Michael Mackenzie is a Canadian theatre director, film director, screenwriter and dramaturge. He has directed two films, The Baroness and the Pig and Adam's Wall. He is a playwright who has written plays that have been staged internationally. His plays have been published in English , French, German and Hungarian.
He has a Ph.D in the Economics and History of Science. Past appointments include Visiting Fellow at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs teaching in the Humanities Department. He worked as a consultant at the United Nations.
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Mackenzie is a writer-in-residence at the Crows’ Theatre in Toronto and taught at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal.
Mackenzie has written many plays that have been produced professionally and translated into languages. His plays have run long-runs particularly in Hungary and Czech Republic. The Budapest production remained for a five year run and the Prague production for a four year run. His plays have been also staged at a number of theatres in Canada, Germany, Portugal and Israel and at the Avignon International Theatre Festival. He has also been produced in the United Kingdom at the Bristol Old Vic and on BBC Radio and in New York City's Vine Tree Theater. In May 2008, a recent production of the film The Baroness and the Pig was done in Montreal against critical acclaim.
He has directed for the professional theatre in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Banff and Vancouver and a tour in the province of Quebec.
Currently, he is working with Robert Lepage on the English version of Lepage's 'Dragon Bleu'. As well as working with Lepage's ex machina company on previous occasions, Michael was dramaturge and script editor for the Cirque du Soleil show Ka.
Michael's first feature film as a writer/director is The Baroness and the Pig, an adaptation of a play and was produced by Media Principia. It was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival (2002), Festival de nouveau cinema et media (Montreal 2002) where it was the closing film, Sundance Film Festival (2003) and San Francisco Film Festival (2003). The film starred Patricia Clarkson and Colm Feore and Michael Mackenzie was nominated for "Best Direction", "Best Cinematography" and "Best Editing" for the Quebec Jutra Awards (2003).
His second feature film as director is Adam's Wall. Co-written with Dana Schoel, it was produced by Couzin Films. It premiered at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema (2008) in Montreal, Quebec on 15 October 2008 later in the year put as a general release in Montreal (distributed by Equinoxe).
In 1993 he co-authored and co-directed Archeology of a Mother Tongue with Toni Dove at the Banff Virtual Reality Seminar.
In 1995 he did "Dark Practice Scarring", an interactive installation as author and director at the International Symposium of Electronic Arts, Montreal.
In 1996 he co-wrote Le Polygraphe with Robert Lepage, Marie Brassard and Patrick Goyette for a film by Robert Lepage. he became a Genie Award nominee for best adapted screenplay for the work.