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The cheque is in the Dora for 11 of the winners at the 21st Dora Mavor Moore Awards Monday (June 26) at the Pantages Theatre.
A Dora winner gets community recognition and a Harlequin-style statuette but no financial prize, but this time around Joan Chalmers and Barbra Amesbury add a $1,000 gift to each of the winners in the dance division — that’s for new choreography and performance — while Bluma Appel is matching that figure for the nine winners in the independent theatre division.
Among this year’s award presenters, part of a show hosted by Michael Healey and Kate Lynch, are Alison Sealy-Smith, Astrid Jansen, Dianne Weinrib, Karen Kain, Alon Nashman, Mark Christmann and David Oiye. The hot after-party — again at Canadian Stage’s Berkeley home — follows the awards presentation. 872-1111.
RECENTRED THEATRE
Unable to expand in its home on Queen West, the Theatre Centre is moving. Joining forces with the dispossessed Music Gallery, the Centre is seeking a downtown home to buy and renovate.
The collaboration is a purposeful one, since both companies help germinate and then present new work at different points in its development.
As of July, the Theatre Centre temporarily locates its office and some of its events at Nightwood Theatre on St. Nicholas. On tap for its upcoming season are workshops of Semi-Precious, a piece by Gabrielle Kemeny based on a Molière play, and Honestly (Don’t Tell Anyone), an interdisciplinary show by Fiona Highet, Carol Gillis, Caroline Gillis and Martha Hancock.
BOXHEAD ACHE
A 10-minute sound glitch nearly KO’d the final Sunday matinee of the multi-microphoned Boxhead. When writer Darren O’Donnell’s character asked, unmiked, “Can anybody tell me where the switch for the light is?” the house lights suddenly went up and producer Naomi Campbell calmly told the audience about the technical problem. It didn’t matter. At the end, the sold-out crowd gave O’Donnell and co-star Paul Fauteux five curtain calls for their ballsy, bravura performance.
