[Please note that ASI is closely monitoring the outbreak of COVID-19 and its potential impact on this year’s Spark Awards on May 13. In the meantime, we still feel it’s important to spotlight the important work of our many honorees.]
Vincent O’Neill is the winner of this year’s Spark Award for Lifetime Achievement, an award that honors an organization, individual at an organization, or individual artist for their career-long body of work, especially on the occasion of a new phase of that work.
Vincent has served as the cofounder and artistic director of Irish Classical Theatre Company since 1990. He has acted and directed at the international level, as well as in nearly all of Western New York’s theaters. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he studied at University College Dublin and at Trinity College before he went on to study acting at the prestigious Abbey Theatre School in Dublin. He also studied Mime under the great French mime-artist Marcel Marceau at his International Academy in Paris. As a member of the Abbey Theatre Company, Vincent toured all over the world to cities such as Edinburgh, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and more.
Vincent’s many films include Manna from Heaven, Tesseract, Queen City, Gamechangers, Laff in the Dark, and The American Side. In addition, Joyicity, his one-man show based on the life and works of James Joyce, debuted as part of Dublin’s International Theatre Festival and went on to be presented in Australia, Japan, off-Broadway, and throughout the United States. He is the recipient of several ARTIE Awards in the categories of Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Director, Outstanding Production, Outstanding Artistic Playwright, and Career Achievement. Vincent currently works as the Director of Theatre Performance in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University at Buffalo, where he previously served as chair.
