Category: 2025-2026
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The 2025-26 ACT-y Winners
Three years in – so we can officially call ourselves an annual event! We are still buzzing from last night’s awards ceremony – thank you all for being an amazing audience yet again! A few thank-yous are hugely necessary upfront: Without further ado – the 2025-2026 HRACT Awards go to… *Note: The theaters’ names have…
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Information and Reminders for those Attending the Awards Ceremony
The 2025-2026 Hampton Roads Achievement in Community Theater Awards is almost here! If you are planning to attend, here are some reminders and information: If you are a NAMED NOMINEE (i.e., your name individually appears on our nomination announcement here): Finally, if you are part of a nomination for Best Performance of a Song (Ensemble), Best…
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The 2025-26 HRACT Awards Nominees
Another remarkable year of theater has come and gone here in the Hampton Road region, and we can’t wait to celebrate it all at our awards ceremony on August 20th at 7:30PM at the Ferguson Center at CNU. Narrowing down the list of nominees was once again incredibly difficult – a credit to all the…
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The Williamsburg Players Usher in the Summer (and the 250th Anniversary) with “1776”
You have to hand it to the Williamsburg Players’ season development team – they knew what they were doing when they picked “1776” to be their production closest to the 250th July 4th celebration in the Colonial Capital. With such a sure bet to sell well, the production team, cast, and crew could have phoned…
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Did the HRACT Awards Just Tear Apart a Show? Yes… and No. We Review Otstar Productions’ “Nothing On”
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) “Sardines? Sardines. Sardines! You don’t get to see that fish take center-stage all that often. Anchovies? Yes. But sardines?” This was indeed the conversation in our row during the first intermission of “Nothing On”, a show described as “the funniest farce ever written”, playing now at the Grand…
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“¡Alza la Bandera!” Come Join the Celebration at Little Theatre of Norfolk’s “In The Heights”
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) Every time we see a show, we are rooting for it. Some shows fall short of those hopes. Some shows are what we expect. And some shows explode off the stage, with color, and energy, and heart, right from the first number. “In The Heights”, playing now at…
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“You’re a Wizard, Wayne”: PCT Shares a Different Wizard’s Story with “Puffs…”
We love a good parody here at the HRACT Awards headquarters (meaning… our couch at home, but sometimes if we are feeling particularly formal – our dining room table). We also love us some Harry Potter (why yes, that was us you saw in a full Niffler robe/blanket and a “you’re so poor” Weasley-style sweater…
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Smithfield Little Theatre’s “9 to 5” Takes Care of Business on Just Another Manic Monday While We Are All Working for the Weekend… But In a Dolly Parton Sorta Way
As we settled into our seats at Smithfield Little Theatre on Friday night, we noticed the many beds on stage, and a clock showing the time to be 8:00. I thought – glad these characters still have an entire hour to get ready, because I’m pretty sure they are going to need to be at…
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Williamsburg Players Rewrites “Her-story” with “The Revolutionists”
“It might be fiction, but it is not fake.” A few days after seeing “The Revolutionists”, playing now at Williamsburg Players, I keep coming back to this line, said multiple times throughout the show. In a world that is stranger than fiction at times, it was this line about how art can feel more real…
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The Duality of Faith and Doubt: LTVB Masterfully Presents “Doubt, A Parable”
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) “What do you do when you are not sure?” asks the first line of “Doubt, A Parable”, playing now at the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach. It is uttered by Father Flynn from his pulpit, ironically the only character in this show who can be sure of what…
