Announcement: 39th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards
Happy World Theatre Day! To celebrate, the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts has announced the date and host of the thirty-ninth Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
The 2018 ceremony, produced by TAPA’s executive director Jacoba Knaapen, will take place on Monday June 25 at the Elgin’s Winter Garden Theatre and will be hosted by award-winning actor Astrid Van Wieren, who originated the role of Beulah in the landmark Canadian musical Come From Away—and is also one of the stars of this smash hit currently on Broadway.
The multi-talented Emmy-, Gemini-, and Dora-nominated Diane Flacks will pen the celebratory evening for her third year in a row, while acclaimed theatre director, actor, and writer Ed Roy takes the helm as director for his sixth time. Multi-award-winning lighting and production designer Andrea Lundy returns for her seventeenth consecutive year.
Van Wieren is a graduate of Toronto’s Ryerson Theatre School and a Dora Award–winning actress for This Wide Night. She originated the roles of Germaine in Belles Soeurs – The Musical and Sheilagh Fielding in The Colony of Unrequited Dream, and was in the North American premiere of Mamma Mia! She co-wrote, co-produced, and stars in the indie feature The River You Step In.
Diane Flacks recently wrote and starred in Unholy for Nightwood Theatre, nominated for a 2017 Dora Award for Outstanding New Play. Other plays include Myth Me, Waiting Room, and By a Thread, and her TV writing includes Working the Engels, Working Moms, and Baroness Von Sketch Show.
The Doras are named for Dora Mavor Moore (1888–1979), a well-loved teacher and director who helped establish Canadian professional theatre in the 1930s and 1940s. Recognizing the outstanding achievements in Toronto’s performing arts industry, the awards honour the creators of over two hundred theatre, dance, and opera productions annually in the following divisions: General Theatre, Independent Theatre, Musical Theatre, Dance, Opera, and Theatre for Young Audiences. Nominees will be announced at a press conference on May 31 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, where the Pauline McGibbon Award and the Leonard McHardy and John Harvey Award for Outstanding Leadership in Administration will also be given out.
For tickets to the ceremony, or for more information, click here
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