Updated 2004-08-15
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would be sometime next year . . .
In the June 22 issue of Port Folio Weekly, the preview of this summer’s Port Folio Awards for Theatrical Achievement included an invitation for the theater-going public to write in their suggestions for shows and performers who deserve recognition. It’s the nature of an awards program to narrow down honorees in each of the categories to five nominees and then to just one person or production per category. But it is the purpose of the program to express appreciation and approval to the artists and production houses that have entertained and impressed us throughout the season. Applause should be heard by those who earned it, so that’s what this Web page is: a compilation of those commendations. From this long list, the awards committee has drawn a slate of five nominees per category. (Note: not all the categories put forward in the "Applause" pages appear on the nominations slate.) The slate was published in the August 3 issue of Port Folio Weekly, and it is now on this Web site..
What’s clear from this outpouring of suggestions is the scope of the Hampton Roads theatrical community. There were roughly a hundred productions that qualified as “non-professional or semi-professional theater” in Hampton Roads this past season: established community theaters, new theater companies, and educational theater departments. The locations of the theater venues considered include Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg. It seems the show must—and does—go on, despite hurricane damage and illnesses and worse.
In this Web page, the show titles are grouped under the theater venues, and all are alphabetically arranged. If you can’t find a particular show, try looking at the end of the list under PROFESSIONAL VENUES AND OTHER INELIGIBLES in case some fussy rule excludes that show from consideration for the Port Folio Awards.
ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL
CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY
EASTERN SHORE MUSICAL THEATRE
ELIZABETH RIVER THEATRE COMPANY
THE GENERIC THEATRE
GOVERNOR'S SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS
HAMPTON ROADS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL (SUMMER SHAKES)
HURRAH PLAYERS
LITTLE THEATRE OF NORFOLK
LITTLE THEATRE OF VIRGINIA BEACH
NORTH STREET PLAYERS
OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY
PALOMINO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
PENINSULA COMMUNITY THEATRE
POQUOSON ISLAND PLAYERS
REGENT UNIVERSITY
SHAKESPEARE IN THE GROVE
SINFONICRON LIGHT OPERA COMPANY
SMITHFIELD LITTLE THEATER
TCC CHESAPEAKE
THEATRE NOW
WEDGEWOOD RENAISSANCE
WILLIAMSBURG PLAYERS
PROFESSIONAL VENUES AND OTHER INELIGIBLES