The North Bay theater community gathered at The California in Santa Rosa on Sunday, Oct. 18 for the 2026 Norbay Theater Awards. These awards, which began in 2015 as the Marquee Theater Journalist Association (MTJA) Awards, recognized work produced in the 2025-2026 season.
MTJA was co-founded by current Weeklys contributor Harry Duke and former Weeklys contributor David Templeton to create a critically-based awards program that acknowledges outstanding work done by the North Bay theater community and did so for five years before a pandemic-induced hiatus.
Relaunched and renamed last year in association with the North Bay Bohemian, the Norbay Theater Awards recognize outstanding work done by theater artists in 18 categories, as voted on by the MTJA membership in a series of ranked-choice votes.
Current MTJA members include Weeklys contributors Harry Duke, Caitlin Strom-Martin and Beulah Vega; Marin Independent Journal theater critic Barry Willis; and former Marinscope Community Newspapers theater critic Cari Lynn Pace.
The evening opened with an hour of meeting and greeting, giving the local theater arts community a rare opportunity to gather en masse, after which Duke officially welcomed the 150+ attendees to the event.
Duke reviewed the history of the MTJA and noted it was the first California awards program to eliminate gender divisions in its awards and one of the first to recognize the vital contributions of stage managers to their productions.
The awards presentations began with the Technical Craft awards, with Donnie Frank the first to be recognized for her Outstanding Costume Design work in the Spreckels Theatre Company production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods.
Into the Woods was also recognized with awards to Eddy Hansen for Outstanding Scenic Design and Jessica Johnson for Outstanding Sound Design.
April George took home the award for Outstanding Lighting Design for her evocative work in the Cinnabar Theater production of The Secret Garden.
The Outstanding Choreography Award went to Alex Gomez for his work on the Lucky Penny of Napa production of The Drowsy Chaperone.
Aja Gianola was recognized for her Outstanding Musical Direction in the Sonoma Arts Live (SAL) production of A Night with Janis Joplin. North Bay audiences will get another chance to hang out with Joplin as SAL remounts the production in December before transferring to Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse in January.
The SRJC production of Ride the Cyclone took home the Outstanding Collegiate Production Award while the SRJC Theater Student Production of X was recognized as the Outstanding Specialty Production.
The cast of Left Edge Theatre’s We are proud to present… received the Outstanding Ensemble Award.
Outstanding individual performances and productions were recognized in three divisions.
For drama, the Outstanding Supporting Performance Award was presented to Mary Gannon Graham for her work in 6th Street Playhouse’s Bad Seed. Andrew Patton was named Outstanding Lead for his work in Cinnabar’s production of The Christians. 6th Street’s The Lifespan of a Fact was named the Outstanding Drama Production.
For comedy, Dana Hunt’s work on Left Edge Theatre’s Bootycandy was recognized with the Outstanding Supporting Performance Award, while Kevin Bordi was named Outstanding Lead for his work in Mercury Theater’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Left Edge’s We are proud to present… was named the Outstanding Comedy Production of the season.
For musicals, Sam Coughlin gave the Outstanding Supporting Performance of the year as “Milkie” in Spreckels’ Into the Woods. Libby Oberlin gave the Outstanding Lead Performance in SAL’s A Night with Janis Joplin, and the show was named Outstanding Musical Production.
For a complete listing of nominees and recipients and photos from the event, visit northbaystageandscreen.com.
