His promise got him a scholarship at Northwestern University's theater school, in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied in the late 1950s.

In 1975, he was suspended and sent to prison by the newly installed Derg government after his play "Iqaw" which criticized state terrorism.

[4] In 1976, Tsegaye, who had become the Director of the National Theatre in Addis Ababa was removed after demonstrations by theater workers.

His work continued to cause controversy as with his direction of Tsere Kolonialist as well as his own play, Tehaddiso (Renaissance), both of which deviated from the regime's preference for serious-minded realism.

His plays Cherchez Les Femmes' (1980) and Ferdu Leinante (The Judgement is for you, 1984) examined the use of fear as a means of control without directly criticizing the regime.