The Washington Area Theatre Community Honors honored the best of local community theater Sunday night in front of a sold-out crowd at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia.
The Arlington Players’ “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” won eight awards, including Best Musical, while Little Theatre of Alexandria’s “The Nance” won seven, including Best Play.
The most exceptional moment came when deaf actor Alex Bryce shared Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical with Alden Michels for their role as Quasimodo. Michels voiced the character, while Bryce simultaneously performed sign language.
“A huge thank you to Rich Farella, Janet Wilkins Bordeaux and the TAP board for creating this opportunity,” Bryce said in his acceptance speech. “You took the risk of making a deaf actor the lead of a musical without knowing if it’d pay off. In all of my years with community theater, I had never seen an audition post explicitly ask for deaf actors. Together, we proved that disability is not a barrier for creating good art.”
Bryce also urged for more inclusion in future productions.
“Representation matters. Create opportunities,” Bryce said. “At its heart, theater uses entertaining stories to reveal truths about the world we live in. Sometimes these truths can be obscured by the choices we make regarding who we cast or choose to work with. Authenticity matters. It cannot be taught. Diversity can only improve theater.”
In all, the judges covered 100 shows, including 35 musicals and 65 plays from 28 different community theater companies across Maryland and Virginia.
See the full list of WATCH Award winners here.
Watch our full Q&A with Bryce here.
