Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Original Play (General Theatre)

The Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in Toronto theatre.

For most of the Dora Awards' history, separate awards have been presented for best play and Best Original Musical. For part of the 1990s, however, the two awards were merged with both musicals and dialogue-based plays competing in a single category. From 1980 to 1988, only a single award was presented each year; beginning in 1988, a separate award was introduced for Outstanding New Play, Small/Independent Theatre.

Winners and nominees

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1980s

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Year Playwright Title Ref
1980 Linda Griffiths, Paul Thompson Maggie and Pierre [1]
Alun Hibbert October's Soldiers
Tom Walmsley Something Red
1981 Allan Stratton Rexy [2]
Neil Munro Extreme Close Up [3]
Judith Thompson The Crackwalker
George F. Walker Theatre of the Film Noir
1982 John Krizanc Tamara [4]
Lawrence Jeffery Clay [5]
Erika Ritter The Passing Scene
Tom Walmsley White Boys
1983 Patrick Brymer, Linda Griffiths O.D. on Paradise [6]
Mavis Gallant What Is to Be Done?
Richard Rose Censored
George F. Walker The Art of War
1984 Autumn Angel Repertory: Stewart Arnott, Ines Ruchli, Mark Christmann, Dorian Clark, Denis Forest, Maggie Huculak, Tanja Jacobs, Susan McKenzie, Richard Rose Mein [7]
Jim Betts The Mystery of the Oak Island Treasure [8]
Lawrence Jeffery Tower
Bob Knuckle, Gordon Carruth I Am Not a Legend
George Luscombe, Larry Cox Names
1985 David French Salt-Water Moon [9]
Marie-Lynn Hammond De beaux gestes/Beautiful Deeds [10]
Michael Hollingsworth The History of the Village of the Small Huts: Part 1, New France
John Krizanc Prague
George F. Walker Criminals in Love
1986 Linda Griffiths, Maria Campbell Jessica [11]
Don Hannah The Wedding Script [12]
Margaret Hollingsworth Islands
Maristella Roca La Storia: A Tale of Fables
Allan Stratton Papers
1987 Tomson Highway The Rez Sisters [13]
René-Daniel Dubois Being at Home with Claude [14]
Margaret Hollingsworth War Babies
John Lazarus Genuine Fakes
Joan MacLeod Jewel
1988 George F. Walker Nothing Sacred [15]
Robert Fothergill Detaining Mr. Trotsky [16]
Ann-Marie MacDonald Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
Judith Thompson I Am Yours
Michel Tremblay Le Vrai Monde?
1989 Tomson Highway Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing [17]
Sally Clark Moo [18]
Ken Garnhum Beuys, Buoys, Boys
Kelly Rebar Bordertown Café
Michel Tremblay (tr. John Van Burek, Bill Glassco) The Real World?

1990s

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Years marked with a § are those in which the awards for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding New Musical were merged.

Year Playwright Title Ref
1990 George F. Walker Love and Anger [19]
Howard Barker The Europeans [20]
Sally Clark The Trial of Judith K
Joan MacLeod Amigo's Blue Guitar
Michael Ondaatje, Richard Rose, D.D. Kugler Coming Through Slaughter
1991 Michel Marc Bouchard (translation by Linda Gaboriau) Lilies [21]
Linda Griffiths The Darling Family [22]
Ann-Marie MacDonald The Arab's Mouth
Judith Thompson Lion in the Streets
Michel Tremblay La Maison suspendue
1992 George F. Walker Escape from Happiness [23]
Michael Hollingsworth Laurier [24]
Bryden MacDonald Whale Riding Weather
Paulette Phillips Under the Influence
Paula Wing Naomi's Road
1993 § Terrence McNally, John Kander, Fred Ebb Kiss of the Spider Woman [25]
Martha Ross, John Millard Ratbag [26]
1994 § Leslie Arden The House of Martin Guerre [27]
John Lazarus The Nightingale [28]
Michael O'Brien A Christmas Carol
Andrew Sabiston, Timothy Williams Napoleon
1995 § John Wimbs, Christopher Richards Molly Wood [29]
Don Hannah The Wooden Hill [30]
Maureen Hunter Transit of Venus
1996 § Raymond Storey The Glorious 12th [31]
Gilles Maheu The Dead Souls [32]
Allan Stratton Dracula: Nightmare of the Dead
1997 § Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, Terrence McNally Ragtime [33]
John Caird, Paul Gordon Jane Eyre [34]
Maureen Hunter Atlantis
Michael O'Brien Oliver Twist, or The Street Boy's Progress
Carol Shields Thirteen Hands
1998 George F. Walker Problem Child [35]
David Gow Cherry Docs [36]
Jason Sherman Patience
George F. Walker The End Of Civilization
David Young Inexpressible Island
1999 Michael Healey The Drawer Boy [37]
Daniel Brooks, Guillermo Verdecchia Insomnia [38]
Michael Hollingsworth, Deanne Taylor The Life and Times of Brian Mulroney
Soheil Parsa Aurash
Jonathan Wilson Kilt

2000s

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Year Playwright Title Ref
2000 Linda Griffiths Alien Creature
Michel Tremblay (translation by Linda Gaboriau) For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again
Florence Gibson Belle
Morwyn Brebner Music for Contortionist
Jean Yoon The Yoko Ono Project
2001 Kristen Thomson I, Claudia [39]
Alex Bulmer Smudge
Ronnie Burkett Happy
Adam Pettle Zadie's Shoes
Betty Quan Ghost Train
2002 Michael Healey Plan B
Carole Fréchette, Elisa's Skin
Daniel MacIvor You Are Here
Alex Poch-Goldin This Hotel
Djanet Sears The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God
2003 Morris Panych Girl in the Goldfish Bowl
Chris Earle Russell Hill
Matthew Edison The Domino Heart
Sonja Mills The Danish Play
Adam Pettle Therac 25
2004 Michael Hollingsworth Confederation
Trey Anthony da kink in my hair
Marjorie Chan China Doll
Peter Froehlich Simpl
Michael O'Brien Restitution: An Irish-Canadian Rhapsody
2005 John Mighton Half Life
Claudia Dey Trout Stanley
Keira Loughran Little Dragon
Rick Miller, Daniel Brooks Bigger Than Jesus
David S. Young No Great Mischief
2006 d'bi young blood.claat - one woman story
Ronnie Burkett 10 Days on Earth
Rosa Labordé Léo
Niki Landau Territories
Colombe Demers, Ann-Marie Kerr, Liisa Repo-Martell The Long Valley
2007 Michael Healey Generous
Damien Atkins Lucy [40]
Michael Hollingsworth The Saskatchewan Rebellion
Mike McPhaden Noble Parasites
Morris Panych What Lies Before Us
2008 Judith Thompson The Palace of the End
Brendan Gall Alias Godot
Hannah Moscovitch East of Berlin
Hannah Moscovitch Essay
The Second City Tazed and Confused
2009 Waawaate Fobister Agokwe
Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman Scratch [41]
Kevin Loring Where the Blood Mixes
Joan MacLeod Another Home Invasion
Andrew Moodie Toronto the Good

2010s

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Year Playwright Title Ref
2010 Michael Healey Courageous
Carmen Aguirre Refugee Hotel
Anusree Roy Letters to My Grandma
Erin Shields If We Were Birds
Judith Thompson Such Creatures
2011 Anusree Roy Brothel #9
Maja Ardal The Cure for Everything
Brendan Gall Wide Awake Hearts
Andrew Kushnir The Middle Place
Roland Schimmelpfennig Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God - The Africa Trilogy
2012 Pamela Mala Sinha Crash
Ins Choi Kim's Convenience
Erin Fleck Those Who Can't Do
Tim Supple, Hanan al-Shaykh One Thousand and One Nights
Evan Webber Ajax & Little Iliad
2013 Kristen Thomson Someone Else [42]
Melody Johnson Miss Caledonia
Daniel MacIvor Arigato, Tokyo
Hannah Moscovitch Little One
Tawiah M'carthy Obaaberima
2014 Vern Thiessen Of Human Bondage
Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn, Andrew Kushnir The Gay Heritage Project [43]
Sean Dixon A God in Need of Help
Tim Luscombe Pig
Marcus Youssef, James Long Winners and Losers
2015 Hannah Moscovitch Infinity
Michael Hollingsworth Trudeau and Lévesque
Maria Milisavljevic Abyss
Carolyn Smart, Nicky Guadagni Hooked
2016 Kat Sandler Mustard
Anna Chatterton, Evalyn Parry, Karin Randoja Gertrude and Alice
Fabrizio Filippo The Summoned
Jordan Tannahill Botticelli in the Fire and Sunday in Sodom
Severn Thompson Elle
2017 Nick Green Body Politic
Katherine Cullen, Britta Johnson Stupidhead!
Diane Flacks Unholy
Kristen Thomson The Wedding Party
David Yee Acquiesce
2018 Evalyn Parry, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools
Rose Napoli Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells)
Jivesh Parasram Take d Milk, Nah?
Kat Sandler Bang Bang
Emil Sher The Boy in the Moon
2019 Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman Guarded Girls [44]
Yolanda Bonnell Bug
Lisa Karen Cox, Maggie Huculak, Raha Javanfar, Amy Nostbakken, Norah Sadava, Cheyenne Scott Now You See Her
Kate Hennig The Virgin Trial
Hannah Moscovitch, Maev Beaty, Anne-Marie Kerr Secret Life of a Mother

2020s

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Year Playwright Title Ref
2020 Anosh Irani Buffoon [45]
Ronnie Burkett Forget Me Not
Odile Gakire Katese The Book of Life
Natasha Adiyana Morris The Negroes Are Congregating
Kat Sandler Yaga
2021 No ceremony held due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada on theatre production in 2020. [46]
2022 Leanna Brodie, David Paquet Wildfire [47]
Cliff Cardinal The Land Acknowledgement (As You Like It) [48]
Chloé Hung Three Women of Swatow
Rosa Labordé Light
Jordan Tannahill Draw Me Close
2023 Kanika Ambrose Our Place [49]
Anosh Irani Behind the Moon [50]
Paolo Santalucia Prodigal
Erin Shields Queen Goneril
Tawiah M'carthy, Brad Cook Maanomaa, My Brother
2024 Michael Healey The Master Plan [51]
Seth Bockley, Jesse LaVercombe, Ahmed Moneka King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild [52]
Alex Bulmer Perceptual Archaeology (or How to Travel Blind)
Frances Koncan Women of the Fur Trade
Nick Green Casey and Diana

References

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  1. ^ Ray Conlogue, "Dora Mavor Moore Awards suffer from stage fright". The Globe and Mail, January 27, 1981.
  2. ^ Carole Corbeil, "Just like Oscars: lots of no-shows Carver, Maxwell win theatre awards". The Globe and Mail, January 26, 1982.
  3. ^ Ray Conlogue, "Donald Davis, Loose Ends lead Dora nominees". The Globe and Mail, December 4, 1981.
  4. ^ Carole Corbeil, "An outstanding night for Tamara". The Globe and Mail, November 16, 1982.
  5. ^ "Dora Mavor Moore awards: Tamara paces the nominees". The Globe and Mail, October 1, 1982.
  6. ^ Ray Conlogue, "Thomson, Phipps take Doras for outstanding acting". The Globe and Mail, October 11, 1983.
  7. ^ Stephen Godfrey, "Jungle of Cities wins four Doras". The Globe and Mail, October 23, 1984.
  8. ^ Stephen Godfrey, "Team aims to make this award show different". The Globe and Mail, October 13, 1984.
  9. ^ "Cats takes lion's share of Dora awards". Montreal Gazette, October 9, 1985.
  10. ^ Henry Mietkiewicz, "Cats leads pack of Dora nominees". Toronto Star, September 5, 1985.
  11. ^ "Desert Song sweeps Dora awards as top production in Toronto theatre". Ottawa Citizen, June 17, 1986.
  12. ^ "Tarragon sweeps the nominations for Dora Awards". Toronto Star, May 15, 1986. Page F1.
  13. ^ Ray Conlogue, "Mikado, B-Movie big Dora winners". The Globe and Mail, June 23, 1987.
  14. ^ "Mikado nominated for 7 Dora Awards". Toronto Star, May 27, 1987.
  15. ^ Robert Crew, "George Walker play sweeps Dora awards". Toronto Star, June 14, 1988.
  16. ^ "CentreStage play tops Dora Award nominees". Toronto Star, May 11, 1988. Page C1.
  17. ^ Robert Crew, "Passe Muraille sweeps up Doras". Toronto Star, June 26, 1989.
  18. ^ "And the Dora nominees are...". The Globe and Mail, May 13, 1989.
  19. ^ Ray Conlogue, "Three Doras each for Billy the Kid, Love and Anger". The Globe and Mail, June 26, 1990.
  20. ^ Ray Conlogue, "Dora nominations harvested from sparse crop of new plays". The Globe and Mail, May 15, 1990.
  21. ^ "Lilies, 7 Stories win top honors". Ottawa Citizen, June 18, 1991.
  22. ^ H. J. Kirchhoff, "That Scatterbrain Booky and Lilies pace Dora race: Each production picks up eight nominations". The Globe and Mail, May 15, 1991.
  23. ^ H. J. Kirchhoff, "Beattie and Cavendish take home Doras George F. Walker's Escape from Happiness named outstanding new play". The Globe and Mail, June 29, 1992.
  24. ^ "Dora Award nominees". Toronto Star, May 14, 1992.
  25. ^ "Kiss of the Spider Woman captures 7 Dora Awards". Waterloo Region Record, June 22, 1993.
  26. ^ "Dora Award nominations". Toronto Star, May 11, 1993.
  27. ^ Vit Wagner, "Dora Awards crazy for Crazy For You". Toronto Star, June 21, 1994.
  28. ^ Elizabeth Renzetti, "Miss Saigon leads in race for Doras". The Globe and Mail, May 18, 1994.
  29. ^ Vit Wagner, "Music to the ears: Tommy & Assassins whistle up five Dora Awards apiece". Toronto Star, June 7, 1995.
  30. ^ "Nominations for '95 Dora Awards". Toronto Star, May 13, 1995.
  31. ^ "Dora Mavor Moore Awards announced". Montreal Gazette, June 25, 1996.
  32. ^ Geoff Chapman, "Canadian Stage, Tarragon lead Dora nominations". Toronto Star, May 17, 1996.
  33. ^ Vit Wagner, "Ragtime beats out seven Dora awards". Toronto Star, September 30, 1997.
  34. ^ Vit Wagner, "Ragtime sets Dora nominations beat Musical leads field for Toronto theatre awards". Toronto Star, September 12, 1997.
  35. ^ "List of Dora Award winners". Toronto Star, June 23, 1998.
  36. ^ "Dora Award nominees". Toronto Star, May 27, 1998.
  37. ^ Robert Cushman, "The Drawer Boy gets load of Doras, but Soulpepper's Don Carlos is overlooked". National Post, June 22, 1999.
  38. ^ Vit Wagner, "Opera leads Moore race ; Main rivals on musical front are Mirvish shows". Toronto Star, May 28, 1999.
  39. ^ Robert Cushman, "I, Claudia takes Doras for best actress, new play: Toronto Theatre Awards". National Post, June 26, 2001.
  40. ^ Kenneth Jones, "Toronto's Seussical and We Will Rock You Are Top Getters in Dora Nominations". Playbill, June 8, 2007.
  41. ^ Robert Cushman, "The play is the thing, not artificial categories; Dora stipulations make for some odd award nominees". National Post, June 27, 2009.
  42. ^ Richard Ouzounian, "Cinderella cleans up with 7 Dora Awards". Toronto Star, June 25, 2013.
  43. ^ Robert Cushman, "Best in shows; The Doras have a weak field to choose from this year, but they've chosen well". National Post, June 21, 2014.
  44. ^ "Soulpepper’s Rose grabs four Dora Awards". Toronto Star, June 26, 2019.
  45. ^ Smith, Mae (June 29, 2020). "2020 Dora Mavor Moore Award Winners". Intermission Magazine. Archived from the original on 2020-08-09. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  46. ^ "Dora Awards honour lifetime achievement in theatre as COVID-19 shuts down live shows: Dora Mavor Moore Awards celebrates lifetime contributions after COVID-19 pandemic shut down live performances". The Globe and Mail, June 16, 2021.
  47. ^ Joshua Chong, "‘Sweeney Todd,’ ‘Italian Mime Suicide’ and ‘Wildfire’ win big at 2022 Dora Awards". Toronto Star, September 19, 2022.
  48. ^ Aisling Murphy, "Nomination Announcements: 42nd Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards". Intermission Magazine, August 29, 2022.
  49. ^ J. Kelly Nestruck, "Crow’s Theatre and Soulpepper share the spotlight at Dora Mavor Moore Awards". The Globe and Mail, June 28, 2023.
  50. ^ J. Kelly Nestruck, "Crow’s Theatre’s plays Red Velvet and Uncle Vanya lead the way in nominations for Toronto’s Dora Mavor Moore Awards". The Globe and Mail, May 29, 2023.
  51. ^ Glenn Sumi, "Dora Awards 2024: ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812’ earns four statuettes at Toronto’s top theatre honours". Toronto Star, June 24, 2024.
  52. ^ Aisling Murphy, "TAPA announces 2024 Dora Award nominees". Intermission Magazine, May 28, 2004.
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