Two Fairfax County community-theater organizations garnered a total of 34 nominations in the annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors (WATCH) awards program.
Reston Community Players received 25 nominations, tying with Prince William Little Theatre for the most of any troupe, and Providence Players of Fairfax received nine.
Nominations were announced Jan. 18. The awards ceremony will be held Sunday, March 22 at The Birchmere in Alexandria.
WATCH Awards honor achievement in community-theater productions across the D.C. region for the preceding calendar year. A total of 28 theater companies are eligible for adjudication by experts, whose scores determine nominees and award recipients.
For 2025, a total of 94 productions — 57 plays and 37 musicals — were scored by the review panel across 36 categories.
Reston Community Players’ production of Mel Brooks’s “The Producers” was nominated for Outstanding Musical. It will compete with:
- “Hairspray,” Prince William Little Theatre
- “Kinky Boots,” Silhouette Stages
- “Urinetown,” Rockville Musical Theatre
- “A Year with Frog and Toad,” Rockville Musical Theatre
Providence Players’ production of Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” was nominated in the Outstanding Play category. It is competing against:
- “The Crucible,” Silhouette Stages
- “Othello,” Port Tobacco Players
- “The Play That Goes Wrong,” The Little Theatre of Alexandria
- “The Play That Goes Wrong,” The Arlington Players
- “The Playboy of the Western World,” Silver Spring Stage
- “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play,” Prince William Little Theatre
The full list of nominees, broken down by category and by organization, is available online.
Michael Barret Jones, president of the board of directors of Reston Community Players, said the awards program provides an opportunity to promote the work of thousands of talented cast and crew members across the local region:
“Community theater doesn’t always get the spotlight — or the respect — it deserves, and that’s why the WATCH Awards matter. They remind people that some truly excellent theater is being made by people who aren’t getting paid, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t professional. WATCH helps audiences understand that community theater is alive, thriving and artistically serious.”
Reston Community Players has received more than 450 WATCH nominations in the program’s history, Jones told FFXnow.
“That reflects the depth of talent in our community: early-career professionals, artists who stepped away from the industry, people who absolutely could have gone pro but chose families, stability or a life with a little more certainty, and people who’ve always wanted to be in the theater,” he said.
“If we’re being nominated that often, it’s a pretty good sign we’re doing something worth our audience’s entertainment dollars,” Jones said.
Professional theaters across the D.C. region have their own awards program: the Helen Hayes Awards sponsored by TheatreWashington, which was founded in the 1980s as the Washington Theatre Arts Society.
