Max Ackerman

Head of School / Classical Theatre

Max Ackerman is an independent educator, director, producer, and actor from Toronto, Ontario.  In addition to being the Head of School for the Avenue Road Music and Performance Academy, Max is the founding Artistic Director of Dandelion Theatre, a Toronto-based independent theatre company.  He is an alumnus of the University of Toronto, where he received his Honours BA in Theatre and Drama Studies, and Sheridan College where he received his diploma in Classical Theatre Performance.  Max also taught Drama and English at the Abelard School from 2021-2025.  

As an artist Max gravitates towards work that is surreal, fantastical, and epic, creating immersive pieces that provoke the imagination along with all five senses.  He is particularly attracted to stories that bend the rules of reality, and pushes his visions to see how tangible and realistic he can make the most unreal of stories.  Max is very proud to have recently debuted internationally, touring Dandelion Theatre’s critically acclaimed production of Doctor Faustus at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2024 which sold out two prior runs in Toronto and won a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Performer.  

Recent directorial credits include Justice: A Holocaust Zombie Story (The Canadian Jewish News/Ashkenaz Festival), Timon of Athens (2024), Doctor Faustus (2023/2024), DEATH: a love story (2023), The Winter’s Tale (2022), The Sinai Sessions (2022), After Icarus (2021) ,The Hands of Hypatia (and Other Stories) (2020) (Dandelion Theatre), and What Will Remain (The Annex Singers).