Houston Theater Awards Presented by the Houston Press Are Here

August marks the start of the 2012-13 Houston theater season, so we at the Houston Press thought there would be no better time to reflect on the past season.

And so, in this week's issue of the Houston Press, we are inaugurating the Houston Theater Awards. Winners and finalists were selected by a panel of frequent theater-goers and critics at the Press and while the breath of offerings made the whole project doable, it also meant that nothing was decided quickly.

We also want to thank all the people who emailed us their nomination suggestions -- and we have to say, we were surprised by how many there were.

In most of the categories, we picked a winner and several finalists. In almost every case the decision was debated back and forth for a while. All of which speaks to the breadth of talent we have on Houston stages.

Of course you're not going to agree with all of our picks. Feel free to write us and let us know what categories we forgot -- we plan to expand next year -- and who else should have been honored.

Just please know that each of the actors, directors, designers and others we name contributed to a great season of theater for Houston in the last year. If you haven't been going, you missed something special.

But you can fix that because a new season is beginning all over town. Read about it online, pick up a print copy of the August 23 paper. You'll see our awards and the annual Arts Guide that our advertising department has done for years. You'll be all set.