The nominees for the 34th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards were announced today at a press conference held at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
The “Doras” honour excellence in the performing arts in Toronto. This year’s awards ceremony will be hosted by Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus, founding Co-Artistic Directors of the three-time Canadian Comedy Award-winning The National Theatre of the World and will take place on Monday, June 24 at 8pm at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.
Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre modernizes a Mozart classic and makes the opera more accessible
Figaro (Stephen Hegedus) is only a day away from a lifetime of wedded bliss to his beloved Susanna (Miriam Khalil) and you are cordially invited to Against the Grain‘s unique production of Figaro’s Wedding.
This zany and modern adaptation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, with a modern libretto by AtG’s own Joel Ivany, highlights the many ways a wedding can go wrong: even before the bride takes her walk down the aisle, wandering eyes and personal vendettas get in the way. Set on the top floor of Queen Street’s historic The Burroughes, Against the Grain have once again taken a classic, complete with stunning operatic performances, and turned it on its head.
Ten minutes plays reign supreme at Toronto’s InspiraTO Festival
In its 8th season, the InspiraTO Festival continues to prove its mettle as a stomping ground for fresh theatrical voices and new ideas and is a nice advocate for the short form. The wide variety of ten minute plays are the result of two different submission processes: an international competition that gave two options of writing prompts, and the Playwrights’ Mentoring Project, a program meant to foster fresh talent with an array of support from dramaturgical help to a full workshop.
Playing at the Alumnae Theatre, the shows are divided into five sections – the Red Show, Blue Show, Orange Show, Yellow Show and White Show – so if you’re short on time, you can see one section and then show up on another night to see one or two more. At the opening on Thursday, I got to see the Red and Blue shows, each consisted of six plays that were chosen from submissions to the international competition.
As I’ve expressed in previous reviews, I love story and story development. Empty Boxesspends most of its energy telling us what the story is rather than letting us discover it. Sarah and Kevin meet and fall in love. Their friends think they’re the perfect couple. Sarah and Kevin have their ups and downs over the course of seven years and it is their diverging lives that ultimately breaks them up. Continue reading Review: Empty Boxes (Homestead Theatre Project)→
Toronto improv group The 404s get their geek on at Comedy Bar
Improv Against Humanity (presented at the Comedy Bar) is a fantastic idea. The 404s are one of Toronto’s best-kept comedy secrets, bringing improvisational comedy with a geeky bent to conventions, conferences and clubs all over North America, while Cards Against Humanity–the source material for tonight’s improv set–has been a runaway success fuelled entirely by laugh-out-loud hilarity and poor life choices.
It’s always a good sign when a comedy troupe has enough fans to fill a room to capacity: the 404s have earned their success through over a decade of consistent, careful work, and their fans didn’t leave disappointed.
Continue reading Announcement: 2013 Dora Mavor Moore Awards Nominees (with links to MoT reviews) 
