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Spoon River, adapted by director Albert Schultz and composer Mike Ross, leads the musical theatre division. Spoon River, Soulpepper

Two hundred and thirty-six Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations were announced on Monday, honouring the best in Toronto theatre, opera and dance– but one theatre artist didn't want his.

Tarragon Theatre's artistic director Richard Rose declined the Dora nod for direction he received for his staging of An Enemy of the People – an update of Henrik Ibsen's 1882 play about municipal corruption that was closely based on a celebrated production by German director Thomas Ostermeier for Berlin's Schaubühne theatre.

"We tried to make it clear in our program and advertising that I was just staging it," Rose said in a telephone interview. "It's a bit different from [Schaubühne's] production, but basically it's theirs – so I'm going to decline."

Jacoba Knaapen, executive director of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts that organizes the Doras, said that there was "an internal administrative error" that led to Rose being considered for what was mostly another man's directorial vision. "This is an unfortunate mistake and by no means do we wish to misrepresent Richard Rose," she said in a statement.

"We recognize the complexity of contemporary theatre creation practices and his nomination for Outstanding Direction in the General Theatre Division is being withdrawn."

On Tuesday, a second nominee for An Enemy of the People declined her Dora nomination - scenic designer Michelle Tracey. "I do not feel it would be fair to compete in this category, as much of the conceptual work for this design was based on a previous production by the Schaubühne Theatre in Berlin, as has been acknowledged by Richard Rose," Tracey wrote to TAPA. "My task in designing Tarragon's production was to achieve a similar visual and dramatic effect to the previous production. I don't believe this is the kind of work which the Dora seeks to recognize."

Later Tuesday, a third nominee, Jason Hand, declined a nomination, his for Outstanding Lighting Design of An Enemy of the People.

Of the 233 nominations that weren't withdrawn by the end of the day, Soulpepper, the Toronto civic theatre company led by actor and director Albert Schultz, dominated in the theatre categories.

Soulpepper received a total of 25 nods, shared by six different productions from its 2014-15 offerings - three times as many nominations as any other not-for-profit theatre company.

Spoon River, artistic director Albert Schultz and composer Mike Ross's musical adaptation of the 100-year-old Spoon River Anthology, leads the musical-theatre division with eight nominations.

Spoon River will go head-to-head for outstanding production with another musical adapted from a poem at the June 22 Dora ceremony: The Wild Party, an Acting Up Stage Company and Obsidian Theatre Company co-production that also received eight nominations in total.

Once, in Mirvish's local production of the Broadway hit, was not far behind in the musical division with seven nominations – including acting nods for its leads Ian Lake and Trish Lindstrom.

Raoul Bhaneja's autobiographical Life, Death and the Blues and Young People's Theatre's holiday production of James and the Giant Peach round out the nominations for outstanding production of a musical.

Meanwhile, in the general-theatre division, Soulpepper's Accidental Death of an Anarchist – director Ravi Jain's angry, up-to-the-minute Toronto-focused update of Dario Fo's satire about the police – is up for six awards.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist will compete for outstanding production of a play with another Soulpepper production – Twelve Angry Men (which received four nods in total) – as well as Michel Marc Bouchard's Gothic thriller Tom at the Farm at Buddies in Bad Times (eight nominations) – Hooked, Nicky Guadagni's adaptation of the work of Carolyn Smart, at Theatre Passe Muraille (three nominations in total), and Tarragon's production of An Enemy of the People (three nominations once you subtract the three declined).

Soulpepper's remaining nominations include one for Glenn (Paul Humphrey's sound design) and six for its partner presentations of VideoCabaret's Trudeau and Lévesque and Volcano Theatre's The Four Horsemen Project.

Mirvish Productions had a strong year as well – in addition to its seven nominations for Once, it received another six for The Heart of Robin Hoodand and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.

Fiona Reid, already a Toronto Theatre Critics' Award winner for her performance in the latter comedy by Christopher Durang, is up against Alana Hibbert in The Mountaintop, Maev Beaty in The De Chardin Project, Rosemary Dunsmore in Tom at the Farm, and Nicky Guadagni in Hooked for the best-actress award.

Kawa Ada of Accidental Death of an Anarchist is up for best actor, along with Jeff Irving and Jeff Lillico of Tom at the Farm, Joe Cobden of An Enemy of the People and Kevin Hanchard of The Mountaintop.

In the indie-theatre division, Blood Wedding (a Modern Times Stage Company/Aluna Theatre co-production) led the pack with eight nominations, while playwright/director Jordan Tannahill's new play Concord Floral, Actors Repertory Company's production of Moment and Quote Unquote Collective's Mouthpiece tied for six nominations each.

The Canadian Opera Company was the most lauded opera company - receiving a total of 29 Dora nominations shared by Bluebeard's Castle/Erwartung, Die Walkure, Don Giovanni, Falstaff and The Barber of Seville.

The winners of the Dora Mavor Moore Awards will be announced on June 22 during a gala at Harbourfront Centre's outdoor WestJet Stage. You can find the whole list of nominees, including opera and dance categories, at www.tapa.ca.

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