::THEATRE NEWS::   
LE Newsletter - July 3, 2008

CanStage is on Fire with 7 Doras

Source: www.thestar.com - Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic

(June 30, 2008) Only 12 days after the beleaguered Martin Bragg resigned as artistic producer of the Canadian Stage Company, his organization raked in the lion's share of the Dora Mavor Moore Awards in the General Theatre category last night.

Bragg's company took home seven of the important honours: Outstanding New Play (Judith Thompson, Palace of the End); Production of a Play (The December Man); Production of a Musical (Fire); Direction of a Musical (James MacDonald, Fire); Best Performance by a Male in a Musical (Ted Dykstra, Fire); Female in a Musical (Nicole Underhay, Fire) and Musical Direction (Ted Dykstra, Fire).

Fire tells the story of Cale and Hershel Blackwell, two brothers torn apart by differing lifestyles and their pursuit of the same woman.

On accepting his award for his portrayal of Cale, Dykstra said: "Last time I was fortunate enough to win one of these was 20 years ago and it was for the same show.... Stick to what you know." In fact, Dykstra had won the same award for the same role in the 1989 production of Fire.

Last night, the play won five awards for its Canadian Stage revival, the most of any production.

Meanwhile, Soulpepper Theatre Company was the organization with the second highest award total, at four: Direction of a Play (Alisa Palmer: Top Girls); Performance by a Male in a Play (Joseph Ziegler, The Time of Your Life); Supporting Performance in a Play (Stuart Hughes, The Time of Your Life) and Sound Design (Mike Ross, Under Milk Wood).

Palmer first thanked David Bowie, "who helped me through the drug-addled years in New Brunswick."

Other prominent winners were Lally Cadeau (Best Actress in a Play: Rose) and New Musical (Jim LeFrancois and David Oiye for ArtHouse Cabaret).

Peggy Baker was a two-time winner in the Dance category for Choreography and Performance for Portal while the highly popular Measha Brueggergosman won the Opera Performance award for her unanimously acclaimed turn in Opera Atelier's Idomeneo.

That production – nominated for six awards in total – lost out to the Canadian Opera Company's production of From the House of the Dead for Outstanding Opera Production.

Absent from the winners was Megan Follows, who was nominated twice for Performance by a Woman in a Play for her roles in Top Girls and Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters.

While presenting the Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Play award, Follows remarked to her mother, Dawn Greenhalgh, as she opened the envelope: "You're going to get lucky tonight"; the winner was her husband Stuart Hughes for his work in The Time of Your Life.

The Dora Awards, in their 29th year, are handed out for excellence in Canadian theatre, dance and opera. They're named after Dora Mavor Moore, the late actor, director and teacher who founded the New Play Society, a training ground for writers, performers and technicians. In total, 219 shows were eligible for this year's awards, 47 of which were new plays or musicals.

A complete list of all award winners can be found at tapa.ca.

With files from Susan Walker and The Canadian Press