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.