As a playwright,
my work ranges from a Ukrainian-Canadian fantasia to a Vocal Masque on the theme of “gay heritage.” Over the last ten years, my theatre writing practices have largely focused on documentary forms and techniques. I believe this kind of work has a distinct capacity to activate the public’s conscience alongside their imagination.
“Kushnir has distilled 400 pages of transcriptions and shaped them into a moving, funny, sobering look at a world that is all too real that we might want to ignore.”
Photo of Antonio Cayonne, Akosua Amo-Adem, Jessica Greenberg and Kevin Walker
The Middle Place (2010)
KAALIYAH: And I’m like…and I’m willing to work really hard for my education but it’s just right now I come to a halt…in my life, where like, the shelter thing is wearing me down and tearing me down and a lot of people who will not come on this little taping thing…won’t tell you, but the truth that this place wears you and will tear you down to the dirt if you don’t leave and step up.[Tyler laughs, but could just as easily cry.]KAALIYAH: Don’t come here think it’s gonna be easy, cause it’s not. S’gonna hit you when you wake up one morning, you’ll say, “Fuck, I’m here.”[Kaaliyah turns her back on the Outsider. The other residents turn their backs to the Outsider.] Directed by Alan Dilworth
Co-produced by Project: Humanity, Canadian Stage and Theatre Passe Muraille
Winner of the Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award for Best Production of a Play
2 Dora Award Nominations including Outstanding New Play
“Funny, imaginative, thought-provoking...a wide-ranging and wildly entertaining inquiry into what it means to be gay.”
The Gay Heritage Project (2013, 2016)
Andrew steps forward, looking at the audience.
ANDREW: [sings] A lot of people wonderHow did homos come to be?Is gay something you could findIn fourth century BC?Were Socrates and PlatoAnd Leonardo da VinciThe start of a great lineageThat leads to you and me?The short answer is no.
Photo of Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn and Andrew Kushnir by Tanja Tiziana
Co-created with Damien Atkins and Paul Dunn, directed by Ashlie Corcoran
Produced by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and the GHP Collective
NOW Magazine Top Show of 2013
3 Dora Award Nominations including Outstanding New Play
“We all have our ‘own shit’ to deal with, our own biased blind spots to examine and challenge, and it’s rare to see a work of theatre do this with such powerful swings as Small Axe”
Small Axe (2015)
JACQUELINE: So what exactly are you going to do with these stories? They going to add to your power?[Beat.]JACQUELINE: There’s a saying “The axe entered the forest and the trees looked to one another and said ‘Look, the handle is one of us.’” To me, the saying is about generosity. And how generosity can sometimes equip your enemies with what they need take you down. Do you know what to do with these stories generously entrusted to you? Or will you hurt the very people you’re trying to help?
photo of ensemble by Dahlia Katz
Directed by Alan Dilworth
Co-produced by Project: Humanity and The Theatre Centre
Top 10 Shows of 2015 — Globe and Mail
“Kushnir’s smart, eloquent script, inspired in part by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story Rappaccini’s Daughter, leaves us to ponder the complexity of the country Ukraine, a richness that can’t easily be understood by those who come from beyond its borders.”
Photo Ken James Stewart and Luke Humphrey by Cylla Von Tiedemann
Wormwood (2015)
DOCTOR: How are you feeling now?IVAN: Fine. A bit sore.DOCTOR: You have not been resting sufficiently.IVAN: All I’ve done is sleep.DOCTOR: Perhaps you do not sleep well. You are American.IVAN: Canadian. And Ukrainian.DOCTOR: Canadian and Ukrainian. You were born twice?Directed by Richard Rose
Produced by Tarragon Theatre
“A moving musical journey along the Underground Railroad...with a Hamilton-esque twist: [the songs] are reinvented as hip-hop, funk and soul numbers...”
Photo of Khari Wendell McClelland and Tanika Charles by Dahlia Katz
Freedom Singer (2017)
KHARI: I am aware of the facts.But what’s the best way for me to maintain my sanity and health and well-being so that I can be useful to myself and the people that I love.I think sometimes you need to improvise. Sometimes you need to mythologize?You know, people are always saying: “Take what you have and make something beautiful.” But sometimes what you have is little or nothing.Co-created with Khari Wendell McClelland and the journalism of Jodie Martinson, Directed by Andrew Kushnir
Produced by Project: Humanity
“Towards youth is a full-length, continents-spanning, multilingual epic; a stunning reinterpretation of what ‘verbatim’ and ‘documentary’ theatre can mean. ”
Towards Youth: a play on radical hope (2019)
BELLA: From the sound of it, you’ve done a lot of research with drama students, with young people before?KATHLEEN: I have.BELLA: Ok. So my question is how are you going to hear me since you have done so much of this with so many youth?[Room quiets. Beat. Maxx chuckles, covers his mouth.]BELLA: How is this not going to blend into what you already think you know. KATHLEEN: Good question.
Photo of ensemble by Aleksandar Antonijevik
Directed by Chris Abraham and Andrew Kushnir
Produced by Project: Humanity and Crow’s Theatre
THIS IS SOMETHING ELSE: Consciously Eclectic Histories of the Arts Club (2021)
I will say: the work of these past months, engaging with the Arts Club’s history, has been anything but a sleep aid for me. In fact, quite the contrary. It’s been keeping me up at night. This series is not a eulogy.It’s not a legacy project or promotional piece. It’s not the careful work of a historian or journalist.And it’s not a walk down memory lane either.This is something else. Written, directed and hosted by Andrew Kushnir
Sound editing/design by Kevin Gault
Original composition by The Golden Age of Wrestling
Research and project support/EDI consultation by Preeti Dhaliwal