About

Michael is an award winning actor, director and playwright. He is also the recipient of the ETC Lifetime Achievement Award and is an Honorary Lifetime Member of WODL. He was raised in the small town of Listowel, Ontario. He always participated in plays growing up (usually playing the shepherd) but, in high school he was exposed to some of the best live theatre he has ever witnessed (In particular, Richard III at Stratford) and knew that the theatre was his calling. He graduated from Humber College's theatre program several years later. Michael worked around Ontario at Kawartha Summer Theatre, Cullen County Barn and Showboat Festival. He eventually settled in the town of Elmira to raise his family. Although he did some playwrighting in college and written several theatre reviews in the past, this was where he really honed his craft. He needed a script about maple syrup for the town's world-famous festival. Not having much luck, he decided to rely on his training and experience doing children's theatre and wrote three plays which played in rotation for six years. He also used these productions to keep a promise he made to himself years earlier, share your love and experience with a younger generation. After his first son came home, he was inspired to write his first full length play, Hamish. It was published in Playwrights Canada Press' anthology, Grassroots. From there he was hooked and writing became his passion. For him, the experience of sitting in the back of a theatre and listening to the audience's reactions to his ideas is a feeling like no other. He next penned Bare Bear Bones, a silly idea his wife Sherry and he came up with sitting around a campfire. It quickly grew into something bigger. Next he penned Shorthanded, after being inspired by his new hometown and especially his neighbours who were both heavily involved in hockey.. Bare Bear Bones was published by Playwrights Canada Press just in time for the pandemic. Shorthanded won the Tom Hendry Award for Best New Comedy in 2012. He continued writing, adding the popular Suburban Standoff, Shorthanded: A Ladies Game, the new Forever Love and A Delicate Art premiering in April 2026. Michael continues to write, direct, act. Over the past several decades Michael has mentored, consulted and taught acting to both adults and high school youth. Michael's plays have been performed across Canada almost fifty times.