Daniel MacIvor wins $25,000 Banff playwriting commission

Playwright Daniel MacIvor has won a $25,000 playwriting commission from the Banff Centre with a love story about a conventional Japanese interpreter and her Canadian boyfriend.

MacIvor's play Deshita was chosen from among 100 that were submitted in a national competition, the Banff Centre announced Wednesday.

Set in Tokyo, the comic play examines the relationship between Minako, a Japanese interpreter from a conventional family, and Colin, a Canadian expat ESL teacher who brings radical liberalism to her life.

"Daniel's piece, with its focus on a story happening in the now, with its collision of the future and the past, seemed to most touch on the spirit of the commission," said Kelly Robinson, director of Theatre Arts at the Banff Centre and one of the jurors who chose the play.

But jurors John Murrell, Linda Gaboriau and Brian Quirt had difficulty choosing just one work from among the many strong plays submitted for the commission, which is being given in celebration of the centre's 75th anniversary.

The centre will also provide creative support to plays by two of Canada's best contemporary playwrights, Colleen Murphy of Montreal and Hannah Moscovitch of Toronto.

Murphy, winner of the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for The December Man, and Moscovitch, playwright-in-residence at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, both wrote plays revolving around Canada's participation in the war in Afghanistan.

They receive a commission and creative support in developing their plays as part of the 2009 Banff Playwrights Colony.

Nova Scotia-born playwright and actor MacIvor is known for plays such as Marion Bridge and Cul-de-Sac and won the Governor General's award for I Still Love You.

His award includes help in finding a production partner, as well as a two-week writing retreat and two residencies with the Banff Playwrights Colony in 2009 and 2010.