Thoughts on the 2026 Dora Award theatre winners (and losers)
The Division, Octet and Through the Eyes of God won big, while Coal Mine went 0 for 13
The 46th annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards were handed out last night in a big ceremony at Meridian Hall hosted by actor Amaka Umeh.
Here are some random thoughts about the awards in the theatre and musical categories: who won, who didn’t, and what it all might mean.
The complete list of winners is at the bottom of the post.
The Division and Octet cleaned up in their categories
Unlike many ceremonies, where awards are spread out among many shows and productions, this year two shows walked away with multiple Dora statues.
In the Independent Theatre division, The Division took home four big awards: Outstanding Production (Project: Humanity and Pyretic Productions in association with Crow’s Theatre), Outstanding New Play (for playwright Andrew Kushnir), Outstanding Direction (also for Kushnir) and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble (Mariya Khomutova, Ivy Charles, Alon Nashman and Karl Ang).
Let’s hope this awards love piques the interest of other theatre artistic directors. It has the potential to travel across the country.
In the Musical Theatre Division, meanwhile, Octet took home three Doras: Outstanding Production (Crow’s, Soulpepper and Musical Stage Company), Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble (Damien Atkins, Alicia Ault, Andrew Broderick, Ben Carlson, Hailey Gillis, Zorana Sadiq, Jacqueline Thair and Giles Tomkins) and Outstanding Achievement in Design (for Olivia Wheeler’s sound).
The General Theatre division was more spread out, but I’m very happy Anusree Roy’s powerful Through the Eyes of God took home the Dora for Outstanding Production (produced by Theatre Passe Muraille). (It also won Outstanding Sound Design/Composition for Romeo Candido’s work.) On the night I attended the show, the subject of the third play in the series that began with Pyassa (Roy’s first play) came up; let’s hope this win pushes Roy to complete it.
Speaking of which...