About | Machine Fair

Billy Marchenski and Tanya Marquardt in This Mortal Flesh.

MachineFair is a Vancouver-based theatre company committed to developing original work with a focus on effective story-telling. Our vision is to create:

well-built theatre machines with every element - text, performance, design - working to enhance the story-telling and thematic content;

work that is intellectually stimulating, emotionally truthful and accessible.

MachineFair: building the better theatre machine.

2009 in Review
What a year we’ve had. MachineFair has been involved in the launch of not one but two world premieres by Andrew Templeton: This Mortal Flesh, which took place at the Firehall Arts Centre in March and Biographies of the Dead and Dyingwhich was part of this year’s Vancouver International Fringe Festival. This Mortal Flesh was nominated for a Jessie for Outstanding Original Script while Biographies was one of the hits of the Fringe, playing to packed houses at the Havana Theatre.

Even more importantly, we’ve worked with some amazing artists this year including: David Bloom, Tanya Marquardt, Billy Marchenski, Kate King, Nina Hirlaender Hinton (twice!), Natasha Kanji, Sarah Reid, Darren Boquist, Jeremy Waller, Heather Lindsay, Simon Driver, Emma Hendrix and Kyla Gardiner. What an incredible group to have spent this past year with and what an honour to work with them all.

Great review for the December run on Press Plus One.

Join our Facebook Group to keep up to date with our various projects.

Billy, Tanya and a pair of rubber gloves; photo: Natasha Kanji

Andrew Templeton
Andrew is a Vancouver-based playwright who has had work produced in both Vancouver and London.

Recent credits include Fever (Radix Theatre, as part of HIVE 3), Biographies of the Dead and Dying (MachineFair/Craning Neck Theatre in Vancouver; and MachineFair in Toronto as part of SummerWorks), This Mortal Flesh (MachineFair, presented by the Firehall Arts Centre, Jessie nominated for Outstanding Original Script), Portia, My Love (ETC, Jessie nominated for Outstanding Original Script). He was a member of the 2005 Banff Playwright's Colony and has had plays included in the Playwright Theatre Centre's New Play Festival.

He is currently working on What You Want (MachineFair, Vancouver Fringe 2010), The Last Occupant of Troy (MachineFair, production scheduled for 2011), Simon Magus and a musical Tin (in collaboration with Peter Willson). He is also collaborating with the artist Charlotte Danby on her upcoming installation.

Previous productions include: Howard Johnson Commits Suicide (CandianPhoenix); Branwell Alone (CandianPhoenix) and the shorts Ken Dolls (which was also adapted for television), Hazardous Cows (also adapted for radio) and the monologue Ruth (shortlisted for the One Voice competition).

He is co-founder of Plank Magazine and his writing on theatre has been published in the Vancouver Courier, the Canadian Theatre Review and Australian-based RealTime. He also develops and delivers media strategies for performing arts companies.

In other news...
Andrew Templeton was involved in the creation of Fever Radix Theatre's contribution to HIVE 3. The show, which re-created a near-death experience for audience members, was a hit with audiences and critics alike. You can find out more about the production at the Radix website.

Radix's Fever.