Allan Louis, left, and Ellen Denny in Crow’s Theatre's production of Red Velvet, a historical drama by British playwright Lolita Chakrabarti.John Lauener/Crows theatre
The 43rd annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards were announced on Tuesday night, celebrating the first full season of theatre, dance and opera in Toronto since the pandemic devastated the performing arts around the world.
Winners were honoured for their work on plays and musicals seen at most of the city’s major not-for-profit theatre companies – a demonstration of widespread artistic recovery, even if audiences have not yet returned to prepandemic levels everywhere.
Crow’s Theatre, run by artistic director Chris Abraham, and Soulpepper, headed by artistic director Weyni Mengesha, ultimately picked up the lion’s share of the night’s awards run by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.
Crow’s production of Red Velvet, a 2012 historical drama by British playwright Lolita Chakrabarti, was deemed the best of the season by a jury of industry peers in the general division, which focuses on larger-budget productions of plays.
Cherissa Richards was named outstanding director for her fluid production of the show, which is about Ira Aldridge, the best-known Black stage actor in Europe in the 19th century.
See full list of Dora Award nominees and recipients
Crow’s received three other awards in the general division for shows it produced or co-produced. Dan Mousseau received the outstanding performance in a leading role award for his hilarious and heartbreaking portrayal of the money-squandering, pleasure-seeking son of a rich Rosedale family in the Howland Company’s world premiere of Paolo Santalucia’s Prodigal. Meanwhile, Julie Fox and Joshua Quinlan were honoured for their set design on Uncle Vanya, and Lorenzo Savoini was noted for his lighting design of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (co-produced with Modern Times Stage Company).
Canadian Stage picked up two awards in the general division: one for the costumes seen on Ronnie Burkett’s marionettes in his Christmas show, Little Dickens, and another for the work of sound designer Kate Delorme and composer Floydd Ricketts on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play Choir Boy (which heads to the Arts Club in Vancouver next season).
In a very competitive season, Kanika Ambrose’s our place, a drama about the lives of two undocumented workers at a Scarborough restaurant, was named outstanding new play. It was co-produced by Cahoots Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille.
Soulpepper, meanwhile, notched a single win in the general division for the featured performance of Vanessa Sears – currently on Broadway in the musical New York, New York – as Regan in Erin Shields’s new play Queen Goneril.
In the musical theatre division, on the other hand, Soulpepper’s presentation of Bad Hats Theatre’s Alice in Wonderland dominated, receiving six awards.
Kyle Blair, left, and Allan Louis in a scene from Red Velvet.John Lauener/Crows theatre
This fresh adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s timeless children’s tale, with a book by Fiona Sauder and music by Landon Doak and Victor Pokinko, was named outstanding musical production. Tess Benger, who played the title character, received the Dora for outstanding performance in a leading role.
In this division Crow’s played second fiddle, picking up two awards for its presentation of Festival Players’s song cycle The Shape of Home: Songs in Search of Al Purdy, including one for Hailey Gillis’s performance in it.
In the independent theatre division, First Métis Man of Odesa won a leading three awards.
That autobiographical play, about a romance between a Canadian and a Ukrainian complicated by the pandemic and the Russian invasion, was named outstanding production, while its married co-writers and stars, Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova, shared the award for outstanding new indie play.
The show, from Edmonton’s Punctuate! Theatre, was produced in Toronto in association with the Theatre Centre and resumes touring in the fall, with stops planned for Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Barrie, Ont.
Love You Wrong Time, a Bad Muse Collective production presented by Nightwood Theatre about two friends looking for love while contending with the fetishization of Asian women, won a pair of awards for its co-creators, Deanna H. Choi and Maddie Bautista: outstanding performance by an ensemble and oustanding sound design/composition.
Haley McGee won outstanding performance by an individual for her solo show The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale, which was presented by Soulpepper in association with Outside the March and red light district.
Sex Dalmatian, a show from Citadel + Compagnie choreographed by Alyssa Martin, dominated the Dora dance division, picking up three awards (including outstanding production), while the opera division was evenly split with three awards for Against the Grain’s take on Bluebeard’s Castle (including outstanding production) and three for the co-production of Macbeth by the Canadian Opera Company and Lyric Theatre of Chicago.
Not last nor least, The Darkest Dark, an adaptation of astronaut Chris Hadfield’s book for children that was a hit for Young People’s Theatre, was named outstanding production in the theatre for young audiences division.
J. Kelly Nestruck