Daniel MacIvor's advice to actors: 'Don't worry about honouring the text'
The Canadian playwright, actor and director also shares the greatest gift theatre has given him
Daniel MacIvor is a legend in the theatre scene and a proud Nova Scotian. He's a playwright, actor and director, and even wrote the libretto for the opera Hadrian. He directed the film Marion Bridge starring Molly Parker and is most well known for writing and starring in the plays Monster and Here Lies Henry, which were created in collaboration with late director Daniel Brooks.
While both Monster and Here Lies Henry usually star MacIvor himself, the current run of these plays, on at Factory Theatre in Toronto, star two other actors, Karl Ang and Damien Atkins, respectively.
In an interview with Q's Tom Power, MacIvor says during a workshop with Ang and Atkins, he conveyed to them the importance of bringing themselves into the character.
"I was trying to impress upon them that it wasn't about honouring a text. It was about finding your way into this for yourself, which they both have done beautifully. Watching them was a little dissociative. It was so familiar to me but yet not. I told them that, really, the text is a map toward performance and they both have brought themselves into it, and in beautiful ways."
MacIvor says he still finds it difficult to watch his plays and not see himself in the roles he wrote.
"I find that for me, engaging with those shows, I can't help but be back in a time of doing it. It's really hard for me to be in the moment, because they're so ingrained in not only my life, but how Daniel [Brooks] and I made them."
The greatest gift
After almost 40 years in the theatre industry, MacIvor says the greatest gift that theatre has given him are the relationships that he's developed.
"They're so weirdly intense and fleeting. It's that thing where you reconnect with someone that you've worked with, and it's like you're family. I guess that's probably the better answer. [Theatre] has given me a family."
The full interview with Daniel MacIvor is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Daniel MacIvor produced by Lise Hosein.
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