The Master Plan at Crow'sSupplied
The Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations were announced today, and, though I often highlight what confounds me about Toronto’s theatre awards, I must start off by saying something positive about them this year.
The outstanding new play category at the awards in the general division is a very strong and exciting competition this year, with the most talked-about Canadian shows of the season actually nominated.
This is because of a much-needed change to the wording of the Doras eligibility rules that now makes clear that Canadian plays that are having their Toronto premieres can be nominated, not just plays having their world premieres in the city.
So, The Master Plan, Michael Healey’s city satire about the Sidewalk Labs debacle that had its world premiere at Crow’s Theatre, is up against Casey and Diana, Nick Green’s moving play set in Toronto at the height of the AIDS crisis that premiered in Stratford Festival before it did at Soulpepper.
Women of the Fur Trade, Frances Koncan’s sizzling 2020 satire set in the time of Louis Riel that had its Toronto debut this season through Native Earth, is nominated, as is King Gilgamesh & the Man of the Wild, a play with music that had its world premiere in New York before playing at Soulpepper.
The category is rounded out by Alex Bulmer’s innovative theatrical travelogue, Perceptual Archaeology (or How to Travel Blind), which played at Crow’s.
This is a terrific contest, and it’s much more difficult to guess who will win than had Women of the Fur Trade, Casey and Diana and King Gilgamesh & the Man of the Wild not been eligible, as might have been the case at past Dora Awards.
If Toronto is the major centre for the country’s English-language theatre, it should be a more welcoming place for second or third production of scripts from coast to coast to coast. This change at the Doras makes space to honour the nearly new and is a welcome shift in priorities.
As for the shut out of Toronto’s traditional new-play theatres from the category, that’s too big a subject to get into deeply here. This comes at a time when such theatres are struggling, and not just in this city. It adds fuel to the question: Does that model need to evolve?
Now: The top three 2024 Dora nomination oddities
1. For some reason, Canadian Stage’s production of The Inheritance – Matthew López’s celebrated two-part Tony-winning play – has been considered as two separate shows by the Dora jurors. This doesn’t make any sense, of course, and has led, in the general division, to the ensemble of Part One competing against the ensemble of Part Two for outstanding ensemble. Those are the same ensembles – well, except Part Two’s, which includes Louise Pitre.
2. The introduction of a single “Outstanding Performance by an Individual” category in the general division has led to a total wipe-out of recognition for supporting performances. It’s all actors in lead roles – such as Amaka Umeh in Sizwe Banzi is Dead – or the likes of Walter Borden, Damien Atkins and bahia watson who (deservedly) are up for the one-person shows they performed.
I’m sad to not see a place to acknowledge the season’s great featured performances – someone like Juan Carlos Velis in El Terromoto at the Tarragon Theatre. Stand-outs such as Katherine Gauthier in Bad Roads and Oyin Oladejo in Three Sisters are nominated as part of ensembles, at least, but it’s not the same.
3. It was a surprise to see Coal Mine’s fall remount of Jani Lauzon’s Prophecy Fog nominated for three Dora Award nominations in the independent division today. Not because her solo show isn’t excellent, but because it was nominated for three Dora Awards when the Theatre Centre premiered it in 2019.
The Dora eligibility rules says that remounts are only eligible after five years have passed, and Coal Mine called Prophecy Fog a remount in all its marketing materials. But the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, which runs the Doras, tells The Globe and Mail that, if a different member of TAPA submits a show, it’s treated as a new show … even if they’re calling it a remount.
This also doesn’t makes a lot of sense to me. But, if this is to be the case, it should be made clear in the eligibility handbook. For what it’s worth, TAPA agrees and, in a statement, said it would update the language going forward.
What’s opening this week
I’m at the Stratford Festival for opening week. Twelfth Night opened on Monday, Something Rotten! opens Tuesday, Cymbeline opens Wednesday, Hedda Gabler opens Thursday, La Cage Aux Folles opens Friday and Romeo and Juliet opens Saturday. Reviews will appear online as I write them.
In Toronto, Discovering Allan Sherman, Avery Saltzman’s new revue features songs by “the greatest Jewish parodist of the 20th century,” opens at the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company. It runs to June 9.
Age is a Feeling, expat Canuck Haley McGee’s latest solo show, runs at Soulpepper from May 29 to June 16. Zahra Khozema interviewed McGee for The Globe about this show when it ran at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022.
Liars at a Funeral, Sophia Fabiilli’s hit comedy that premiered at the Blyth Festival last year, is running at the Thousand islands Playhouse in Gananoque, Ont., from May 31 to June 22.
The Vancouver International Children’s Festival is running on stages across Granville Island this week. I like the sound of The Papa Penguin Play – and rapper Missy D’s in town with her all-ages bilingual show, The Starting Point of Missy D. (I listen to her music with my son.)
The Ocultist’s Holiday, a romantic comedy set in Switzerland by bard of Edmonton Stewart Lemoine, is being revived for the first time in 15 years by Teatro Live! at the Varscona Theatre. It runs May 30 to June 16.
The Festival TransAmériques is still on in Montreal, and if you have seven and a half hours to spare and an adventurous spirit, you should go play Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim’s all-day theatrical video game asses.masses on June 1 (in English).