Matthew MacKenzie

Matthew MacKenzie is a Canadian playwright and actor.[1] He is most noted as a two-time Dora Mavor Moore Award winner for Outstanding New Play, Independent Theatre, winning in 2018 for Bears[2] and in 2023 for The First Métis Man of Odesa.[3]

Early career

A member of the Métis Nation of Alberta from Edmonton, he is a graduate of the playwriting program at the National Theatre School of Canada.[4] His early plays included Tick, Me Happy, The Particulars and In General.[4]

In 2008, he launched his own theatre company, Pyretic Productions, in Edmonton.[4]

His play Sia won the Alberta Playwriting Competition in 2010, and received its premiere production at Toronto's Factory Theatre in 2012.[4]

His play Benefit was staged by Edmonton's Downstage Performance Society in 2014, and won two Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards.[4]

Bears

Bears was inspired in part by MacKenzie's discovery of his Métis ancestry, which his family had previously hidden.[5] It centred on Floyd, a Métis man on the run from police after being blamed for an accident at his former workplace, an oil company that had tried to use him as token indigenous support for the construction of an oil pipeline.[6]

Produced by Pyretic, it premiered at Edmonton's PCL Studio Theatre in 2015.[7] It was staged by Toronto's The Theatre Centre in 2018,[8] followed by a production at The Cultch theatre in Vancouver.[9]

The Theatre Centre production won the Dora Awards for both Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Production in the independent division,[2] and the play won the 2018 Carol Bolt Award.[10]

The First Métis Man of Odesa

Following Bears, he premiered the plays The Other, The Bone Wars or The Curse of the Pathological Palaeontologists and Bust. Rust was later reworked as After the Fire,[11] which was a Dora nominee for Outstanding New Play, Independent in 2019.

During this period, he also went on several cultural exchange trips to Ukraine to learn more about the country,[12] during which he met and entered a relationship with Ukrainian actress Mariya Khomutova.[13]

MacKenzie wrote the original version of The First Métis Man of Odesa, which centred on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their plans to marry, on his own, and released it as a short audio drama through Factory Theatre's short drama podcasting platform in 2021.[14] Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mackenzie and Khomutova worked together to incorporate the impact of that event on their lives, including their efforts to get Khomutova's mother into Canada as a refugee, into an expanded version of the play.[15]

The updated play premiered at The Theatre Centre in March 2023, with Mackenzie and Khomutova jointly credited as writers even though Khomutova had no prior experience as a playwright, and starring in the production together even though MacKenzie had only limited prior experience as an actor.[16] Following its Toronto run, it was taken on a national tour, with engagements in Edmonton, Vancouver, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.[15]

References
  1. Karen Fricker, "Matthew MacKenzie and Monica Dottor on the collaboration behind Best New Play winner Bears". Toronto Star, March 1, 2019.
  2. J. Kelly Nestruck, "Jerusalem, Life After win big at Dora Mavor Moore Awards". The Globe and Mail, June 26, 2018.
  3. J. Kelly Nestruck, "Crow’s Theatre and Soulpepper share the spotlight at Dora Mavor Moore Awards". The Globe and Mail, June 28, 2023.
  4. Anne Nothof, "MacKenzie, Matthew". Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia, September 17, 2021.
  5. Rhiannon Johnson, "Playwright's journey of discovery, re-connecting with Indigenous roots, inspires new work". CBC News Indigenous, January 18, 2018.
  6. Liz Nicholls, "Exploring aloneness ... with five dancers; Matthew MacKenzie's The Other is entertainingly odd"]. Edmonton Journal, March 4, 2016.
  7. Liz Nichols, "Inventive Bears is a celebration of both the theatre and nature; Creative power of many harnessed in play by Pyretics Productions". Edmonton Journal, February 11, 2015.
  8. J. Kelly Nestruck, "Bears: More than oddly beautiful bestiality: Although the play's environmental themes are not subtle, some genuinely moving moments are impressive". The Globe and Mail, January 22, 2018.
  9. Stuart Derdeyn, "Bears Has Claws; 'Unapologetically political'play isn't afraid to talk about pipelines". Vancouver Sun, May 5, 2018.
  10. "Local playwright Matthew MacKenzie scoops national award for Bears". Edmonton Journal, October 30, 2018.
  11. Carly Maga, "Ideas, images simmer long After the Fire is quenched". Toronto Star, January 15, 2019.
  12. "From Odesa, with love - and fear". Toronto Star, April 8, 2023.
  13. Aisling Murphy, "How this Ukrainian-Métis Toronto couple is using theatre to tell their improbable love story". CP24, April 6, 2023.
  14. Shawn Conner, "Part of this year's rEvolver Festival, First Métis Man of Odesa depicts lovers in dangerous times". Vancouver Sun, May 24, 2023.
  15. J. Kelly Nestruck, "First Métis Man of Odesa, an up-to-the-second play now touring across Canada, is a romantic comedy that gets invaded by the war in Ukraine". The Globe and Mail, April 5, 2023.
  16. Janet Smith, "First Métis Man of Odesa draws from real-life Canada-Ukraine love story, amid COVID and war". Stir, May 24, 2023.
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