The Washington Area Theatre Community Honors, better known as the WATCH Awards, are theater awards recognizing excellence in Community theater in the Washington, D.C. area since 2000.
During the COVID pandemic, the WATCH Awards were put on hold.
[2][needs update] Established in 2000 to honor people involved in local theaters throughout the D.C. area,[3] the first award show was presented March 2, 2001.
[4] The creation of the WATCH Awards helped "increase the reputation of area community theater," according to Michael Toscano of The Washington Post.
[5] In each of the forty categories, five nominees were selected based on the average scores of eight judges.