Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Direction (General Theatre)

The Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Direction of a Play/Musical is an annual award celebrating achievements in Toronto theatre.

Winners and nominees

1980s

Year	Director	Play	Ref
1980	Guy Sprung	Balconville and Paper Wheat	[1]
	Peter Froehlich	Staller's Farm	[2]
	Ken Livingstone	American Buffalo
	George Luscombe	Ain't Lookin'
1981	George F. Walker	Theatre of the Film Noir	[3]
	William Lane	Loose Ends	[4]
	Alan Scarfe	The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia
	Ray Whelan	Arms and the Man
1982	Richard Rose	Tamara	[5]
	Jim Garrard	Cold Comfort	[6]
	Guy Sprung	Night and Day
	Henry Tarvainen	Straight Ahead/Blind Dancers
1983	Guy Sprung	Translations	[7]
	Leon Major	Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and Identity Crisis
	Robin Phillips	The Prisoner of Zenda
	Guy Sprung	Dream in High Park
1984	Bill Glassco	Cloud Nine	[8]
	Derek Goldby, David Hemblen	Delicatessen	[9]
	Ray Jewers	Trafford Tanzi
	Leon Major	The Dining Room
1985	Derek Goldby	Uncle Vanya	[10]
	Bill Glassco	Salt-Water Moon	[11]
	Ken Livingstone	'night, Mother
	Robin Phillips	New World
	Aaron Schwartz	Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
1986	Richard Greenblatt	The Miracle Worker	[12]
	Alexander Hausvater	Ghetto	[13]
	Ken Livingstone	Other Places
	Andy McKim	The Wedding Script
	John Van Burek	Hosanna
1987	Bob Baker	B-Movie: The Play	[14]
	Dennis Foon	Bedtimes and Bullies	[15]
	Jeff Henry	The Bloodknot
	Urjo Kareda, Andy McKim	Aunt Dan and Lemon
	John Van Burek	Bonjour, La, Bonjour
1988	Larry Lillo	A Lie of the Mind	[16]
	Bill Glassco	Nothing Sacred	[17]
	Derek Goldby	I Am Yours
	Richard Greenblatt	Detaining Mr. Trotsky
	Robert Rooney	Something in the Air
1989	Robert Lepage	The Dragons Trilogy	[18]
	Denise Filiatrault	Les Fridolinades	[19]
	Larry Lewis	Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing
	Richard Rose	The Possibilities
	Susan Wright	Under the Skin

1990s

Year	Director	Play	Ref
1990	JoAnn McIntyre	The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
	Bob Baker	Breaking the Code	[20]
	Derek Goldby	The Father
	Robert Lepage	Echo
	Richard Rose	The Europeans
1991	Richard Monette	Saint Joan
	Richard Greenblatt	Mirror Game
	Peter Hinton	Possible Worlds
	Brian Richmond	Lilies
	John Van Burek	La Maison Suspendue
1992	Neil Munro	Hamlet
	François Faucher	Elvire Jouvet 40
	Dennis Foon	Naomi's Road
	László Marton	Three Sisters
	Paulette Phillips	Under the Influence
1993	Harold Prince	Kiss of the Spider Woman
	Maja Ardal	Whale
	Marti Maraden	Fallen Angels
	Duncan McIntosh	Le Bal
	Steven Pimlott	Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
1994	Mike Ockrent	Crazy for You
	Maja Ardal	A Christmas Carol
	John Bourgeois	The Taming of the Shrew
	Peter Hinton	Abundance
	Nicholas Hytner	Miss Saigon
1995	Des McAnuff	Tommy
	Bob Baker	Into the Woods
	Marti Maraden	Six Degrees of Separation
1996	Robert Lepage	The Seven Streams of the River Ota
	Maja Ardal	Two Weeks with the Queen
	Leah Cherniak	The Diary of Anne Frank
	Robert Lepage	Elsinore
	Gilles Maheu	The Dead Souls
1997	Frank Galati	Ragtime
	Rob Bettinson	Jolson
	John Caird	Jane Eyre
	Marshall Pynkoski	Don Giovanni
	James Robinson	Elektra
1998	Ian Prinsloo	Patience
	Daniel Brooks	The Designated Mourner	[21]
	Leah Cherniak	The Betrayal
	Alisa Palmer	The Quartet
	Miles Potter	Molly Sweeney
	Richard Rose	Inexpressible Island
	George F. Walker	Problem Child
1999	Soheil Parsa. Aurash Miles Potter	The Drawer Boy
	John MacLachlan Gray, Eric Peterson	Billy Bishop Goes to War
	Michael Hollingsworth	The Life and Times of Brian Mulroney
	Andy McKim	Kilt
	Miles Potter	The Drawer Boy
	Guillermo Verdecchia, Daniel Brooks	Insomnia

2000s

Year	Director	Play	Ref
2000	László Marton	Platonov
	Daniel Brooks	Endgame
	Daniel Brooks	Faust
	Morris Panych, Wendy Gorling	The Overcoat
	Sarah Stanley	Beaver
2001	Ian McElhinney	Stones in His Pockets
	Blake Brooker, Denise Clarke	Thunderstruck
	Daniel Brooks	Betrayal
	Dennis Garnhum	Slavs!
	Pierre Tétrault	Ghost Train
2002	Jim Warren	The Bald Soprano
	Daniel Brooks	The Good Life
	Rosemary Dunsmore	Fighting Words
	Dennis Garnhum	Skylight
	Daniel MacIvor	In On It
	Kelly Thornton	This Hotel
2003	Morris Panych	Girl in the Goldfish Bowl
	Chris Abraham	Russell Hill
	Leah Cherniak	The Miracle Worker
	Brian Quirt	Through the Eyes
	Albert Schultz	A Chorus of Disapproval
2004	Richard Rose	Remnants	[22]
	Guy Mignault	Le Visiteur	[23]
	Larry Moss	The Syringa Tree
	Richard Rose	Simpl
	Sarah Stanley	Restitution: An Irish-Canadian Rhapsody
2005	Ken Gass	The Leisure Society
	Daniel Brooks	Bigger Than Jesus
	Daniel Brooks	Half-Life
	Allen MacInnis	Blue Planet
	Joseph Ziegler	Hamlet
2006	Nigel Shawn Williams	The Monument
	Daniel MacIvor	A Beautiful View	[24]
	Weyni Mengesha	blood.claat - one womban story
	Richard Rose	Leo
	Joseph Ziegler	Our Town
2007	Richard Rose	Scorched	[25]
	Chris Abraham	Insomnia
	Daniel Brooks	Here Lies Henry
	Ted Dykstra	Leaving Home
	Jennifer Tarver	Crave
2008	Alisa Palmer	Top Girls
	Philip Akin	Intimate Apparel
	Micheline Chevrier	The December Man
	Diana Leblanc	Rose
	Jean-Stéphane Roy	The Misanthrope
2009	Ed Roy	Agokwe
	Chris Abraham	I, Claudia
	Jason Byrne	Festen
	Denise Clarke	Radio Play
	Weyni Mengesha	A Raisin in the Sun

2010s

Year	Playwright	Title	Ref
2010	Morris Panych	Parfumerie
	Adam Brazier	Assassins	[26]
	Alan Dilworth	If We Were Birds
	Graham McLaren	Hamlet
	Richard Rose	Courageous
2011	Brendan Healy	Blasted
	Philip Akin	Ruined
	Allen MacInnis	A Year With Frog and Toad
	Gina Wilkinson	Wide Awake Hearts
	Nigel Shawn Williams	Brothel #9
2012	Philip Akin	Topdog/Underdog
	Alan Dilworth	Crash
	Ross Manson	The Golden Dragon
	Robert McQueen	Caroline, or Change
	Kelly Thornton	The Penelopiad
2013	Chris Abraham	The Little Years
	Chris Abraham	Someone Else
	Brendan Healy	Arigato, Tokyo
	Evalyn Parry	Obaaberima
	Albert Schultz	The Crucible
2014	Albert Schultz	Of Human Bondage
	Brendan Healy	Pig	[27]
	Weyni Mengesha	Lungs
	Adam Paolozza	The Double
	Richard Rose	A God in Need of Help
2015	Eda Holmes	Tom at the Farm	[28]
	Alan Dilworth	Twelve Angry Men	[29]
	Gísli Örn Garðarsson	The Heart of Robin Hood
	Ravi Jain	Accidental Death of an Anarchist
	Richard Rose	An Enemy of the People
2016	Ravi Jain	Salt-Water Moon	[30]
	Ashlie Corcoran	Mustard
	Matjash Mrozewski, Estelle Shook	Botticelli in the Fire and Sunday in Sodom
	Peter Hinton	Bombay Black
	Ravi Jain	We Are Proud to Present...
2017	Philip Akin	"Master Harold" ...and the Boys
	Nina Lee Aquino	acquiesce
	Ashlie Corcoran	KISS
	Alan Dilworth	Incident at Vichy
	Weyni Mengesha	Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts I, II, III)
2018	Mitchell Cushman	Jerusalem
	Alan Dilworth	Idomeneus	[31]
	Richard Rose	Hamlet
	Djanet Sears	For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
	Ted Witzel	LULU v.7 // aspects of a femme fatale
2019	Nina Lee Aquino	School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play	[32]
	Brendan Healy	Every Brilliant Thing
	Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu	Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape
	Meg Roe	Middletown
	Guillermo Verdecchia	The Royale

2020s

Year	Playwright	Title	Ref
2020	Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu	The Brothers Size	[33]
	Chris Abraham	Julius Caesar	[34]
	Mitchell Cushman	The Flick
	Jani Lauzon	Almighty Voice and His Wife
	Weyni Mengesha	A Streetcar Named Desire
2021	No ceremony held due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada on theatre production in 2020.		[35]
2022	Soheil Parsa	Wildfire	[36]
	Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster	Three Women of Swatow	[37]
	Weyni Mengesha	Pipeline
	Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu	Is God Is
	John Tiffany	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
2023	Cherissa Richards	Red Velvet	[38]
	Philip Akin	Maanomaa, My Brother
	Marie Farsi	Fifteen Dogs
	Weyni Mengesha	Queen Goneril
	Alisa Palmer	Fall On Your Knees, Part Two: The Diary
2024	Andrew Kushnir	Bad Roads	[39]
	Chris Abraham	The Master Plan	[40]
	Seth Bockley	King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild
	Brendan Healy	The Inheritance, Pt. 1
	Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu	Sizwe Banzi Is Dead
2025	Ravi Jain	Mahabharata: Part One: Karma: The Life We Inherit	[41]
	Brendan Healy	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	[42]
	Djanet Sears	Table for Two
	Mumbi Tindeybwa Otu	Flex

References

1. Ray Conlogue, "Dora Mavor Moore Awards suffer from stage fright". The Globe and Mail , January 27, 1981.
2. Gina Mallet, "Controversial Bent set for Toronto run". Toronto Star , January 23, 1981.
3. Carole Corbeil, "Just like Oscars: lots of no-shows Carver, Maxwell win theatre awards". The Globe and Mail , January 26, 1982.
4. "And the nominees are...". Toronto Star , January 16, 1982.
5. Carole Corbeil, "An outstanding night for Tamara". The Globe and Mail , November 16, 1982.
6. "Dora Mavor Moore awards Tamara paces the nominees". The Globe and Mail , October 1, 1982.
7. Ray Conlogue, "Thomson, Phipps take Doras for outstanding acting". The Globe and Mail , October 11, 1983.
8. Stephen Godfrey, "Jungle of Cities wins four Doras". The Globe and Mail , October 23, 1984.
9. Stephen Godfrey, "Team aims to make this award show different". The Globe and Mail , October 13, 1984.
10. "Cats takes lion's share of Dora awards". Montreal Gazette , October 9, 1985.
11. Henry Mietkiewicz, "Cats leads pack of Dora nominees". Toronto Star , September 5, 1985.
12. Sid Adilman, "A night for families at Dora Awards show". Toronto Star , June 20, 1986.
13. Deirdre Kelly, "Dora smiles on Tarragon with record 17 nominations". The Globe and Mail , May 15, 1986.
14. Ray Conlogue, "Mikado, B-Movie big Dora winners". The Globe and Mail , June 23, 1987.
15. "Dora Award nominees". Toronto Star , May 27, 1987.
16. Ray Conlogue, "Walker's Nothing Sacred collects four Dora awards". The Globe and Mail , June 15, 1988.
17. Robert Crew, "CentreStage play tops Dora Award nominees". Toronto Star , May 11, 1988.
18. "Highway sweeps Dora awards". Edmonton Journal , June 27, 1989.
19. Isabel Vincent, "And the Dora nominees are...". The Globe and Mail , May 13, 1989.
20. Ray Conlogue, "Dora nominations harvested from sparse crop of new plays". The Globe and Mail , May 15, 1990.
21. "Dora Award nominees". Toronto Star , May 27, 1998.
22. Kamal Al-Solaylee, "The Producers lost at box office but wins big at Dora awards". The Globe and Mail , June 29, 2004.
23. Robert Cushman, "The Doras: and the winner is ...: Odd nominees make predictions difficult". National Post , June 26, 2004.
24. Robert Cushman, "Some nods are inexplicable: A desperate season, a desperate slate of Dora nominees". National Post , June 24, 2006.
25. Guy Dixon, "Scorched wins best play at Dora Awards". The Globe and Mail , June 25, 2007.
26. Robert Cushman, "Navigating the nominations; Our critic predicts Dora winners and laments overlooked performances". National Post , June 26, 2010.
27. 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.
28. Nestruck, J. Kelly (June 22, 2015). "Movie-turned-musical Once a surprise winner at Toronto's Dora Awards". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
29. J. Kelly Nestruck, "Soulpepper leads in Dora Award nods". The Globe and Mail , June 2, 2015.
30. Maga, Carly (June 27, 2016). "2016 Dora Awards spread the wealth". Toronto Star . Retrieved August 6, 2020.
31. J. Kelly Nestruck, "Soulpepper's 13 nominations lead general theatre division of Toronto's Dora Awards". The Globe and Mail , May 31, 2018.
32. BWW News Desk (June 26, 2019). "Full List of Winners Announced For the 40th Annual Dora Awards - Soulpepper Theatre, Canadian Opera Company, and More!". Broadway World . Retrieved August 5, 2020.
33. The Canadian Press (June 30, 2020). "Soulpepper's The Brothers Size racks up five wins at Dora Awards". CBC. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
34. 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.
35. "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.
36. Joshua Chong, "‘Sweeney Todd,’ ‘Italian Mime Suicide’ and ‘Wildfire’ win big at 2022 Dora Awards". Toronto Star , September 19, 2022.
37. Aisling Murphy, "Nomination Announcements: 42nd Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards". Intermission Magazine, August 29, 2022.
38. Hélène Crowley, "Announcing the 2023 Dora Mavor Moore Award Winners". Intermission Magazine, June 27, 2023.
39. 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.
40. Aisling Murphy, "TAPA announces 2024 Dora Award nominees". Intermission Magazine, May 28, 2004.
41. Beatriz Ferreira, "2025 Dora Mavor Moore Awards: Winners honoured for excellence in Toronto theatre". Now , July 1, 2025.
42. Krystal Abrigo, "TAPA reveals 2025 Dora Award nominees". Intermission, May 28, 2025.

External links

• Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts - Doras