The cast of the Toronto Production of SIX. Maggie Lacasse, Elysia Cruz, Jaz Robinson, Julia Pulo, Krystal Hernández, Lauren Mariasoosay. Photo Credit: Joan Marcus.The Dora Mavor Moore Awards, Toronto’s theatre, dance and opera awards, are announcing their nominations a week from today.That’s because commercial producer Mirvish Productions quietly left the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, the industry group that organizes the awards, in the fall.
This is just a numbers thing. In the 2022-2023 season, Mirvish Productions sold about two million tickets to all its shows, which was, by some counts, a record for the commercial company. In terms of the actual Dora competition, Mirvish’s absence will be most felt in the musical theatre category. The company has only ever submitted its local productions of shows or pre-Broadway runs for consideration, not the Broadway and British-imported tours of musicals or plays that can, some seasons, make up the bulk of its programming.
Now, any production with a budget greater than $125,000 in a venue with 150 seats or more is automatically considered to be in the general division; smaller budget shows or shows in smaller theatres can choose to compete there, too. However, I have voted on other Toronto theatre awards and am well aware that, all things considered, folks would rather give an award to a Canadian director who created a production from scratch and will show up at the ceremony, than an international director who might have just flown in a for a few days to check on what their associate director has done on their big hit that’s playing in multiples cities around the world.
Even before Mirvish left, the Doras had become more and more inward facing or, as TAPA executive director Jacoba Knaapen calls them, “industry awards.” There are too many divisions for even avid performing arts patrons to really wrap their head around.