The 2002-03 season opens Tuesday, but before we look ahead, let's look back with a long and heartfelt round of applause for what was best in the past 12 months of local theater with the annual Enquirer Theatre Awards.

        For the first time, Cincinnati's top performers stood shoulder-to-shoulder with visiting guest artists. That's thrilling. And this year they share acting categories.

        The nominees in my top two categories — Best of Show and Outstanding Ensembles — are all winners. Production budgets vary by hundreds of thousands, but at the end of the season, this is the bold, ambitious work that made its biggest impact on me. A lot of it dazzled.

        Caveats: These awards celebrate local productions, so no Broadway touring shows are included. And I didn't see everything, although I tried to get to every show that was recommended by readers beyond reviewing duties.

        See you at the theater.

        Best of show: Candide, Nick Mangano, College-Conservatory of Music; Chagrin Falls, Jasson Minadakis, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival; Elektra, Nic Muni, Cincinnati Opera; King Lear, Ed Stern, Playhouse; Macbeth, Drew Fracher, Human Race; Nine, Paul Daigneault, CCM.

        Outstanding ensembles: The Beard of Avon, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Blues for an Alabama Sky, Playhouse; Candide, College-Conservatory of Music; Chagrin Falls, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Dracula: The Game of Love, CCM; Elektra, Cincinnati Opera; Fuddy Meers, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Gypsy, Playhouse; I Stand Before You Naked, New Edgecliff; Nine, CCM.

        Most welcome regional premieres: Arcadia, The Beard of Avon, Chagrin Falls, Fuddy Meers, Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, Nocturne. Yes, every one of them had its local debut at Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival.

        Most valuable players: Corinne Mohlenhoff had a spectacular year on stages around town including The Children's Theatre, Cincinnati Shakespeare, Human Race, Ovation and Stage First. If you missed her this season, watch for her in 2002-03.

        Those Shakespeare guys Giles Davies, Jeremy Dubin, Brian Isaac Phillips and Nick Rose, separately and together for the last time in 2001-02. They gave Cincinnati audiences a great run.

        Most valuable players backstage: Cathy Springfield, who launched a new theater at Xavier University that will open its doors to small theater companies in the coming season; who is volunteer producer and co-host of the weekly Backstage on WVXU-FM; and who provides employment to an increasing number of local professionals as she works to expand the Xavier theater program.

        Brian Mehring showed a marvelous and marvelously consistent sense of dramatically heightened place in his scenic designs for Ensemble. More than once his work outpaced productions in inspiration and execution.

        Outstanding efforts: The opening of Xavier University's intimate, 352-seat theater in the Gallagher Center; the opening of the alternative Performance Gallery in the East End; the Musical Theatre Summit at Human Race; the Regional Black Theatre Festival; Ensemble Theatre's scramble, in the wake of civil unrest, to find a stage work that would bring black and white audiences together in the theater. It succeeded with Luther Goins' belly-laugh comedy-drama Love Child in a short, Off-Center/On-Stage series run.

        Notable local script: Curfew, Alpha to Omega Productions. The script is hit-and-miss, but playwright Jeff Shelby, inspired by the civil unrest and citywide curfew, wrote it from the heart.

        Outstanding performance by an actor in a lead role: John Alcott, Beard of Avon, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Bruce Cromer, Macbeth, Human Race; Robert Elliott, Seascape, Human Race; Philip Hoffman, Syncopation, Ensemble; Tim Miller, alteractive, Playhouse; Brian Isaac Phillips, Nocturne, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Nick Rose, Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Ed Vaughan, Women Who Steal, Ensemble.

        Best of the best: Mr. Cromer. Outstanding performance by an actress in a lead role: Peggy Cosgrave, Women Who Steal, Ensemble; Annie Fitzpatrick, Women Who Steal, Ensemble; Sherman Fracher, Chagrin Falls, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Cheryl Giannini, King o' the Moon, Playhouse; Lisa Ann Goldsmith, Macbeth, Human Race; Corinne Mohlenhoff, Crimes of the Heart, Ovation; Brenda Pressley, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Playhouse; Anne E. Schilling, Fuddy Meers, Cincinnati Shakespeare.

        Best of the best: Ms. Fracher.

        Outstanding featured performance by an actor: John Alcott, Arcadia, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Giles Davies, The Beard of Avon, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Geoffrey Malloy, King o' the Moon, Playhouse; Marcus Naylor, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Playhouse; Brian Isaac Phillips, Chagrin Falls, Cincinnati Shakespeare.

        Best of the best: Mr. Alcott.

        Outstanding featured performance by an actress: Deborah Brock-Blanks, Love Child, Ensemble; Angela Groeschen, Arcadia, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Josephine Hall, Arcadia, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Dale Hodges, King Lear, Playhouse; Corinne Mohlenhoff, Anton in Show Business, Human Race; Lisa Renee Pitts, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Playhouse.

        Best of the best: Ms. Hodges.

        Outstanding semi-professional theater direction: Rebecca Bowman, I Stand Before You Naked, New Edgecliff; Christine DeFrancesco, Anton in Show Business, Know Theatre Tribe; Nicholas Korn, Medea, Stage First; Jasson Minadakis, Nocturne, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Brian Robertson, Two Rooms, Queen City Off-Broadway; Monica Williams, Love Child, Ensemble Off-Center/On-Stage.

        Best of the best: Ms. Bowman.

        Outstanding semi-professional theater performance: Sue Breving, I Stand Before You Naked, New Edgecliff; Susan Hill, Anton in Show Business, Know Tribe; Judy Malone, For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls, Ovation; Corinne Mohlenhoff, Medea, Stage First; Amanda Monyhan, Anton in Show Business, Know Tribe; Matthew Pyle, Mixed Blood, Know Tribe.

        Best of the best (tie): Ms. Breving and Ms. Mohlenhoff

        Outstanding musical performance in a lead role: Nicholas Belton, Candide, College-Conservatory of Music; Ashley Brown, Candide, CCM; Ashley Brown, Violet, Hot Summer Nights, CCM; Angela Gaylor, Dracula, CCM; Pam Myers, Gypsy, Playhouse; Lori Fischer, Barbara's Blue Kitchen, Playhouse.

        Best of the best: Ms. Myers. Outstanding musical performance in a featured role: Josh Dazel, Candide, College-Conservatory of Music; Joan Hess, Gypsy, Playhouse; Barry James, Dracula, CCM; Annie Leri, Dracula, CCM; Gina Restani, Nine, CCM; Jason Patrick Sands, Dracula, CCM; Rachel Stern, Beehive, Playhouse; John Woodson, Gypsy, Playhouse.

        Best of the best (tie): Mr. Dazel and Mr. Woodson.

        Outstanding achievement in musical direction: Roger Grodsky, Candide, College-Conservatory of Music; Roger Grodsky, Dracula: The Game of Love, CCM; Steven Gross, Gypsy, Playhouse; Louis Tucci, Barbara's Blue Kitchen, Playhouse.

        Best of the best: Roger Grodsky, Candide.

        Outstanding achievement in piano accompaniment: Greg Anthony, Nine, CCM. (He even seemed to be enjoying the show.)

        Outstanding achievement in choreography: Patti James, Candide, CCM.

        Outstanding achievement in choreography in tight quarters: Eric Santagata, She Loves Me, CCM.

        Outstanding achievement in fight choreography: Drew Fracher, King Lear, Playhouse

        Honorable mention: Matthew Pyle's terrifying dance of death between Elizabeth Harris and an invisible assailant in I Stand Before You Naked, New Edgecliff.

        Staged reading directing commendations, staged readings: Luther Gibson, A Lesson Before Dying, Theatre of the Mind, Ensemble; Roger Grooms, Three Hotels, Theatre of the Mind, Ensemble; Mary Tensing, Wings, Theatre of the Mind, Ensemble.

        Outstanding performance in a staged reading: Dale Hodges, Wings, Theatre of the Mind, Ensemble. (Yes, she was so good it demands a category.)

        Favorite twosome: John Alcott as Oxford and Giles Davies as his “girlie earl” friend in The Beard of Avon, Cincinnati Shakespeare.

        Honorable mentions: Millett & dirty-talking sock puppet Hinky-Binky (both enacted by Brian Isaac Phillips), Fuddy Meers, Cincinnati Shakespeare; Burgess Byrd and Leslie Leannan as octogenarian neighborhood vigilantes Miss Fanny and Miss Pearl, Love Child, Ensemble; Lisa Renee Pitts and Marcus Naylor, delicately romancing in Blues for an Alabama Sky, Playhouse; Catherine Elizabeth Cook and Todd C. Elliott as Laura and her Gentleman Caller in The Glass Menagerie, Rising Phoenix Theatre; Maggie Graham and her tape measure in A Midwinter's Tale, Xavier University.

        Favorite threesome: The laugh 'til you cry antics of the Magrath sisters of Ovation's Crimes of the Heart: Amie Elizabeth Bello, Deborah Ludwig and Corinne Mohlenhoff.

        Honorable mentions: Demonic witches Cliff Jenkins, Jennifer Joplin and Regina Cerimele-Mechley devouring bodies and souls in Macbeth, Human Race; Amanda Monyhan, Catherine Elizabeth Cook and Jennifer Dalton, at their best in their sisterhood in Know Tribe's Anton in Show Business; third-rate strippers Tessie Tura, Mazeppa and Electra (Rebecca Spencer, Kathleen France and Carol Schuberg) strutting through “You Gotta Have a Gimmick,” Gypsy, Playhouse.

        Favorite foursome: Co-conspirators Toby Belch (Drew Fracher), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Giles Davies), Maria (Sherman Fracher) and henchman Fabian (Christopher Guthrie), Twelfth Night, Cincinnati Shakespeare.

        Honorable mention: The irrepressible DaWanda, LaWanda, ShaWanda and TaWanda, (Raven Curry, Crystal Johnson, TyAnna Rolley, Jessica Hickland), the street-smart unwed teenage moms of Ensemble's Love Child

        Favorite fivesome: The vampire fighters of CCM's musical Dracula: Nicholas Belton, Josh Dazel, Blake Ginther, Barry James and Jason Patrick Sands.

Design awards

        A note on design: Getting all of it right is what matters here. It's the combination of set, costumes, lighting, sound — even makeup in some cases — into a memorable whole that decides winners in there categories.

        Outstanding design (big budget): Blues for an Alabama Sky, Playhouse: Joseph Tilford, David Kay Michelsen, Frances Aronson; Candide, CCM: Paul Shortt, Rebecca Senske, Robert Hahn, Ryan Powers; Dracula: The Game of Love, CCM: Paul Shortt, Dean Mogle, Elizabeth Zernechel, Chuck Hatcher; Elektra, Cincinnati Opera: Dany Lyne, Thomas Hase; Gypsy, Playhouse: John Ezell, Suzy Benzinger, Peter Sargent; King Lear, Playhouse: Karen TenEyck, Susan Tsu, Thomas Hase, Douglas Lowry (composer); King o' the Moon, Playhouse: Bill Clarke, Martha Hally, Tom Sturge, Tom Gould

        Best of the best: Seven-way tie. Every one of them was brilliant. Broadway should be so good.

        Outstanding design (medium budget): Cowgirls, Ensemble, Brian Mehring, Reba Senske, Shanon Rae Lutz, Brian W. Griffin; The Importance of Being Earnest, Children's Theatre, Jay Depenbrock, Cathy Ziegler; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Miami University Summer Theatre, Tammy Honesty, Meggan Peters, Geoffrey Fishburn; Macbeth, Human Race, David Centers, Kate Mitchell, John Rensel, Joseph Ryan Williamson; Twelfth Night, Cincinnati Shakespeare, Will Turbyne, Heidi Jo Scheimer, Christopher Guthrie.

        Best of the best: Cowgirls.

        Honorable mention: Mr. Mehring, Praying for Rain, Ensemble. Great scenic design was intended to have a strong electronic media component that didn't live up to its end of the deal; Mr. Mehring, Syncopation, Ensemble. A terrific realization of a derelict, turn-of-the-century Lower Manhattan dance studio outshone every other aspect of the production.

        Commendation: Reba Senske's endlessly playful and period-setting costumes for The Adventures of Pinocchio, Ensemble.

        Outstanding design (low budget): I Stand Before You Naked, New Edgecliff, Rebecca Bowman, Michael Shooner, Laura Hollis, Glen Goodwin, Christopher Guthrie; Medea, Stage First, Melanie Mortimore (costumes), Sara Havens (millinery), Cincinnati Costume Co. (makeup); The Tempest, Stage First, Brent Hodge, Schenz Theatrical Supply, Angela Pascale, Troy Bausch.

        Best of the best: Medea.

        Commendation: Carus Waggoner's terrific puppet design for Fellowship of the Ring, Ovation.

        Outstanding student design: The Tempest, College-Conservatory of Music, Cameron Anderson, Tracey Dunne, Heather Layman, Rachel Maki; The Laramie Project, CCM, Cameron Anderson, Lynne DeLong Goodwin, Elizabeth Zerrechel.

        Commendation: Makeup artist Soung Hee Kim added exotic imagery from nature to actors' faces and bodies and plenty of fairy dust to deepen the sense of place in CCM's The Tempest.

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