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."Jordan Abel, Danny Ramadan and Cherie Dimaline among finalists for $25K Governor General's Literary Awards". CBC Books, October 8, 2024.
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."Makram Ayache". Toronto Metropolitan University Asian Heritage in Canada.
His first play, Harun, was staged at the Sage Theatre's Ignite! festival in Calgary in 2017."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. It was subsequently remounted at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival in 2018.Janet French, "Fringe review: Harun". Edmonton Journal, August 20, 2018. It received an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award nomination for Outstanding Fringe New Work in 2019,"Nominees for the Sterling Awards, 2018-19". Edmonton Journal, June 4, 2019. and won the Playwrights Guild of Canada's RBC Emerging Playwright Award in 2020.
The Green Line premiered in 2022 at Calgary's Arts Commons,Louis B. Hobson, "Review: The Green Line's Lebanese love stories have deep potential". Calgary Herald, April 4, 2022. and was a Betty Award winner for Outstanding New Play that year.Michele Jarvie, "Betty nominations announced for best of Calgary theatre in 2021-22". Calgary Herald, August 4, 2022.
In 2023, his play The Hooves Belonged to the Deer premiered in Toronto, as a collaboration between Tarragon Theatre and Buddies in Bad Times.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. 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.
In 2025, Ayache's play The Tempest: A Witch in Algiers won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Original Play (Independent Theatre).Beatriz Ferreira, "2025 Dora Mavor Moore Awards: Winners honoured for excellence in Toronto theatre". Now, July 1, 2025.
Ayache is queer.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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