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Makram Ayache

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Makram Ayache
Born (1990-12-04) December 4, 1990 (age 34)
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)
Websitewww.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 Peter Hinton that year.

In 2025, Ayache's play The Tempest: A Witch in Algiers (Shakespeare in the Ruff) won Outstanding New Play at the Dora Mavor Moore Awards in the Independent Theatre category.

Ayache identifies as queer.[9]

References

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  1. ^ "Jordan Abel, Danny Ramadan and Cherie Dimaline among finalists for $25K Governor General's Literary Awards". CBC Books, October 8, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "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. ^ 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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