Blyth Festival members, past and present, nominated for Dora Mavor Moore Awards

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

Last week, the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), announced the Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for the 2023/2024 theatre season and Blyth Festival fans may recognize a number of names among the nominees.

 

The Master Plan at the Crow’s Theatre is nominated for a number of awards in the General Theatre category, including Outstanding Production and Outstanding New Play for playwright Michael Healey, the man behind The Drawer Boy.

 

Jesse LaVercombe, who starred in 2016’s Our Beautiful Sons: Remembering Matthew Dinning, is part of a trio that is nominated for Outstanding New Play for King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild by Soulpepper Theatre Company and TRIA Theatre. He is nominated alongside Seth Bockley and Ahmed Moneka.

 

Festival regular set designers Joanna Yu and Ken MacKenzie are both nominated in the Outstanding Scenic/Projection Design category, Yu for Three Sisters and MacKenzie for Sizwe Banzi is Dead.

 

Peter N. Bailey, who has a long history with the Blyth Festival from 2007’s World Without Shadows to last season’s The Real McCoy, is nominated for Outstanding New Play in the Independent Theatre Division for Tyson’s Song at the Pleiades Theatre. It is also nominated for Outstanding Production in the Independent Theatre Division, among numerous other nominations.

 

Philip Akin, who directed The Wilberforce Hotel at the Blyth Festival in 2015, is nominated for Outstanding Direction in the Independent Theatre Division for Heroes of the Fourth Turning, a co-production of Crow’s Theatre and The Howland Company.

 

Furthermore, Cameron Laurie and Hallie Seline, who are members of this year’s Festival company, are co-founders of The Howland Company. They are also members of the Heroes of the Fourth Turning cast, which is nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in the Independent Theatre Division.

 

Steve Lucas, a set design regular at the Festival, is nominated, alongside Rebecca Morris, in the Outstanding Scenic/Projection Design category in the Independent Theatre Division for Appropriate. Lucas is nominated individually for Outstanding Lighting Design for the same production.

 

Deanna Choi, another Festival regular, is nominated alongside Michael Wanless for Outstanding Sound Design/Composition in the Independent Theatre Division for Appropriate.

 

Michelle Ramsay, who worked on lighting design for Ipperwash in 2017, is nominated in the Outstanding Lighting Design category of the Independent Theatre Division for The Tempest.

 

Britta Johnson, who wrote Alligator Tears for the Festival’s Young Company, which was then remounted on the Memorial Hall stage the following season, is nominated, alongside Sara Farb, for Outstanding New Musical or Opera in the Musical Theatre or Opera Division for Kelly v. Kelly. The show is also nominated for Outstanding Production and in a number of other categories.
Nicole Joy-Fraser, who spent several seasons as an actor with the Blyth Festival, is nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in the Opera Division as a member of the cast of Canoe.

 

The winners will be announced on June 24 at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre in Toronto. The awards ceremony begins at 7:30 p.m.