On June 30, 2025 the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts recognized the Nominees and Recipients of the 45th Anniversary Dora Awards and DART was there!
The annual Dora Mavor Moore awards (or Doras) celebrate excellence on Toronto stages and are the oldest and largest professional theatre, dance and opera awards program in Canada. The Dora Awards evolve constantly, adjusting and adapting to changes in the broader performing arts industry and the needs of the TAPA membership. There are currently 43 award categories across 7 distinct “divisions.”
DART alumni took home awards for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, and DART guest artists and instructors were well represented among the many nominated and winning artists. DART students saw some of these outstanding performances when attending course related-fieldtrips during the 2024-25 academic year.
Kaitlin Race, centre with colleague Anne van Leeuwen, directed by Cass Van Wyck.
DART alumni honoured with Dora Awards
In the Theatre for Young Audiences Division, DART alumnus and playwright Evan Bawtinheimer was awarded Outstanding New Play for Patty Picker (One Four One Collective in association with The Assembly Theatre), directed by alumna Cass Van Wyck ( Artistic Director of One Four One Collective, Co-Artistic Director and Managing Director of Assembly Theatre) and performed by alumna Kaitlin Race with colleague Anne van Leeuwen. This new play was also nominated for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Direction, and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble.
The play tells the story of Patty, a 16 year old girl who eats pizza for breakfast, loves to play chess, and has a secret. Patty’s life is turned upside-down when her secret shame becomes juicy gossip: Patty picks her nose! Patty struggles to return her life to normal, while dealing with her picky girlfriend Phoebe, problematic father Paul, and plotting revenge on that piece of crap Preston who caused the whole mess. The Canadian Play Outlet describes this as a charming coming-of-age story about bullying, tolerance, and acceptance. Subjects and themes of the play include High School, Divorce, LGBTQ Relationship, Bullying, Disability, and Mental Health. Toronto critic Paula Citron has written an enthusiastic review on ludwigvanTORONTO.com.
Evan graduated from Brock’s DART Performance Concentration in 2014. Over the last decade he has continued to advance his craft in playwriting, attended many workshops and classes and he reads and writes almost every day. Even though he’s no longer at Brock, the learning continues!
Evan with his DORA Award.
Evan recently shared his insight that “Brock taught me not to take things at face value. DART 4F90 [a fourth year capstone course] taught me that a sign or symbol could express more than one idea. In my Dora Award-Winning play Patty Picker, our protagonist Patty picks her nose. But the nose-picking is more than that. It’s an expression of anxiety, identity, depression, joy. When it came to nose-picking, Brock taught me to dig deeper (pun intended).”
He added that receiving this Dora Award has confirmed and validated the path he has taken over the years: “I developed Patty Picker with fellow DART alumni Cass Van Wyck and Kaitlin Race. DART professor Danielle Wilson also provided me with some much-appreciated feedback on an early draft of the play. I never would have imagined staying in touch with DART alumni over ten years later. I learned so much from them. I’m privileged that I’m on the same side as my DART friends.”
Jasmine Case in FLEX at Crows Theatre/Obsidian Theatre. image: Elana Emer.
In the General Theatre Division, DART alumna Jasmine Case was awarded Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble including Jewell Bowry, Asha James, Trinity Lloyd, Shauna Thompson, and Sophia Walker for their work in FLEX (Crow’s Theatre and Obsidian Theatre Company). This production was also awarded for Outstanding Lighting Design and nominated for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Scenic / Projection Design, Outstanding Sound Design / Composition.
Jasmine Case
In July 2024 we featured Jasmine in an article about her success at the 2024 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, winning the award for Outstanding Performance by an Individual in the Theatre for Young Audience Division. Read more about this rising star on our news page. Jasmine was also recently featured on our Instagram channel
Instructors and guest artists recognized for their theatre-making success
DART instructors and visiting artists were well represented in the Dora nominations. From among the company of the new creation Last Landscape (Bad New Days in partnership with Common Boots Theatre) are Kari Pedersen, a performer/creator who has taught with DART for two years, and Director and performer Adam Paolozza who has taught with DART on multiple occasions. Their show Last Landscape was awarded for Outstanding Scenic/Projection Design and Outstanding Sound Design/Composition. The new creation was also nominated for Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, Outstanding Costume Design and Outstanding Lighting Design.
Erased (Open Heart Surgery Theatre in partnership with Theatre Passe Muraille) was nominated for Outstanding Scenic/Projection Design, Outstanding Costume Design and Outstanding Lighting Design. The choreographer of the production, Alix Sideris taught for us in 2024-25 and playwright Coleen MacPherson has done workshops with DART.
Last Landscape and Erased were just two of the nominated and awarded productions that DART students saw for course-related fieldtrips. Other productions we saw included:
Mahabharata: Karma (Part 1), The Life We Inherit for Outstanding Production, Outstanding New Play (Why Not Theatre presented by Canadian Stage), Miriam Fernandes awarded Outstanding Performance by an Individual and Ravi Jain awarded for Outstanding Direction, also awarded for Outstanding Sound Design/Composition; and nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, Outstanding Scenic / Projection Design, Outstanding Costume Design and Outstanding Lighting Design. Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain have both visited and presented at DART.
Rosmersholm was nominated for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Performance by an Individual and Outstanding lighting Design, There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death or, The Born-Again Crow was nominated for Outstanding New Play, and Fat Ham was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Individual.
Not a DART fieldtrip for the year, special acknowledgement must be given for Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White received the award for Outstanding New Musical / New Opera. The librettist for this new production, HAUI, was a guest artist for our 2021 online industry panel with remarkable BIPOC Canadian Theatre Artists.
Congratulations to all of the alumni, instructors and guest artists honoured by the Dora Awards. DART extends its congratulations to everybody who was recognized for their excellence in theatre! They are the light that shines upon our path to becoming remarkable theatre makers and audiences.
See the article in the Brock News, published Aug 12, 2025:
Brock grads’ play a top ‘pick’ at prestigious theatre awards
