Cassie M. Seinuk

1. Who are you? How do you define yourself as an artist?
 Please provide a brief biographical description of your artistic background, education, and achievements.

Cassie M. Seinuk is a Jewish Cuban playwright, AEA stage manager, director, and educator in Boston, MA. Her full-length plays have won awards, including the Kennedy Center ACTF Latinidad Playwrights Award, the Boston University Jewish Culture Endowment, an Honorable Mention 2015 Kilroys List, and award nominations at the IRNE Awards and FringeNYC. Seinuk’s short works have been produced internationally, including her award-winning 10 Minute Play Occupy Hallmark, which won the Gary Garrison National 10 Minute Play Award at the Kennedy Center in 2015. Seinuk just completed her 3-year term as Region 1 Co-Chair of the National Playwrights Program through the American College Theater Festival, and is still involved with ACFTF as guest faculty. Seinuk is on the faculty at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee and at Holy Family’s MFA in Creative Writing. 

As a director, Seinuk mostly works with youth productions with a goal of bringing higher-caliber theater process to young people while maintaining joy and love for the craft. She is the current Artistic Director at Spotlight Theater Workshop, a youth theater company/camp in Newton, MA. While doing all of these things, Seinuk is a mother of two incredible kids of her own.

My Artistic Statement as a playwright: I cling to the ribcage of my characters, grasping at the human need to fight for survival. I investigate their inner demons, vices, and addictions. I call out to their brothers, best friends, and worst enemies, for perhaps they have the key. I explore my character’s dreams and nightmares, searching for the sparks of hope and stirs of terror. My plays seek to make connections across time and space, our past and our present, as we search for the collective consciousness uniting us all. My plays are wild, yet cultivated, full of epic theater magic wrapped in the intimacy of close-knit ensembles.

My Artistic Statement as a theater educator: We are so lucky in life to get paid (eventually) to play pretend. That acknowledgment comes with joy and creativity, but it also reminds us that, in the end, theater is not life-or-death. We are not neurosurgeons, though you can argue that we operate on brains. We can also make our pretend with great technical and design skill, which will only enhance the ability to play.

What do you teach, where do you teach, and how long have you been an arts educator?

• Kesher Newton Jewish Afterschool Program (11 years): where I serve as the lead educator “Rosh” of Jewish Studies, Adaptor, Translator, and Director of its fully Hebrew Musical (ages 5 to 11), and a project-based, arts-based, and experiential specialist for both Hebrew language learning and Jewish studies.

• Asst. Professor of Theatre at Boston Conservatory at Berklee (9 years): where I mainly teach courses in Technical Theatre and Design, Stage Management, Playwriting, and Adaptation.

• Lesley University MFA Creative Writing Faculty, where I served for 6 years as Writing for Stage and Screen faculty, where I mentored graduate playwrights, TV writers, and screenwriters. The program was sundowned in June of 2026.

• Wheaton College, guest Professor in Creative Writing:Playwriting (Spring 2025)

• Spotlight Theater Workshop (Camp) where I am the artistic director of all of our programming and teach kids ages 5 to 18 all aspects of performance, while also mentoring future theater educators on our camp counselor staff.

• This fall, I will be joining the MFA Playwriting/Screenwriting faculty at Holy Family University.

What inspired you to become an arts educator?

My second summer at sleepaway camp (1997) I got to play Gretl in The Sound of Music, and I was over the moon. The show for the second month was only the upper divisions, and there was no way for me to be in it. But being the plucky little girl I was, I tried begging the play director to let me be in Les Mis. Heidi Steal, the director of the camp’s theater program, either saw something in me or wanted me to stop begging, so she offered me the opportunity to stage manage. I was ten years old. And I fell in love. As I grew as a stage manager, I watched and absorbed everything I could from Heidi. Years later, when I was a freshman in college studying stage management, I had another teacher/mentor, Jennifer A. Cleary, who inspired me so much by her love and enthusiasm for the craft that one day I went to her office hours and announced that I wanted to teach Stage Management one day. When I graduated, I immediately booked SM and ASM work in Boston, but had to deal with many mind-numbing day jobs to pay the bills. Then someone I knew had a vacancy in her school, they were looking for a Hebrew-speaking theater director with adaptation skills. That's when my dreams of being an arts educator began to come true. Another 10 years later, I run a children’s summer theater camp, teach at three different universities, and I still adapt and translate musicals for that same Hebrew school.

What do you love most about teaching the arts?

I love the impact and the relationships I have developed with my students. My Spotlight Theater Workshop kids have my heart, especially the teens who I’ve gotten to know over the past 4 years. It's so rewarding to watch a shy, quiet kid grow into a brave and vocal teen, and to have been there as a supporter on that journey. I also love the idea of playing pretend. That I get to, underline that get, to play pretend and teach others to (hopefully) get paid to play pretend. What a beauty to be a part of that? The joy of allowing ourselves to play pretend with intention.

What changes do you notice in students when they become involved in the arts?

Confidence and bravery. I have seen it time and time again. But I’ve also seen kids find a deeper understanding of themselves when stepping into another person’s shoes. An example I think about often is from that first Hebrew musical I directed at Kesher Newton. We didn’t have that many boys who wanted to be in the play, and we were doing Annie. But one of the girls was thrilled by the idea of playing Mr. Warbucks. A year or so later, this same kid came out as trans, and began to accept and portray their true self – as a boy. I wonder what effect that opportunity to play a man on stage had on this fifth grader. Perhaps it helped him explore in a safe way that side of himself. 

What do you think students lose when they don’t have access to arts education?

Joy and hope! But also the ability to make mistakes. Doing art, whether it be dancing, acting, or drawing, requires failure. Requires mistakes. It’s why we rehearse. It’s why we practice. True, kids can also get that through playing sports, but then again, sports have the pressure of winning and scoring. An end game. The arts are more fluid and the end is much more subjective.

What are some of the biggest barriers you see preventing students from accessing quality arts education?

Finances. Extracurriculars in general are expensive, and that doesn’t even include the driving to and from that activity. As a parent, I want my kids to do everything they feel drawn to whether it be theater or sports, but the schlepping and the after-school coordination is exhausting. AND as an artist parent, my funds are never stable. I wish I could sign my kid up for dance and not worry about that monthly bill while I bounce around as an adjunct educator, playwright, and freelance stage manager.