Honoring professional theatre for 40 years with the “Craig Noel Awards”

San Diego Theatre Critics Circle’s 2023 Craig Noel Award nominees. Photo: Hayne Palmour

The 2024 Craig Noel Awards Nominations are live!

What we do

The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle is dedicated to promoting theater as an art form and a 2,500-year-old cultural necessity. We endeavor to elevate theater criticism by providing informed, unbiased reviews, based on education and experience, to help audiences expand their knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of theater and theater criticism.

We want to serve as a regional informed panel of experts who are professionally qualified to encourage the theater-going public to learn more about the theater being produced in San Diego, to be more adventurous in their theater-going, and to support the local theaters by attending more shows. 

We are committed to finding, encouraging, and mentoring the next generation of diverse theater critics. With our annual, gender-neutral Awards for Excellence in Theatre, we honor professional and upcoming theater makers, in the name of our award’s namesake, Craig Noel, the founding father of San Diego’s professional theater community.