Matthew MacKenzie is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

playwright and actor. He is most noted as a two-time

Dora Mavor Moore Award The Dora Mavor Moore Award (also known as the Dora Award) is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped est ...

winner for Outstanding New Play, Independent Theatre, winning in 2018 for ''Bears'' J. Kelly Nestruck, "Jerusalem, Life After win big at Dora Mavor Moore Awards". '' The Globe and Mail'', June 26, 2018. and in 2023 for ''The First Métis Man of Odesa''.

Early career

A member of the

Métis Nation of Alberta The Métis Nation of Alberta (MNA) is a registered not-for-profit society in Alberta, Canada, that acts as a representative voice on behalf of Métis people within the province. Formed in 1928 as the Métis Association of Alberta, its primary f ...

from

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...

, he is a graduate of the playwriting program at the

National Theatre School of Canada The National Theatre School of Canada (NTS, french: École nationale de théâtre du Canada) is a private institution of professional theatre studies in Montreal, Quebec. Established in 1960, the NTS receives its principal funding from grants aw ...

.Anne Nothof
"MacKenzie, Matthew"
''Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia'', September 17, 2021. His early plays included ''Tick'', ''Me Happy'', ''The Particulars'' and ''In General''. In 2008, he launched his own theatre company, Pyretic Productions, in Edmonton. His play ''Sia'' won the Alberta Playwriting Competition in 2010, and received its premiere production at

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

Factory Theatre Factory Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded as Factory Theatre Lab in 1970 by Ken Gass and Frank Trotz, and it was run for almost 20 years by Dian English. Factory was the first theatre to announce that it would ...

in 2012. His play ''Benefit'' was staged by Edmonton's Downstage Performance Society in 2014, and won two

Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award The Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award (also known as the Sterling Award) is a local Edmonton, Alberta award presented annually which honours excellence in theatre. The award covers a number of categories, including production, performance, directio ...

''Bears''

''Bears'' was inspired in part by MacKenzie's discovery of his

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which deri ...

ancestry, which his family had previously hidden. 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 The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The largest ...

that had tried to use him as token indigenous support for the construction of an oil pipeline. Produced by Pyretic, it premiered at Edmonton's PCL Studio Theatre in 2015. It was staged by Toronto's

The Theatre Centre The Theatre Centre is a performing arts organization and theatre venue in Toronto . It is nationally recognized as a live-arts incubator for the cultural sector in the city. It also provide meeting space for Toronto residents. The Theatre Centr ...

in 2018, followed by a production at The Cultch theatre in

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. The Theatre Centre production won the Dora Awards for both Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Production in the independent division, and the play won the 2018

Carol Bolt Award The Carol Bolt Award is an annual Canadian literary award. Presented by the Playwrights Guild of Canada, the award is bestowed for a theatrical play premiere by a PGC member, judged to be the year's best. The award is named in memory of Canadian pl ...

''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'', which was a Dora nominee for Outstanding New Play, Independent in 2019. During this period, he also went on several

cultural exchange Cultural diplomacy is a type of public diplomacy and soft power that includes the "exchange of ideas, information, art, language and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding". The purpose ...

trips to

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...

to learn more about the country, during which he met and entered a relationship with Ukrainian actress

Mariya Khomutova Mariya Khomutova (born March 9, 1987) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian actress and playwright currently based in Canada. She is most noted for the stage play ''The First Métis Man of Odesa'', a collaboration with her husband Matthew MacKenzie, for which th ...

. MacKenzie wrote the original version of ''The First Métis Man of Odesa'', which centred on the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

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.Shawn Conner
"Part of this year's rEvolver Festival, First Métis Man of Odesa depicts lovers in dangerous times"
''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

'', May 24, 2023. Following the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...

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. 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. 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.Janet Smith
"First Métis Man of Odesa draws from real-life Canada-Ukraine love story, amid COVID and war"
''Stir'', May 24, 2023. Following its Toronto run, it was taken on a national tour, with engagements in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as ...

and

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackenzie, Matthew Living people Canadian male dramatists and playwrights Canadian male stage actors Canadian theatre managers and producers Canadian Métis people Male actors from Edmonton Métis writers National Theatre School of Canada alumni Writers from Edmonton Dora Mavor Moore Award winners 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male actors Year of birth missing (living people)