Latest news with #DoraAwards
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
From a Mahabharata sweep to a Gen Z musical theatre boom, here's how the 2025 Dora Awards played out
Why Not Theatre's massive, intricate production of Mahabharata swept the 2025 Dora Awards, the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) announced at the awards' in-person ceremony at Meridian Hall on Monday evening. Mahabharata, presented in Toronto for the first time this spring by Canadian Stage, walked away with five wins across acting, directing and design categories in the General Theatre division, including outstanding production. It's a welcome sweep for a deserving piece of theatre. First presented by the Shaw Festival in 2023, the show is fresh off a short run of performances at Lincoln Center in New York. Mahabharata and A Strange Loop win big at the 2025 Toronto Theatre Critics' Awards While both halves of the two-part endeavour were nominated in several categories, this year's Dora jurors came together to celebrate the first half of the production, subtitled Karma, The Life We Inherit. Other winners in the General Theatre division included the ensemble of Flex, co-produced by Crow's Theatre and Obsidian Theatre Company, and the scenic designers for seven methods of killing kylie jenner, another collaboration between Obsidian and Crow's. Wonderful Joe creator Ronnie Burkett and Flex lighting designer Raha Javanfar went home with Dora wins for costume design and lighting design, respectively. Meanwhile, the Independent Theatre, Musical Theatre and Theatre for Young Audiences divisions saw a much more varied slates of winners. Makram Ayache's The Tempest: A Witch in Algiers won the award for outstanding new play in the Independent Theatre division – Toronto audiences can look forward to experiencing more of Ayache's work when The Green Line plays at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre this fall. Coal Mine Theatre's electric production of People, Places and Things won four awards across acting and directing categories, including outstanding production. Last Landscape, a physical work about the relationship between humans and the environment, was singled out for its sound design and for its scenography, which included whimsical puppets and surprisingly large sets constructed entirely from recycled materials. Snubs and surprises from the Dora Award nominations CORPUS's production of Mukashi, Mukashi rounded out the division's design categories with wins for outstanding costume and lighting design. Over in the Musical Theatre division, an emerging company of Gen Z artists beat out far more established companies in a number of competitive categories. Shifting Ground Collective left the 2025 Dora Awards with three awards – including outstanding production and the coveted Jon Kaplan Audience Choice Award – for its production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Unsurprisingly, A Strange Loop, co-produced by the Musical Stage Company, Soulpepper Theatre, Crow's Theatre and TO Live, won the Dora for outstanding performance by an ensemble, as well as an individual award for Malachi McCaskill in the leading role of Usher. Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White won the Dora for outstanding new musical or opera. (The category is split between the Musical Theatre and Opera divisions.) The show also received a nod for its ensemble in the Opera division. Rounding out the Musical Theatre division was Canadian Stage's holiday pantomime, The Wizard of Oz: The Toto-ly Awesome Family Musical, which was singled out for Ming Wong's costume designs. While Soulpepper Theatre's production of Alligator Pie dominated the Theatre for Young Audiences division at this year's Doras with four wins, two other shows walked away with trophies: Evan Bawtinheimer's Patty Picker won the Dora for outstanding new play, while Alexandra Laferrière won for outstanding performance by an individual in Roseneath Theatre and Black Theatre Workshop's production of Taking Care of Maman.
Winnipeg Free Press
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Sanskrit epic ‘Mahabharata,' musical ‘Life After' among leading Dora Award nominees
TORONTO – A contemporary take on a 4,000-year-old Sanskrit epic is among the leading stage productions vying for this year's Dora Awards. Why Not Theatre's two-part show 'Mahabharata' collected 15 nominations overall, including nine for 'Part One: Karma: The Life We Inherit' and six for 'Part Two: Dharma: The Life We Choose,' both presented by Canadian Stage. Because each part got separate nods, the elaborate show will compete against its other half in multiple races, including best new play for Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes, who developed the work using poetry from Carole Satyamurti's 'Mahabharata: A Modern Retelling.' The Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts announced 225 nominations for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards, which celebrate Toronto's professional theatre, dance and opera communities. For a second year in a row, Mirvish Productions is absent from the list because it withdrew from the alliance known as TAPA in 2023. However, nine nominations in the musical theatre division went to the off-Mirvish show 'Life After,' from Yonge Street Theatricals and other non-Mirvish partners, while five went to 'A Strange Loop' from The Musical Stage Company, Soulpepper Theatre Company, Crow's Theatre and TO Live. The independent theatre division saw eight nominations each go to 'Last Landscape,' from Bad New Days in partnership with Common Boots Theatre, and 'Mukashi, Mukashi (Once Upon a Time)' from Corpus. The awards will be presented June 30 at an evening ceremony in Toronto hosted by actor Peter Fernandes, who is up for a best performance award for Canadian Stage's 'Fat Ham.' Other contenders in the general theatre division include Crow's Theatre and Obsidian Theatre Company's 'FLEX,' which scored six nominations including best production and Canadian Stage's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,' starring Martha Burns and Paul Gross, which pulled four nominations including one for Burns. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. The opera race includes seven-time nominee 'La Reine-garçon,' a Canadian Opera Company co-production with Opéra de Montréal and two shows with five nominations: 'Madama Butterfly,' a Houston Grand Opera production presented by the COC, and 'Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White,' from the COC in association with the National Arts Centre's National Creation Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, and Ontario Arts Council. The dance division includes two productions with five nominations each — Citadel + Compagnie's 'Everything I wanted to tell you (but couldn't, so here it is now)' and 'Big Time Miss,' from Rock Bottom Movement presented by Fall For Dance North. The Dora Awards are nominated by members of Toronto's professional performing arts community. Jurors include performers, designers, directors, producers, administrators and educators. Online: This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2025.
