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

1980s

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

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

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

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

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

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.

External links

• Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts - Doras