Nomination Announcements: 38th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards

The Dora Mavor Moore Awards—named after the pioneering Canadian actress, director, and teacher—celebrate the best of Toronto theatre. (You can read about last year’s nominees and winners here.) This year’s awards, which will be hosted by Raoul Bhaneja, will take place Monday, June 26 at the Elgin Theatre.

Here are this year’s nominees! The liveblog is below.

General Theatre

Outstanding Production:

Outstanding New Play:

Outstanding Direction:

Outstanding Male Performance:

Outstanding Female Performance:

Outstanding Ensemble Performance:

Outstanding Scenic Design:

Outstanding Costume Design:

Outstanding Lighting Design:

  • Trevor Schwellnus, Alien Creature (Theatre Passe Muraille)
  • Kimberley Purtell, Concord Floral (Brubacher/Spooner/Tannahill presented by Canadian Stage)
  • Kevin Lamotte, Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts I, II, III) (Soulpepper)
  • André du Toit, The 39 Steps (Soulpepper)
  • Lorenzo Savoini, The Testament of Mary (Soulpepper)

Outstanding Sound Design/Composition:

Independent Theatre

Outstanding Production:

Outstanding New Play:

Outstanding Direction:

Outstanding Male Performance:

Outstanding Female Performance:

Outstanding Ensemble Performance:

Outstanding Scenic Design:

Outstanding Costume Design:

Outstanding Lighting Design:

Musical Theatre

Outstanding Production:

Outstanding Male Performance:

Outstanding Female Performance:

Outstanding Ensemble Performance:

Opera

Outstanding Production:

Outstanding Male Performance:

Outstanding Female Performance:

Outstanding Ensemble Performance:

Musical Theatre/Opera

Outstanding New Musical/Opera:

Outstanding Direction:

Outstanding Scenic Design:

Outstanding Costume Design:

Outstanding Lighting Design:

Outstanding Choreography:

Outstanding Musical Direction:

Touring Productions

Outstanding Touring Production:

Theatre for Young Audiences

Outstanding Production:

Outstanding New Play:

Outstanding Direction:

Outstanding Individual Performance:

Outstanding Ensemble Performance:

Dance

Outstanding Production:

Outstanding Original Choreography:

Outstanding Male Performance:

Outstanding Female Performance:

Outstanding Ensemble Performance:

Outstanding Lighting Design:

Outstanding Sound Design:

Ancillary Award Winners

Pauline McGibbon Award for Unique Talents and Potential for Excellence:

  • Joanna Yu, designer

Leonard McHardy & John Harvey Award for Leadership in Administration:

  • Mitchell Marcus, the Musical Stage Company

George Luscombe Mentorship Award:

  • Marjorie Chan, playwright and artistic director of Cahoots Theatre
  • 9:59 We’re here at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts! Keep refreshing this page for nomination announcements.
  • 10:05 People are taking their seats. The announcements are about to begin.
  • 10:15 Ontario Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell is about to announce the winner of this year’s Pauline McGibbon Award
  • 10:16 The winner of this year’s Pauline McGibbon Award for Unique Talents and Potential for Excellence is designer Joanna Yu. The award, which is given to an early-career theatre professional, is cyclical: one year it goes to a designer, the next year a director, and the year after that a craftsperson. (Last year it went to Stratford costume designer Jennifer Wonnacott.) Congrats, Joanna!
  • 10:20 Joanna Yu’s name is misspelled as “Joanne” on the photo on the screen. “I might change my name to Joanne,” she jokes in her acceptance speech.
  • 10:24 Joanna says she wants her win to inspire other women of colour working as designers. “I hope as Canada works towards its next 150, there will be more of us to weave into the Canadian theatre canon,” she says.
  • 10:28 Jacoba Knaapen, executive director, TAPA, says TAPA will be undertaking a review of the way the Doras function with a series of town halls in late August and early September. “We’re making changes based on your choices, your input,” she says. The changes will be announced in April 2018.
  • 10:32 Jacoba remembers developing the NOW Magazine Audience Choice Award eleven years ago with Jon Kaplan. To honour Jon’s memory, it has been renamed the Jon Kaplan Audience Choice Award.
  • 10:35 She also says there will be a memorial celebration to celebrate Jon’s life at the St. Lawrence Centre on September 19.
  • 10:40 The Leonard McHardy & John Harvey Award for Leadership in Administration goes to a theatre, dance, or opera administrator with at least ten years of commitment to the performing arts. This year’s winner is Mitchell Marcus of the Musical Stage Company. Congratulations!
  • 10:43 Mitchell thanks his husband and children for “embracing the Musical Stage Company as the fifth character in our family.”
  • 10:45 The George Luscombe Mentorship Award, which is presented once every two years, goes to an artist acclaimed for their mentorship. This year’s winner is Marjorie Chan.
  • 10:48 Marjorie thanks her nominator, Andy McKim. She also thanks TAPA for “finding a way to acknowledge this type of work, that often is quite invisible.”
  • 10:50 Marjorie Chan: “Words matter, actions matter, the space that you create can have huge ramifications.”
  • 10:58 We’re starting with the nominations in the Theatre for Young Audiences division.

5 Responses to “Nomination Announcements: 38th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards”

  1. You forgot to include James Smith as the Composer of Chasses-Galerie in the category for Outstanding Sound Design & Composition!

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