the Rest, including preliminary sketches, set designs, and floor plans; three postally-used covers; a Tourism Canada medal; a Manitoba Travel and Convention Association plaque.
Audio visual material consists of sound recordings of talks and interviews by John Hirsch about his career and views on the theatre as well as radio programs and soundtracks for television programs with which he was associated, [ca. 1970]-1988. Also included are CBC television programs entitled: Rupert the Great; two episodes of Take a look; Sports review; and Songs for you, [ca. 1955-1965].
Hirsch, John, 1930-1989 : John Stephen Hirsch, theatre director, was born in Siofok, Hungary, and immigrated to Canada in 1947, and settled in Winnipeg, Man., where he graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1951. He became involved with the Winnipeg Little Theatre, specialized in children's theatre, wrote plays and formed a puppet company. Between 1954 and 1957 Hirsch produced television programmes for the CBC and in 1956 became artistic director at the Rainbow Stage Theatre. He and playwright Tom Hendry co-founded Theatre 77 in 1957, which joined with the Winnipeg Little Theatre in 1958 to form the Manitoba Theatre Center, where Hirsch was artistic director until 1967.
Hirsch first directed at Stratford in 1965 and was an associate artistic director there from 1967 to 1969. During his career Hirsch directed productions at many Canadian and other theatres including the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at the Lincoln Center in New York City, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, le Théâtre du Nouveau-Monde in Montreal and the Habimah National Theatre in Tel Aviv, Israel.
From 1974 to 1978, he was head of CBC Televison Drama. After leaving the CBC, he became consulting artistic director at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. The Stratford Board of Directors chose John Hirsch as the artistic director of the Stratford Festival in 1981, a position he held until 1985. Hirsch taught at the Yale School of Drama, 1985, and Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, 1986.
John Hirsch died in 1989.
