2009 was a tiptop year for theatre in the Tampa Bay area. Here’s the cream of the crop:

1. Shining City (Stageworks). Richard Coppinger as an Everyman who can’t do anything right; Glenn Gover as the therapist who himself needs healing. Intense and heartbreaking.

2. Doubt (American Stage). Sister Aloysius, the Dirty Harry of nuns, sets out to prove that a priest is a sex abuser. The priest resists. Make my day.

3. Wonderland (Straz Center for the Performing Arts). A modern Alice traverses eight levels of reality in search of her daughter. A hip, hallucinogenic thrill-ride.

4. Fences (American Stage). August Wilson’s great play is about Troy Maxson, a rubbish collector, poisoned by dreams deferred, but radiantly human.

5. Rabbit Hole (Jobsite Theater). A lovingly detailed study of the effect of a child’s death on his family and others near him. Meg Heimstead as his grief-stricken mother was splendid.

This article appears in Dec 23-29, 2009.