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John Bkila Sub-Editor jbkila@oakvillebeaver.com A taste of the big screen for Oakville's Ayrin Mackie by John Bkila Oakville Beaver Staff Artscene 39 | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" Oakville's Ayrin Mackie is getting her big screen debut -- in a way. The 37-year-old actor was in the Stratford Festival's production of The Taming of the Shrew last year, which will be screened at Cineplex theatres across Canada starting Saturday (March 12) in Oakville. "Filming The Taming of the Shrew was a bit surreal. Everything was the same as a regular performance, except half of the audience was replaced by rolling cameras," Mackie told the Oakville Beaver from Stratford, where she is currently in her fourth season with the festival. "It was an exercise in focus to remain consistent in your performance and not play to the new set of `audience members' -- the cameras," she continued. "There was an added pressure on the day, of course, but then at the same time, a relief knowing if anything went awry, you could spruce it up in the pickup scenes we shot later that evening." The Taming of the Shrew, the film version directed by Barry Avrich and directed for the stage by Chris Abraham, was filmed live with an audience at the Stratford Festival on Sept. 29, 2015, using 10 cameras and 128 tracks of sound to create a high-definition, surround-sound production. Mackie played a servant in the William Shakespeare comedy. "It's a small part, but I had lines," she said. "(It) was my first Shakespeare (play) and to bear witness to such astounding actors every day was a gift to me.... Each day in rehearsal working with this cast was a master class and to have the opportunity to work with director Chris Abraham was incredibly inspiring and enriching." Mackie moved to Oakville when she was eight years old and attended Brookdale Public School -- she has lived on and off in town for 28 years. At Cawthra Park Secondary School -- a Mississauga school for the arts -- she began acting in plays and musical theatre. "When I was 16, I got my first professional gig with Oakville Summer Theatre in their productions of Blue Castle and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with artistic director Christina James," she noted. Mackie said she had always been a dancer who could sing, but found in high school she had to choose a route to pursue Oakville's Ayrin Mackie was in the Stratford Festival's The Taming of the Shrew, which was filmed last year and will be screened at Cineplex theatres across Canada starting Saturday (March 12). | photo courtesy Touchwood PR -- dance or musical theatre. She explained she chose musical theatre as she imagined it would have more longevity and could fill both of her passions. "My passion for acting came a bit later, after high school," she said. "I never questioned that my life would be in the arts." Mackie's first season with the Stratford Festival was in 2012 when she appeared in The Pirates of Penzance and Elektra that year. In 2014, she was part of the productions of Crazy for You and Man of La Mancha. In addition to appearing in The Taming of the Shrew last year, Mackie also performed in The Sound of Music. During this year's festival, Mackie plays Sheila in A Chorus Line and Mrs. Segstrom in A Little Night Music. Big Movies... small mall Prices! 171 Speers Road (at Kerr) Oakville General: $8.50 children (3-13): $6.50 Seniors (65+): $6.50 tuesdays: $5.00 905-338-6397 www.film.ca facebook.com/filmca @filmcacinemas Zootopia (G) March 4th the little prince (pG) March 11th the DiverGent SerieS: BatMan v. SuperMan: alleGiant (pG) Dawn of JuStice (Stc) March 18th March 25th My BiG fat t Greek weDDinG 2 (pG) March 25th