Latest news with #MiriamFernandes
Toronto Star
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
Dora Awards 2025: ‘Mahabharata' dominates Toronto's top theatre honours amid major upsets
A sinewy, multidisciplinary retelling of an ancient Sanskrit epic dominated the 2025 Dora Awards on Monday night, capping an extraordinary journey for a show that was born in Canada and has gone on to tour the world. 'Karma, The Life We Inherit,' the first half of Why Not Theatre's two-part play 'Mahabharata,' won five Doras in the general theatre division, including for outstanding production and outstanding new play. Co-written by Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain, who also won individual awards for performance and direction, respectively, the show tells the story of two warring factions of an ancient noble family, whose conflict spills across generations.
Hamilton Spectator
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
First half of two-part Sanskrit epic big winner at Dora Awards in Toronto
TORONTO - A modern take on a millennia-old Sanskrit epic was the big winner in the general theatre division of the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. 'Mahabharata Part One: Karma: The Life We Inherit' took home five of the nine prizes in its division at the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts' award ceremony on Monday night. Both halves of the two-part play from Why Not Theatre and Canadian Stage were nominated for a total of 15 Doras, but 'Part Two: Dharma: The Life We Choose' didn't win any. Co-creators Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes both won for the play — the former for best direction, the latter for outstanding individual performance, and together for best new play. The production, which presents a 4,000-year-old story about a feud between families, also won outstanding production and best sound design or composition. In the musical theatre division, 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' from Shifting Ground Collective took home the Doras for outstanding production and best creative direction. Shifting Ground Collective's production of the Broadway musical also won the audience choice award. 'People, Places and Things' from Coal Mine Theatre won outstanding production in the independent theatre division, while 'La Reine-garçon,' which was a Canadian Opera Company co-production with Opéra de Montréal, took home the same award in the opera division. Soulpepper Theatre Company's 'Alligator Pie' won outstanding production for young audiences, and 'everything i wanted to tell you (but couldn't, so here it is now)' from Citadel + Compagnie won that prize in the dance division. Monday's ceremony marked the Doras' 45th anniversary. The Dora Awards are nominated by members of Toronto's professional performing arts community. Jurors include performers, designers, directors, producers, administrators and educators. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
First half of two-part Sanskrit epic big winner at Dora Awards in Toronto
TORONTO – A modern take on a millennia-old Sanskrit epic was the big winner in the general theatre division of the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. 'Mahabharata Part One: Karma: The Life We Inherit' took home five of the nine prizes in its division at the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts' award ceremony on Monday night. Both halves of the two-part play from Why Not Theatre and Canadian Stage were nominated for a total of 15 Doras, but 'Part Two: Dharma: The Life We Choose' didn't win any. Co-creators Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes both won for the play — the former for best direction, the latter for outstanding individual performance, and together for best new play. The production, which presents a 4,000-year-old story about a feud between families, also won outstanding production and best sound design or composition. In the musical theatre division, 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' from Shifting Ground Collective took home the Doras for outstanding production and best creative direction. Shifting Ground Collective's production of the Broadway musical also won the audience choice award. 'People, Places and Things' from Coal Mine Theatre won outstanding production in the independent theatre division, while 'La Reine-garçon,' which was a Canadian Opera Company co-production with Opéra de Montréal, took home the same award in the opera division. Soulpepper Theatre Company's 'Alligator Pie' won outstanding production for young audiences, and 'everything i wanted to tell you (but couldn't, so here it is now)' from Citadel + Compagnie won that prize in the dance division. Monday's ceremony marked the Doras' 45th anniversary. The Dora Awards are nominated by members of Toronto's professional performing arts community. Jurors include performers, designers, directors, producers, administrators and educators. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2025.
New York Times
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Retelling of the Mahabharata, Set to Modern-Day Struggles
The Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata has been adapted many times over in oral retellings, plays, movies, comic books and more. Consisting of over 100,000 verses, the poem has so many stories that picking which ones to tell is a statement in itself. And making that decision can pose its own challenges as Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes, co-artistic directors of the Toronto-based theater company Why Not, learned when they went about adapting it. Now they are bringing their expansive two-part contemporary staging, which premiered in 2023 at the Shaw Festival in Ontario, Canada, to Lincoln Center, where it will run from Tuesday through June 29. Their adaptation is based on the poet Carole Satyamurti's retelling of the epic, which, at its core, is the story of two warring sets of cousins — the Kauravas and the Pandavas — trying to control a kingdom. The poem is part myth, part guide to upholding moral values and duty — or dharma. Some of the epic incorporates the Bhagavad Gita, a philosophical text on Hindu morality, which is framed as a discussion between Prince Arjuna, a Pandava and a skilled archer, and Lord Krishna, a Hindu God who acts as Arjuna's teacher. Jain, 45, began developing the piece in 2016 after receiving a $375,000 grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, the country's public arts funder. Fernandes, 36, joined him on the project two years later after finishing graduate school in France. Jain described an early version of the script in an interview as 'feminist' and 'self-referential.' But the pandemic made them rethink which stories could best drive home the point of dharma — a central tenet of the text. 'To build a civilization, those with the most power must take care of those with the least,' Jain said, referring to the epic's message. 'In the animal kingdom, the strong eat the weak. There's no problem with that. But humans have empathy, and we can build a civilization where we're not just those who eat and those who are eaten, but rather those who feed and those who are fed.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
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.
