Rate My Professor John Sebestyen

John Sebestyen serves as Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and Producer of Theatre at Ohio Northern University. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in Theatre from Bowling Green State University, completed in 2009, with a dissertation titled "Culture, Crisis, and Community: Christianity in North American Drama at the Turn of the Millennium," advised by Dr. Ronald Shields. He earned an M.A. in Theatre from the same university in 2002, with a thesis entitled "Theatrical Representations of the Shoah: Considering History, Aesthetics and Resistance in Holocaust Drama," advised by Dr. Cynthia A. Baron. Additionally, he holds a B.A. in Communication Arts with minors in Theatre and Music from Cornerstone University, awarded in 1997. Sebestyen further enhanced his directing expertise through a Directing Fellow workshop at The Juilliard School in 2014 and the Leadership Institute at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education in 2015.

Sebestyen's professional career features extensive leadership in theatre education and production management. Before Ohio Northern University, he was Associate Professor of Communication Arts & Theatre and Director of the Theatre Program at Trinity Christian College from 2010, preceded by an Assistant Professor role there from 2005 to 2010, and positions as Graduate Teaching Assistant and Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Theatre & Film at Bowling Green State University from 2000 to 2005. He has directed over thirty mainstage productions, such as Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (2019), The Old Man and the Old Moon by PigPen Theatre Company (2019), The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare (2018), The Language Archive by Julia Cho (2017), The Emperor of the Moon by Aphra Behn (2017), Our Town by Thornton Wilder (2016), and Noises Off by Michael Frayn (2014). Notable honors include Certificates of Merit from the American College Theatre Festival for directing Eurydice (2019) and The Emperor of the Moon (2017), and for collaborative ensemble in The Old Man and the Old Moon (2019) and The Comedy of Errors (2018), as well as Professor of the Year at Trinity Christian College in 2016. His academic interests focus on Chicago Theatre, Holocaust Theatre, and the works of American playwright Horton Foote. Sebestyen has contributed to the field through roles as Focus Group Representative for Theatre as a Liberal Art at ATHE and service on ATHE award committees. In 2025, he directed the 30th annual Ohio Northern University Holiday Spectacular.