2022-2023 Press Releases

The 2022 Craig Noel Award Winners:

(Nominees by category are listed in alphabetical order)

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical

Nigel Huckle – “Light In The Piazza,” CCAE Theatricals

Amber Iman –“Lempicka,” La Jolla Playhouse

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play

Kate Rose Reynolds – “Iron,” The Roustabouts Theatre Co.

Nancy Ross – “Sapience,” Moxie Theatre and TuYo Theatre

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical

Beau Brians – “Catch Me If You Can The Musical,” San Diego Musical Theatre

Sebastian Montenegro – “In The Heights,” San Diego Musical Theatre

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play

Steven Lone – “Water By The Spoonful,” Cygnet Theatre

Rosina Reynolds – “Iron,” The Roustabouts Theatre Co.

Outstanding Direction of a Musical

J. Scott Lapp – “Witnesses,” CCAE Theatricals

Outstanding Direction of a Play

Yari Cervas – “Desert Rock Garden,” New Village Arts

Outstanding Solo Performance

Nathan Nonhof – “Black Séance,” Blindspot Collective/ LJP Without Walls Festival

Outstanding Costume Design

Linda Cho – “Come Fall In Love – The DDLJ Musical,” The Old Globe

Outstanding Scenic Design

Yi-Chien Lee – “The October Night of Johnny Zero,” Backyard Renaissance

Outstanding Lighting Design

Bradley King – “Lempicka,” La Jolla Playhouse

Outstanding New Production

“Witnesses” – CCAE Theatricals

Also announced from the stage were our specialty award winners in the following categories:

Outstanding Specialty Award – Kevin “Blax” Burroughs (Performer, Director, Lighting Designer, and Choreographer for multiple theatres throughout 2022)
The Don Braunagel Award for Outstanding Work at a Small Theater
- OnStage Playhouse
- CCAE Theatricals
2022 Actors of the Year
- Megan Carmitchel
- Berto Fernández

San Diego Theatre Critics announces new member

The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle is proud to announce that Cassiopeia Guthrie is the newest member of our nonprofit organization!

Cassiopeia Guthrie is a journalist, educator, and business consultant based in Southern California. Cassiopeia earned her bachelor’s in journalism at San Diego State University, an executive master’s in business administration from Quantic School of Business and Technology, and is a National Geographic Certified Educator. With extensive experience in digital content development, project management, curriculum development, and business leadership across multiple industries and as a long-time San Diego actress, producer, and nonprofit theatre manager, she loves leveraging her experience in the theatre space through critique. Cassiopeia publishes for San Diego Story and On the Craft, but her writing has also been seen in publications including People Magazine, Broadway World, Vista Press, San Diego City Beat, Valley Roadrunner, Escondido Times-Advocate, and others. Cassiopeia also enjoys appearing on local broadcast segments to discuss theatre.

We are excited to welcome her to our organization!

If you or someone you know is interested in joining we are always open to new members. To learn more about our membership guidelines, visit our Membership page.

The San Diego Critic’s Circle has loved seeing the resilience and creativity of all of our region’s theatres past year from watching shows virtually to finally being back live and in person.
While we had been looking forward to having a celebration in early 2022 to correspond with what would have been our traditional awards ceremony, with the many present health and safety uncertainties we have decided we will not be having an event this coming year.
We know that the shows must go on in San Diego, and the best decision for them to continue is to not have everyone in one room and potentially get anyone sick.

Although we are not having an event this year many of our members who have been writing and covering theatre throughout the pandemic are individually honoring the best works that they have seen over the past year. You can find their lists on their websites or at our Critic’s Circle website.
For updates on the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle, we will be posting any new information on our Facebook and Instagram pages and our website at sdcriticscircle.org.

San Diego Theatre Critics announces new member

The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle is proud to announce that Alejandra Enciso-Dardashti is the newest member of our nonprofit organization.

Enciso-Dardashti joins eight existing members, who together review professional theater in San Diego County and hand out the annual Craig Noel Awards for Excellence in Theatre.

The Circle’s 2020 awards were canceled due to the pandemic.

Alejandra Enciso-Dardashti is a Binational Consultant in communications through PR, Production, and Translations. She is the founder of Enciso Consulting, a boutique firm that has worked on binational endeavors in the Tijuana-San Diego border for over 10 years with different clients like Broadway San Diego, La Jolla Playhouse, Moxie Theatre, The Old Globe, California Ballet, Tijuana Hace Teatro, Theatre Communications Group, and more. Alejandra also has been a reporter for more than 15 years, covering arts and entertainment in different media outlets as well as the bilingual blog www.FromAnother0.com and www.DesdeOtro0.com Since 2020, she has been hosting a biweekly podcast in Spanish Desde Otro 0 and its alter ego in English From Another 0. A safe space dedicated to the arts and the industry.

We are excited to welcome her to our organization!

The San Diego Critic Circle Awards 2020 were canceled due to the pandemic and we look forward to having Alejandra with us in person when we schedule our next Critic’s Circle event.

If you or someone you know is interested in joining we are always open to new members. To learn more about our membership guidelines, visit our Membership page.

2020 Craig Noel Awards canceled due to pandemic

(Oct. 1, 2020) This has been a devastating and unprecedented year for San Diego theater community. The hearts of all the members of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle go out to all local theater community artists who are enduring not only the loss of jobs and income, but also the creative work that feeds their souls.

As the pandemic wears on, it is now clear that San Diego’s theaters will remain dark for the rest of 2020 and perhaps well into 2021.

Over the past several weeks, the Critics Circle’s members have come to the difficult but necessary conclusion that we must cancel the 2020 Craig Noel Awards for Theatrical Excellence.

Our goal is to combine the onstage live productions that opened during the first 10 weeks of 2020 with whatever is produced onstage in 2021 for future awards consideration.

We may also add a category for outstanding virtual programming to honor the creative online work being produced by theaters countywide. We hope to return with our 20th anniversary ceremony in February 2022.

We plan to produce a memorial video at the end of this year for the local theater artists and patrons who passed away in 2020. We would also like to create a highlights reel, that would encapsulate the live, filmed and Zoom-based shows that have been produced locally this year. Those will be released online around Jan. 1, 2021.

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San Diego theaters shut down in unprecedented response to COVID-19 quarantine

For the first time since 1918, all of San Diego County’s theaters and other performing arts organizations closed down in mid-March to protect staff and the public from the coronavirus pandemic raging worldwide.

The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle extends its condolences to the hundreds of theater artists who were forced out of work by the mass closures.

Because the show must go on several San Diego County theaters are now streaming and posting live and recorded programming to engage, entertain and comfort theater-lovers worldwide.

Here are some of the stories our members have been writing during the pandemic crisis. To see features and reviews of shows that were produced both onstage and virtually in 2020, visit this link.

As quarantine extends, theaters juggle postponements, deficits – Pam Kragen – San Diego Union-Tribune

Theaters’ online program racking up viewers – Pam Kragen – San Diego Union-Tribune

San Diego theaters embrace online programming – Pat Launer, Times of San Diego

Sheltering at home for Bard lovers – Pat Launer – Times of San Diego

Blindspot Collective produces radically inclusive online theater – Pat Launer – Times of San Diego

Digital Storytelling from Moxie – David Dixon – San Diego Story

Old Globe going online with community programming – James Hebert, San Diego Union-Tribune

Arts in the time of crisis – James Hebert – San Diego Union-Tribune

Tough times in the San Diego theater community – Pat Launer, Times of San Diego

Jacole Kitchen: From the arts front lines – James Hebert, San Diego Union-Tribune

Vanessa Dinning: From the Arts front lines – James Hebert, San Diego Union-Tribune

Sean Fanning: From the arts front lines – James Hebert, San Diego Union-Tribune