New Cloris Awards Categories Announced as Local Theatre Returns to Des Moines

Raise the curtains and dim the lights: A new season of theater has started in greater Des Moines.

A dozen local theater companies plan to stage more than 40 productions from now through the end of summer 2022, when the Cloris Leachman Excellence in Theatre Arts Awards will again honor talent onstage and behind the scenes.

The new theater season also brings a few updates to the Cloris Awards themselves, which will recognize outstanding performances regardless of the genders of the performers. Two new combined awards categories - for performances in leading and featured roles - will replace formerly separate categories for actors and actresses.

The awards program's leadership team also created a new award to honor an ensemble performance by an entire cast. That brings the total number of awards categories to 17, including awards for direction, choreography, scenic design and so forth.

Although several local theater companies continued to produce shows last season - either outdoors or online - they collectively chose to cancel the 2021 Cloris Awards in deference to companies that had closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But theater companies are eager to welcome audiences back for live, in-person performances.

The companies that participate in the Cloris Awards are the Ankeny Community Theatre, Carousel Theatre of Indianola, Des Moines Community Playhouse, Des Moines Young Artists' Theatre, Iowa Shakespeare Experience, Iowa Stage Theatre Company, Kata Klysmic Productions, Open Door Rep, Pyramid Theatre Company, Tallgrass Theatre Company, Theatre Midwest and Urbandale Community Theatre. Most companies have posted their upcoming schedules online.

The Cloris Awards, affectionately known as the Clorises, were created in 2015 to celebrate greater Des Moines' thriving theater scene and the creative professionals and volunteers who make it happen. The program's Oscar-winning namesake, Cloris Leachman, grew up in Des Moines and returned for the second annual Cloris Awards ceremony, five years before her death on Jan. 27, 2021.

For more information, including links to participating theater companies, visit clorisawards.org.

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