Michael Sommers: He directed Andrew Kim’s Want, as well as bringing back to the Twin Cities his own eloquent work of puppet theater, A Prelude to Faust. Additionally, with Kevin Kling, Sommers produced Mississippi Panorama at the Children’s Theatre; here we had theater at its most haunting and elegiac.

Luvurne Seifert: The Theatre de la Jeune Lune regular took center stage in a series of notable productions: He played the ghastly narrator of The Green Bird; boozy and cantankerous author Swift in Gulliver; Mongolian ruler Ghengis Khan in Description of the World (which he cowrote); and, most recently, the god Apollo in Ten Thousand Thing’s pointed retelling of The Eumenides, titled The Furies. He was marvelous in all these roles, with a roaring, raspy, twinkling presence, showing himself repeatedly to be one of the Cities’ most engaging performers.

Michelle Hensley: Her Ten Thousand Things performance troupe is remarkable for more than its ongoing mission to tour prisons and homeless shelters; Hensley’s primary dedication is to producing excellent theater, whoever her audience, which has garnered her both critical accolades and a regular pick of some of the Twin Cities’ finest performers. Her standout show this past year was the slight musical The Most Happy Fella, which, under Hensley’s deft touch, turned into a minimalist ode to the power of love.

Kevin Kling: It took a motorcycle accident to stop Kling’s otherwise juggernaut year, which included Gulliver at the Jeune Lune, Mississippi Panorama at the Children’s Theatre, and his own one-man show 21A at the Fringe Festival. His understated storytelling remains as joyous as ever, and we can expect him back on stage this month, in Michael Sommers The Holiday Pageant this December 21 at the Southern Theater; call (612) 340-1725.