Makram Ayache

Last updated
Makram Ayache
Makram Ayache - Shane D'Costa - @sameshanedifferentday.jpg
Occupation(s)Playwright, theatre actor, director, producer
Notable work
  • The Green Line
  • The Hooves Belonged to the Deer
Awards
  • Dora Mavor Moore Outstanding New Play Independent Category (2025), Governor General Literary Award Finalist (2024)
  • Betty Mitchell Award Recipient (2022)
  • Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Outstanding Independent Production Award Recipient (2023)
  • Playwrights' Guild of Canada's Tom Hendry Outstanding Emerging Artist Recipient (2020)
Website www.makramayache.com

Makram Ayache is a Canadian playwright and actor, whose play The Green Line was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 2024 Governor General's Awards. [1]

Born in Lebanon and raised in rural Alberta, he is a graduate of the University of Alberta, and currently divides his time between Edmonton and Toronto. [2]

His first play, Harun, was staged at the Sage Theatre's Ignite! festival in Calgary in 2017. [3] It was subsequently remounted at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival in 2018. [4] It received an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award nomination for Outstanding Fringe New Work in 2019, [5] and won the Playwrights Guild of Canada's RBC Emerging Playwright Award in 2020. [2]

The Green Line premiered in 2022 at Calgary's Arts Commons, [6] and was a Betty Award winner for Outstanding New Play that year. [7]

In 2023, his play The Hooves Belonged to the Deer premiered in Toronto, as a collaboration between Tarragon Theatre and Buddies in Bad Times. [8] It was subsequently remounted in Edmonton at the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Arts Barn. It received an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding Independent Production and Outstanding Director for Peter Hinton-Davis' artistic contributions.

In 2025, Ayache's play The Tempest: A Witch in Algiers won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Original Play (Independent Theatre). [9]

Ayache is queer. [10]

References

  1. ↑ "Jordan Abel, Danny Ramadan and Cherie Dimaline among finalists for $25K Governor General's Literary Awards". CBC Books, October 8, 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Makram Ayache". Toronto Metropolitan University Asian Heritage in Canada.
  3. ↑ "Emerging artists'voices find space on centre stage; Sage Theatre's Ignite! festival offers mix of different perspectives writes Louis Hobson". Calgary Herald , June 3, 2017.
  4. ↑ Janet French, "Fringe review: Harun". Edmonton Journal , August 20, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Nominees for the Sterling Awards, 2018-19". Edmonton Journal , June 4, 2019.
  6. ↑ Louis B. Hobson, "Review: The Green Line's Lebanese love stories have deep potential". Calgary Herald , April 4, 2022.
  7. ↑ Michele Jarvie, "Betty nominations announced for best of Calgary theatre in 2021-22". Calgary Herald , August 4, 2022.
  8. ↑ J. Kelly Nestruck, "Smart and sensual The Hooves Belonged to the Deer hits Tarragon Theatre: Rising Lebanese-Canadian playwright brings together themes of race, religion and sexuality in a story set in small-town Alberta". The Globe and Mail , April 6, 2023.
  9. ↑ Beatriz Ferreira, "2025 Dora Mavor Moore Awards: Winners honoured for excellence in Toronto theatre". Now , July 1, 2025.
  10. ↑ Makram Ayache, "A Portrait of Shame: How The Hooves Belonged to the Deer Reckons with Religious Domination of the Queer Spirit". Intermission, March 23, 2023.
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