FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 14, 2023
In his time as a playwright, actor and artistic director, Marcus Youssef has been committed to using art and culture to build a more just, humane and fun society. In recognition of his creativity and its power to invoke change, today Youssef was named Honorary Fellow at Douglas College.
“Marcus’s art provokes audiences around the globe to explore diversity, community and the potential for a better world,” said Dr. Kathy Denton, President of Douglas College. “His work reflects the core values that we cherish and encourage at Douglas College. For that, we are proud to award him with this honour.”
Called a “towering artist” by The Globe and Mail, Youssef has been active in artistic, educational and political circles around the world for over 30 years. In that time, he’s taught thousands of students, influenced municipal policies around culture and urban design, and produced plays staged in major cities around the world, from New York to Hong Kong. What his creative works have in common is how they engage with the idea of difference.
"For me, Douglas and its student body reflects this country’s range of cultures, languages and lived experiences, a range wider than we would have ever believed even 50 years ago,” says Youssef, whose father immigrated from Egypt before he was born. “Ever since I started to pursue my love of writing, performance and activism, I’ve explored this question of difference — of how each of us can come to know one another more fully and deeply, no matter how unalike we may seem.”
The long-time Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Neworld Theatre, Youssef is now a Playwright in Residence at Tarragon Theatre, Editorial Advisor at Canadian Theatre Review, an Associate Artist at Neworld and International Artistic Associate at Farnham Maltings in England.
Youssef has been recognized as a playwright with Canada's largest theatre award, the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize for Theatre. His other accolades include the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award, the Canada Council for the Arts' Staunch-Lynton Award, the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award for BC artists, and the IKARUS Prize in Berlin, Germany.
His written plays include Winners and Losers, King Arthur's Night, Jabber, The In-Between, Awkward and Embarrassing Conversations, Adrift, How Has My Love Affected You?, Peter Panties, A Line in the Sand, Ali and Ali & the aXes of Evil, Ali and Ali: The Deportation Hearings, East Van Panto: Wizard of Oz and East Van Panto: Pinocchio.
Douglas College is the largest degree-granting college in B.C., combining the academic foundations of a university and the employer-ready skills of a college to graduate resilient global citizens who adapt, innovate and lead in a changing world.
For more information, visit douglascollege.ca.
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Contact
Zach Siddiqui
Communications Coordinator
siddiquiz1@douglascollege.ca