Daniel MacIvor

Daniel MacIvor (born July 23, 1962) is a Canadian actor, playwright, theatre director, and film director. He is probably best known for his acting roles in independent films and the sitcom Twitch City.

Personal
MacIvor was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and educated at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and then at George Brown College in Toronto. MacIvor is openly gay. He married Paul Goulet in 2006; they have since divorced. He has an Italian Greyhound, called 'Buddy'. In 2021, MacIvor earned an MA in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Toronto.

Career
In addition to his film and theatrical credits, MacIvor wrote the libretto to the opera "Hadrian," for which Rufus Wainwright wrote the music.

Theatre
MacIvor founded the theatre company da da kamera with Michele Jelley in 1986 to independently produce his own work. He was in residence at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre - for whom he has written, directed, and acted. His plays include Never Swim Alone, This is a Play, Monster, Marion Bridge, You are Here, Cul-de-sac, and A Beautiful View. Five of MacIvor's plays were published as I Still Love You in 2006, in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of da da kamera, (Never Swim Alone, The Soldier Dreams, You are Here, In on It, and A Beautiful View), and won MacIvor a coveted Governor General's Award for Drama.

Solo theatre work
MacIvor is particularly well known for a series of solo shows created in collaboration with director Daniel Brooks. These include House, Here Lies Henry, Monster and Cul-de-sac. These incorporate a minimalist and meta-theatrical style. In House and Here Lies Henry, MacIvor portrays one character who speaks directly to the audience, acknowledging their presence. While the direct address of the audience continues in Monster and Cul-de-sac, MacIvor portrays several characters throughout the course of the piece and this direct address is occasionally broken up by dialogue between these characters.

In 1992, 2-2 Tango was included in Making Out, the first anthology of Canadian plays by gay writers, alongside works by Ken Garnhum, Sky Gilbert, David Demchuk, Harry Rintoul and Colin Thomas.

The first three of these pieces were staged at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in the 2006/2007 season as part of a tribute and retrospective of da da kamera's work.

MacIvor and Brooks later collaborated with Iris Turcott to create the play Who Killed Spalding Gray?, in which MacIvor performs the part of a fictional character partly based on the style of deceased American actor Spalding Gray. The show premiered at the Halifax's Magnetic North Theatre Festival, and was later performed in Toronto at the Luminato Festival and at the High Performance Rodeo in Calgary

Film
In his early film work, MacIvor frequently collaborated with director Laurie Lynd, including on the short films RSVP in 1991, The Fairy Who Didn't Want to Be a Fairy Anymore in 1992, and the feature film House (1995).

In the early 2000s MacIvor wrote, co-wrote and directed several independent films, which were usually made in his home province of Nova Scotia. They include Past Perfect, Marion Bridge, Whole New Thing and Wilby Wonderful.

As an actor he appeared in Cynthia Roberts's Bubbles Galore and Jeremy Podeswa's The Five Senses, had a recurring role in the television series Republic of Doyle and played Nathan in the iconic Canadian television series Twitch City. In recent years MacIvor has been working with director Bruce McDonald as screenwriter of the films Trigger and Weirdos (for which MacIvor won a Canadian Screen Award in 2017 for best original screenplay).

Awards and honors
In addition to winning the Governor General's Award for Drama in 2006, MacIvor has won other notable awards during his career. Mr. MacIvor also has two Chalmers New Play Awards, once in 1997 and 1992.

Plays
In 1998, MacIvor won the award for overall excellence at the New York International Fringe Festival for his play Never Swim Alone.

In 2002, his play In On It earned him a GLAAD Award and a Village Voice Obie Award.

In 2008, he was awarded the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre.

Selected theatre work

 * See Bob Run (1989), da da kamera, directed by Ken McDougall
 * Yes I Am and Who Are You? (1989), Buddies in Bad Times, directed by Edward Roy
 * Wild Abandon (1990), Theatre Passe Muraille, directed by Vinetta Strombergs
 * Somewhere I Have Never Travelled (1990), Tarragon Theatre, directed by Andy McKim
 * Never Swim Alone (1991), da da kamera, directed by Ken McDougall
 * 2-2 Tango (1991), Buddies in Bad Times, directed by Ken McDougall
 * Jump (1992), Theatre Passe Muraille, directed by Daniel Brooks
 * House (1992), da da kamera and the Factory Theatre
 * This is a Play (1992), da da kamera, directed by Ken MacDougall
 * The Lorca Play (1992), da da kamera, co-directed by MacIvor and Daniel Brooks
 * Sessions (1995), Tarragon Theatre, with Daniel Brooks and Clare Coulter
 * Here Lies Henry (1995), Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
 * The Soldier Dreams (1997), da da kamera at Canadian Stage Company
 * Marion Bridge (1998), Mulgrave Road Theatre and da da kamera
 * Monster (1998), da da kamera at Canadian Stage Company, directed by Daniel Brooks
 * In On It (2000), Edinburgh Festival, directed by MacIvor
 * You Are Here (2001), da da kamera in association with Theatre Passe Muraille
 * Cul-de-Sac (2003), da da Kamera, directed by Daniel Brooks
 * A Beautiful View (2006), da da kamera, directed by Daniel MacIvor
 * How It Works (2007), Tarragon Theatre, directed by Daniel MacIvor
 * His Greatness (2007), Vancouver Arts Club, directed by Linda Moore
 * Confession (2008), Mulgrave Road Theatre, directed by Ann-Marie Kerr
 * Communion (2010), Tarragon Theatre, directed by Daniel MacIvor
 * This Is What Happens Next (2010), Canstage, directed by Daniel Brooks
 * Bingo! (2011), Mulgrave Road Theatre
 * Was Spring (2012), Tarragon Theatre, directed by Daniel MacIvor
 * The Best Brothers (2012), Stratford Shakespeare Festival, directed by Dean Gabourie
 * Arigato, Tokyo (2013), Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, directed by Brendan Healy
 * Small Things (2014), Prairie Theatre Exchange, directed by Robert Metcalfe
 * Who Killed Spalding Gray? (2014), Magnetic North Theatre Festival
 * "I, Animal" (2015), KAZAN CO-OP Theatre, directed by Richie Wilcox
 * Cake & Dirt (2015), Tarragon Theatre, directed by Amiel Gladstone
 * Let's Run Away (2019), Canadian Stage, directed by Daniel Brooks
 * New Magic Valley Fun Town (2019), Tarragon Theatre, directed by Richard Rose