McMackon, Allyson
Director, theatre maker and educator, Allyson McMackon is based in Toronto and is the artistic Director of the multi-Dora nominated Theatre Rusticle. Specializing in physical theatre and the collision points between text and the body, Allyson's work has taken her across the country. She has received a Dora Mavor Moore Award Nomination for Outstanding Direction, been nominated three times for the KM Hunter Artists Award and received a Harold Award from Vikki Anderson in 2008. Recent rusticle projects have included The Stronger Variations, Dinner at Seven-Thirty (in association with Buddies in Bad Times), Peter and the Wolf (The Theatre Centre), Birnam Wood (in association with Theatre Passe Muraille) and April 14, 1912 (with Harbourfront Centre, Magnetic North Theatre Festival, Supernova Theatre Festival, Rotary Arts Centre, Artspring and Intrepid Theatre). She is a frequent outside eye for various dance companies, coached on the multi-Dora Award Winning If We Were Birds (directed by Alan Dilworth) and has worked with DVxT Theatre, Soulpepper, and Theatre Passe Muraille. She was the original director on Brooke Johnson's acclaimed Trudeau Stories, which has toured to the NAC, Centaur and across the country.
Allyson has been on faculty at York University since 2008 teaching movement and physical theatre in both the Theatre Studies and Acting Conservatory. She has also taught at the University of Toronto, Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Koffler Centre for the Arts, and is a frequent workshop leader at the Director's Lab North, She has directed The Stronger Variations (York University), Anna Karenina (George Brown Theatre School) and leads workshops regularly with the Rusticle Gym training programs. She has taught at the Globe Theatre Conservatory in Regina since 2012.
Allyson has a BA in Drama and English from the University of Toronto and an MFA in Theatre Performance from York University.