Barrymore Awards 2025-2026

Barrymore season is upon us!  Every year, we look at the past season, rooting for our favorites in a myriad of categories.  In case you don’t know, the Barrymore Awards are like Philly’s Tony Awards.  It’s a showcase for the best, and it’s extremely exciting for everyone in the theatre community.  I absolutely love getting to be a part of this.  The more I get to travel around the city seeing shows, the more idea I get of what’s going up for awards.  And this year, there are some truly amazing ones.

I absolutely love the Philly theatre community.  It’s rich and diverse.  I feel like I’m in a different crowd at all the theatres I go to, but ultimately, we’re all in the same crowd.  All of us who love theatre make up the mixed scene that you get in this area.  I love going to different theatres and seeing the same people.  I love going to different theatres and seeing someone unexpected.  I just absolutely love going to all this theatre.  And when the Barrymore nominee post came out, I was so excited to look over this.  These are people and shows that I love, and they’re all amazing.  I’m so grateful to be a part of the Philly theatre community.

This is my Barrymore Award highlight post for this year.  I want to talk about some of the nominations, and what they mean to me.  As Zoe Writes Theatre grows and grows, I feel like my understanding of these things grows as well.  There’s nothing like being in the audience of an award show, watching deserving people get the spotlight.  I wish I could write about everything and everyone I saw this season, but I narrowed it down some.  I didn’t want this post to be endless!

Brett Ashley Robinson

Nominated for Outstanding Direction of a Play for The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington at The Wilma Theater

This was an extremely bizarre show, and it absolutely had to be in the right hands.  I think that there was no one better for it than Brett Ashley Robinson.  Her direction lead this play to an incredible place, and I’m still not sure I’ve seen anything like it.  Miz Martha was a phenomenal piece, one that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I still sort of question if I would like it if I saw it directed by someone else.  I can’t imagine it being any other way.  Robinson delivered in the most amazing way.  I can still remember parts of this play.  It was definitely a job well done.

FIRE!!

Nominated for Outstanding Ensemble in a Play at Quintessence Theatre

Wow.  When we’re talking about how incredibly an ensemble worked together, FIRE!! is the picture perfect example.  First of all, I loved this show so much.  It really made an impact on me.  It was dynamic, and big, and bold.  The ensemble of it definitely deserves this Barrymore nod, because they were flawless together.  Going from story to story, and everything in between, this cast did something really awe inspiring together.  I’ve been in ensemble pieces.  They’re hard.  But the cast of FIRE!! made it look easy.

Jered McLenigan

Nominated for Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Play in The Hypochondriac at Quintessence Theatre

How do you bring Molière into the modern world?  That was a rhetorical question, because it’s really hard to do that.  Nevertheless, I was very excited for Quintessence’s The Hypochondriac (The Imaginary Invalid).  And they did something really cool and made the King a part of the audience.  Jered McLenigan sat on a throne in the audience with us, and he was hilarious.  He was making noises, reacting to the show we were all watching.  And when he actually came up on the stage?  We were laughing so hard at his antics.  McLenigan really deserves this nomination for doing something really hard.  He had to be the King, but also a part of the production.  He was absolutely phenomenal.

MK Tuomanen

Nominated for Outstanding Choreography/Movement in a Play for The Presented performed by Chris Davis

In a tiny little studio space, leased out for a Fringe show last year, I saw The Presented.  I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into, but this show became one of my favorite small productions ever.  Chris Davis is hilarious, and Tuomanen, his regular collaborator, did something really cool with this short show.  This is another show I can still remember parts of because I just loved them so much.  I have since seen Davis in a couple other one person shows, and I’ve learned that movement is kind of his thing.  I’m so excited they got a nod for this!

Nikki Delhomme

Nominated for Outstanding Costume Design for A Wrinkle in Time at The Arden Theatre Company

I love all aspects of theatre.  You can’t have a show without actors, crew, costume designers, lighting designers, etcetera.  And something that really shone in A Wrinkle in Time were the costumes.  They were absolutely insane, and beautiful, and creative, and unique.  My mom and I were both geeking out about them throughout intermission and afterwards (she’s super big into that stuff).  I can’t even imagine the mind that those insanely stunning costumes came from.  I did enjoy the show, but honestly, it was the costumes that really stuck with me.  I love how family theatre can get like that.  I’m sure it’s just going to get better and better.

Paul Kuhn, Ren Bailey, and Aetna Gallagher

Nominated for Outstanding Props or Puppetry Design for Sacco & Vanzetti: A Tragedia Dell' Arte at Curio Theatre Company

This is one of the nominations that struck me the most, mainly because the puppets really were some of the best I’ve ever seen.  I did enjoy this show a lot, but what these crafters did was absolutely amazing.  The show was fun, and bizarre, and the puppets they used really captured the entire feeling of the play.  I wish I could hear about it all, from the start to the finished product.  I loved watching what they did on stage, how they worked the puppets, the different forms the puppets took…it was mind blowing what they did with all of this.  I don’t think I’ll ever forget some of the puppets I saw in this show.  Their work really made an impact.

This season has been amazing, and all the nominations are well deserved!  Stay tuned for more Barrymore content!