Marcus Youssef - Teaching artist, Playwriting

Marcus Youssef's fifteen or so plays – most of which investigate questions of culture, difference and “otherness” – include Winners and Losers, Leftovers, King Arthur’s Night, Jabber, How Has My Love Affected You?, Awkward & Embarrassing Conversations, Ali & Ali and the aXes of Evil, Everyone, Adrift, Peter Panties, Thank You for Your Labour, The In-Between and A Line in the Sand. They have been produced in multiple languages at scores of theatres and festivals in more than 20 countries across North America, Europe and Asia, from Seattle to New York to Reykjavik to Venice, London, Vienna, Hong Kong and Berlin. Marcus is the recipient of the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre (Playwriting), the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award, Berlin Germany’s Ikarus Prize, a Seattle Times Footlight Award, the Chalmers' Canadian Play Award, the Canada Council Staunch-Lynton Award, the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, and the Vancouver Critic’s Innovation award (three times), among others. He is currently Senior Artist at Neworld Theatre, which he led from 2005-19, International Associate Artist at Farnham Maltings in the UK, and Playwright in Residence at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre. Marcus cofounded the East Vancouver artist-run production studio Progress Lab 1422 and served as its chair for 9 years. He was inaugural chair of Vancouver’s Arts and Culture Policy Council, a Canadian Fellow to the International Society of Performing Arts, served on the faculty at Montreal’s Concordia University and implemented Canada’s first mutli-institutional Bachelor of Performing Arts Degree, through Capilano University. He is an Editorial Advisor to Canadian Theatre Review, sits on the board of the Siminovitch Prize Foundation and is an artistic advisor to the National Arts Centre English Theatre.

Photo credit: Kari Medig  | Updated: July 7, 2022

Teachers in Playwriting