Directory

Seth Panitch

Seth Panitch

Head of Acting Programs
Professor of Acting

Education

  • MFA, Classical Acting, University of Washington

About


Seth Panitch is Professor of Acting and heads the MFA and BFA Acting programs at The University of Alabama. A professional Director, Actor, Playwright and Filmmaker, Seth has worked internationally in Havana, Cuba with the Ministry of Culture (directing productions of The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Importance of Being Earnest, Beyond Therapy, and Alcestis Ascending); Off-Broadway at the 59E59 Theatre , American Place Theater, Westbeth Theater Center, Harold Clurman Theatre, Samuel Beckett Theatre, and Urban Stages Theatre; regionally at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (three seasons), Utah Shakespearean Festival, Texas Shakespeare Festival and Idaho Repertory Theatre; and in Los Angeles at the Globe Playhouse, Odyssey Theatre, Ventura Court Theatre, Complex Theatre and the Hillside Repertory Company. His plays Hell: Paradise Found (published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.), Alcestis Ascending and Dammit, Shakespeare! have received critical success in New York and Los Angeles productions, as well as productions in Havana, Cuba by the Cuban Ministry of Culture. Seth wrote, directed, and performed in the feature film Service to Man, which was awarded Best Picture at eight national and international film festivals, and is distributed by Freestyle Entertainment Pictures. His documentary A Night in the Theatre has been published by Insight Media, and his second documentary Company HavanaBama: Directing Across the Gulf was screened by the 15th Annual Sidewalk Film Festival. Seth has been awarded the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Faculty Achievement Award, the University of Alabama’s Blackmon-Moody Outstanding Professor Award, the Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award, the Alabama National Alumni Association’s Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award, and was named the 2010 Druid Arts Educator of the Year. He was also awarded a Leadership Board Faculty Fellowship from 2009-2012. At the University of Alabama, Seth has directed Hamlet, Tartuffe, Seven Guitars, Twelfth Night, Othello, Into the Woods, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, The Heiress, Saint Joan, Animal Crackers, Fifth of July, The Government Inspector, Enemy of the People, and Moby Dick, and performed as a guest artist in Misalliance, Moon Over Buffalo, A Flea in Her Ear and Blithe Spirit. Seth received his MFA in Classical Acting at the University of Washington’s Professional Actor’s Training Program and is a member of both the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and the Dramatists Guild of America.