Louise Keeton

Second Place: Melissa Johnston Price

Third Place (Tie): Grey Garrett and Bianca Bryan

Though she’s been on the local theater scene for just a short while, Louise Keeton was selected by voters as the year’s best actress. Keeton has appeared in a handful of local shows — including Virginia Rep’s “The Charitable Sisterhood of the Second Trinity Victory Church,” and Swift Creek Mill Theatre’s “See How They Run.” But she’s perhaps best known for running, writing and directing shows for Ashland’s Whistle Stop Theatre Company. Local theater veteran Melissa Johnston Price recently completed an excellent turn as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine in “The Lion in Winter,” and played Titania in last summer’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Grey Garrett’s most recent work included a convincing turn as Judy Garland in “Beyond the Rainbow: Garland at Carnegie Hall,” and Sheila in “Hair.” And Bianca Bryan should receive an award for the sheer variety of roles she’s tackled, including a Jewish drag queen from Zagreb in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” an uptight stepmother in “Caroline, or Change,” and Blanche Du Bois in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”