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SASAH Speakers' Series: Makram Ayache, "WHY ARE WE STILL DOING SHAKESPEARE?"
Reflections on writing about Gaza through Shakespeare’s The Tempest
Event in FNB 2220; SASAH Salon Reception to follow in the Creative Commons (second floor, FNB TA.202)
Makram Ayache is a Governor General Literary Award Finalist and Dora award-winning playwright, performer, director, and producer based in Toronto. His playwriting explores representations of queer Arab voices and aims to bridge political struggles to the intimate experiences of the people impacted by them. Ayache's work was named as a Canadian culture maker who defined 2025 by the CBC and he also won New York City's Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Drama in the same year. His play, "The Hooves Belonged to the Deer" was selected as one of 10 best productions in Ontario in 2023 by the Globe and Mail and won an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for “Outstanding Independent Production” in Edmonton in 2023. Previously, His Governor General nominated play "The Green Line" (Downstage and Chromatic Theatre) garnered four Betty Mitchell Award Nominations, winning two including "Outstanding New Play." Most recently, Ayache has written an adaption of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" titled "A Witch in Algiers" (Shakespeare in the Ruff) which garnered the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play in 2025. Alongside writing, Ayache directs, acts, teaches and producers theatre.
The annual, interdisciplinary SASAH Speakers' Series invites nationally and internationally renowned leaders across the arts and humanities to discuss leading topics of concern. This event is organized in partnership with The Department of English and Writing Studies' Theatre Studies Program and the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. Makram Ayache is a guest of Kim Solga's "“Making Decolonial Shakespeares” course.
Photograph: Shane D'Costa