Just Announced: 2021 PuSh Rally

Maiko Yamamoto

Maiko Yamamoto is a Vancouver-based artist who creates new, experimental and intercultural works of performance. Most of these works are built through a practice of collaboration and include theatre projects, public art works, and performance installations. 

Since 2003, Maiko has been Co-Artistic Director of the Vancouver-based performance company, Theatre Replacement, founded with James Long. With the company she has created over 20 new works, many of which have toured to festivals and venues around the world. 

In addition, Maiko teaches performance and mentors artists for a range of different companies and organizations, both in Canada and abroad. She also occasionally works as a curator and writes about performance for a variety of publications. 

She holds a BFA in Theatre from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts, and a Masters of Applied Arts in Visual Art from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Maiko is the 2019 recipient of the Siminovitch Prize in Directing, with James Long.

Marcus Youssef

Marcus Youssef is a playwright, performer, and cultural activist. His fifteen or so plays – most of which investigate questions of culture, difference, and “otherness” – have been performed at dozens of theatres and festivals across North America, Asia, and Europe, in every major Canadian city, and from Seattle to New York to London to Hong Kong to Reykjavik, Venice, Berlin, Frankfurt, and Vienna. 

In many ways, the PuSh Festival’s international scope has made Marcus’ career possible. Recent shows created by Marcus that PuSh has presented include Winners and Losers, King Arthur’s Night, and Leftovers.

Marcus is the recipient of Canada’s largest theatre award, the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre, the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award, Berlin Germany’s Ikarus Prize, the Seattle Times Footlight Award, the Rio-Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, and the Canada Council Staunch-Lynton Award, among others.

He is currently Senior Artist at Vancouver’s Neworld Theatre (which he led from 2005-19), International Associate Artist at Farnham Maltings in the UK, and Playwright in Residence at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre. Marcus was the inaugural chair of the city of Vancouver’s Arts and Culture Policy Council. He teaches regularly at the National Theatre School and Studio 58, and consults on cultural sector issues for large and small arts organizations across the country.