A citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta, Matthew MacKenzie is a multi-award-winning playwright from amiskwacîw'skahikan (Edmonton). Artistic Director of Punctuate! Theatre, Matthew is the founder and an artistic associate with Pyretic Productions and Canadian Liaison of the Liberian Dance Troupe. Matthew has had nearly a dozen of his works produced across Turtle Island. Ukrainian actor and playwright Mariya Khomutova started her theatre studies in Odesa at the age of twelve. She graduated from the Kyiv National Theatre University in 2012 and worked in two repertoire theatres in Kyiv. Her play First Métis Man Of Odesa , which she co-wrote and performed with her husband Matthew MacKenzie, received three 2023 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and brought her an Outstanding Performance nomination. After February 24, 2022, Mariya concentrates her theatre work around promoting contemporary Ukrainian playwrights' voices to the world theatre community.