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Best Actor in a Comedy

Erik Sandvold in Lucky Me

In the ironically named Lucky Me, Tom, played by Erik Sandvold, comes to the aid of Sara, a woman who claims to suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, after she's fallen from a roof. He soon discovers that lightbulbs pop and fizzle in Sara's vicinity and that she hasn't had a hot meal for over twenty years because she can't handle a stove, knife or microwave. Tom, who works for the TSA at the airport, is determined to rescue Sara, even as her ailments threaten his own health and sanity. Sandvold was wonderfully strong and sympathetic — and also appealingly goofy — in this story of two fortyish people who've been beaten down by life but still entertain a flicker of hope that love is possible.

Best Actress in a Comedy

Jessica Robblee in This

The character of Jane is at the heart of This, a bittersweet comedy. Widowed, she's having trouble coping with her young daughter and life in general — and she hasn't yet dealt with her husband's cremains. Jane is brittle, moody, cynical and quick to anger. It takes a complex actor to bring a complex woman like this to life; fortunately, Jessica Robblee is one of the most multi-layered performers we have. She gave a wired, vibrating performance in the role, every now and then allowing us just a glimpse of the real feeling behind Jane's defensiveness.

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Josh Hartwell in This

Josh Hartwell isn't one of those larger-than-life actors: no booming voice, no huge presence. His work is quiet, intelligent and subtle, and he slips into a role rather than overpowering it. All this made him perfect for the character Alan in This. Because he's a mnemonist and can remember entire conversations verbatim, Alan's become the chronicler for his group of friends, a charge that makes him a little crazy. He's anxious and neurotic in general, but, as played by Hartwell, also unexpectedly compassionate.

Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy

Amelia White in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Having dressed up for a costume party, Sonia, played by Amelia White, transforms from a down-at-the-heels, enraged and self-pitying nobody in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike into a magnificent sequin-clad dowager. She's going to the party as the Wicked Queen as played by Maggie Smith on her way to the Oscars, she explains. White's utter delight in herself is glorious, and so infectious you can't help sharing it. The woman is full of piss and vinegar, and she may just be ready for love.

Best Direction of a Musical

Nick Sugar, Next to Normal

For our money, this smaller-scale version of Next to Normal was more moving and involving than the Broadway production that came through a while back: You cared more about the characters; the plot made more sense; the songs came across more clearly. Director Nick Sugar couldn't have found a stronger cast for this musical drama about a family torn apart by a mother's mental illness, and he coaxed wonderful performances from all of his actors.

Best Literary Couple on a Stage

Amanda Berg Wilson and Jeremy Make in There Is a Happiness That Morning Is

Professor Bernard Barrow (aka Jeremy Make) explains the passion for William Blake that led him and his colleague Ellen Barker (Amanda Berg Wilson) to make love naked on the campus quad, an act that threatens their jobs. For him, Blake's poetry is pure, ecstatic celebration. Ellen, fighting a private torment, has a fiercer take. She sees Blake's message as "Fuck someone. Fuck someone hard." This is a very smart play. Written in verse, it takes well-deserved digs at academia while also asking viewers to contemplate a mystical poet they may not have thought about since high school. It takes two very talented actors to give the ideas emotional weight and make the verse sound like natural speech, while still coming across as funny, bewildered and very real human beings.

Best Opportunity to Meet English Teachers at the Theater

Colorado Shakespeare Festival

The literati are pretty much guaranteed to appear for each summer's three productions at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. And since professors often assign the shows to their students, you'll see lots of bright young people there as well. It all makes for a pleasant and congenial vibe in the lovely open-air Mary Rippon Theatre. But professors also go because these shows can open up new interpretations or illuminate a facet they think they know by heart. It's fun overhearing or joining their discussions at intermission — and just as much fun to listen when they take a poor production apart scene by scene.

Best Opportunity to Meet Scientists at the Theater

Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company

The Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company realized early on that many top scientists live and work in town, and director Stephen Weitz decided to reach out to them — for both audience augmentation and creative symbiosis. He staged science writer Dava Sobel's fascinating play about Copernicus, And the Sun Stood Still, last year, and has also formed a creative partnership with the Fiske Planetarium through a grant from the Boulder Arts Commission. Local author William C. Kovacsik's Vera Rubin: Bringing the Dark to Light will be shown at the Fiske — with astonishing visual effects — and then taken to local schools. Judging by their numbers at even non-science-related shows, Boulder scientists appreciate the effort.

Best Idea for Theater-Goers With Young Kids

Play Dates at BETC

You want the kids to learn to love theater; you want to stimulate their pliant young minds with something more interesting than the usual children's-theater fare. Most of all, you'd like them out of your hair for a couple of hours while you enjoy a grown-up play. The Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company is offering on-site theater classes led by artists for grade-school-aged children during certain of this season's performances. Everyone has a good time, and the entire family gets to talk theater afterward.

Best Place to Let Kids Act Up

Theatre-Hikes Colorado

All the world really is a stage when you take your theater to the trail. At a Theatre-Hikes performance, participants are greeted by a trail leader and guided along a moderate hike to the first scene of a play. Viewers kick back and enjoy the act, then pack their seats and trek to the next scene. Last year, the company saw its widest age range yet — 1 to 92 — at thirteen sold-out shows. This summer's show, a fairy-tale mash-up, premieres in June, and the fall offering, 10 Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse, runs through September and October.

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