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Aaron Bushkowsky

Playwright / Screenwriter

A prolific writer, Aaron Bushkowsky has been playwright-in-residence for The Vancouver Playhouse, Touchstone Theatre and was involved with the Playwrights Unity at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. Aaron’s plays have been produced across Canada, the US, and Europe and been translated into French and Russian. He’s been nominated 9 times for Outstanding Original Play at the Jessie Richardson Awards, winning two. The 9 nominations are the most for any playwright in Vancouver. In fact, Aaron has been nominated for writing awards in several genres: film (Leos), theatre (Jessie, Sterling), fiction (Leacock Award for Humour Writing in Canada), and poetry (Dorothy Livesay Award). He’s also written for TV and the corporate world and occasionally works as a cartoonist, illustrator, and photographer. As a theatre writer some of his most successful plays have dealt with health issues like memory loss and depression, but mostly he is known as a comedy writer with a keen ear for dialogue. He’s also served twice as a jury member for the Governor General’s Award for Drama and taught Creative Writing for colleges and universities, including Vancouver’s famous theatre school Studio 58. He has a dog or two, both Aussies and lives in Vancouver, BC.

Works by Aaron Bushkowsky

After Jerusalem thumbnail

After Jerusalem

By Aaron Bushkowsky

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Farewell, My Lovely thumbnail

Farewell, My Lovely

By Aaron Bushkowsky

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My Chernobyl thumbnail

My Chernobyl

By Aaron Bushkowsky

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Strangers Among Us thumbnail

Strangers Among Us

By Aaron Bushkowsky

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The Big Sleep thumbnail

The Big Sleep

By Aaron Bushkowsky

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The Project thumbnail

The Project

By Aaron Bushkowsky

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Published Works

Plays

Poetry

  • eb and mabel to to the moon (1994) published by Oolichan Books
  • Mars is for Poems (2002) published by Oolichan Books

Novel & Short Stories

  • The Vanishing Man (2005) published by Cormorant Books
  • Curtains for Roy (2014) published by Cormorant Books
  • Water Proof (2021) published by Cormorant Books

 

Bushkowsky’s script delights in the comic possibilities of misfiring language, in conversations that stumble comically as if the dancers have forgotten the dance.

The Globe and Mail
National, Canada

(Praise for The Project:)

Bushkowsky's 'Project' pokes serious fun at manipulative reality TV...This Project is clever and funny. Unexpectedly it made me reflective after the curtain fell. 

The Courier
Vancouver, Canada

As a regular theatre-goer in Vancouver, it was a thrill to watch actors delivering a literate, intelligent script by someone who knows how to write.

Plank Magazine
Vancouver, Canada

Bushkowsky has a terrific ear for laugh lines and he rolls them out at regular intervals, sitcom-style. He balances the jokes with his portrait of a woman beset by a variety of circumstances that force her to question her identity.

Vancouver Sun