How It Works

By Daniel McIvor

Daniel MacIvor's How it Works introduces us to four unforgettable people: Al, his ex-wife Donna, his new partner Christine, and his troubled daughter Brooke. Brilliantly weaving past and present, this play illuminates these four lives as they come to terms with their own stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scirocco Drama
• Release date: Jul 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990737329

Daniel McIvor

Daniel MacIvor was born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He is the author and director of numerous award-winning theatre productions including See Bob Run, Wild Abandon, 2-2-Tango, This Is A Play, The Soldier Dreams, You Are Here, How It Works, A Beautiful View, Communion, and Bingo! From 1987 to 2007 with Sherrie Johnson he ran da da kamera, a respected international touring company that brought his work to Australia, the UK and extensively throughout the US and Canada. With long time collaborator Daniel Brooks, he created the solo performances House, Here Lies Henry, Monster, Cul-de-sac and This Is What Happens Next. Daniel won a GLAAD Award and a Village Voice Obie Award in 2002 for his play In On It, which was presented at PS 122 in New York. In 2006, Daniel received the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama for his collection of plays I Still Love You. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Siminovitch Prize in Theatre.

Book preview

Cover: “How it works”, written by Daniel Macivor, published under Scirocco Drama, by J. Gordon Shillingford, shows a white woman with blond hair, in a white shirt, looking straight ahead. A black sketch of a tree with a bee on one of the leaves is seen overlapping the eye of the white woman.

HOW IT WORKS

DANIEL MACIVOR

How It Works

first published 2006 by

Scirocco Drama

An imprint of J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing Inc.

© 2006 Daniel MacIvor

Reprinted October 2007, November 2009

Scirocco Drama Editor: Glenda MacFarlane

Cover design by Terry Gallagher/Doowah Design Inc.

Author photo by Guntar Kravis

Printed and bound in Canada

Taking Care of Business. Written by Randy Bachman. Ranbach Music (SOCAN) / Sony / ATV Songs LLC (BMI). All rights on behalf of Ranbanch Music and Sony / ATV Songs LLC administered in Canada by Sony / ATV Music Publishing Canada.

All right reserved. Used by permission.

Working for the Weekend. Written by Paul Warren Dean, Michael Robert Frenette, and Michael Rynoski. Rights in Canada held by EMI Music Publishing. All rights reserved.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Manitoba Art Council, The Canada Council for the Arts and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing program.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, for any reason, by any means, without the permission of the publisher. This play is fully protected under the copyright laws of Canada and all other countries of the Copyright Union and is subject to royalty. Changes to the text are expressly forbidden without written consent of the authors. Rights to produce, film, record in whole or in part, in any medium or in any language, by any group amateur or professional, are retained by the author. Production inquiries should be addressed to: danielmacivor.com

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

MacIvor, Daniel, 1962-

How it works/Daniel MacIvor.

A play.

ISBN 1-897289-07-3

I.Title.

PS8575.I86H69 2006          C812’.54           C2006-902986-5

J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing

P.O. Box 86, RPO Corydon Avenue, Winnipeg, MB Canada R3M 3S3

For Paul Goulet

Contents

About the Author

Characters

Setting

Production History

Act One

Act two

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Contents

About the Author

Characters

Setting

Production History

Act One

Act two

Guide

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Contents

About the Author

Characters

Setting

Production History

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Photograph of the author Daniel Macivor. He is posing in a formal attire: white shirt over dark coloured blazers.

Daniel MacIvor

Daniel MacIvor was born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1962. He has been creating new theatre since 1986 and was for twenty years Artistic Director of da da kamera, an international touring company based in Toronto which helped change the way theatre is developed in Canada. His published work includes: See Bob Run, Never Swim Alone, House/Humans, Monster (Scirocco Drama), Here Lies Henry, You Are Here (Scirocco Drama), In On It (Scirocco Drama), and I Still Love You: Five Plays. He works with theatres across Canada and the United States including New York’s Urbanstages and Nova Scotia’s Mulgrave Road Theatre. He has been the recipient of several Dora Mavor Moore Awards, two Chalmers Awards, and an Obie Award. Also a filmmaker, he has written and directed the feature films Past Perfect and Wilby Wonderful. He makes his home with his husband, Paul Goulet, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Characters

AL ............................................................................ 40s

CHRISTINE............................................................ 40s

BROOKE ................................................................... 19

DONNA ................................................................. 40s

Setting

Present day, in and around Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Production History

How It Works was first developed by Mulgrave Road Theatre in association with da da kamera and premiered