Reflecting on 2006, the best adjective I can conjure is "quirky." Not a superior year, either in adventurous selection or quality, 2006 was marked by a large gap between the greater and lesser, with only a few shows sending the audience away without their socks.

With apologies to a couple of houses that I never got to this year (Ligonier Valley Players, Baldwin Players and Tony and Renata Marino's fine semi-pro Stage Right! Company in Greensburg, whose single-weekend runs make them difficult to review), here is the best of what I saw during 2006.

Production: "Company," Trafford's Theatre Factory. A fine, well-directed ensemble was in good voice and top comic form in Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's cautionary tale about meddling in the love lives of others. Also worthy of applause were Stage 62's production of Roger Miller's "Big River" and Little Lake Theatre's funny and heart-rending version of Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues."

Director: Lynne DeBree, for seamlessly guiding a fine cast through "Biloxi Blues." Another fine job was done by last year's best director, Scott P. Calhoon, for "Company," with a special mention to Patty Folmer for her work on "Big River."

Lead actress: Meighan Lloyd chewed some scenery but, in the end, gave us a quintessentially malicious, manipulative Maggie in Apple Hill Playhouse's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Kudos also go to Rachael Downey for her energetic, well-realized turn as two-dozen characters in Pamela Gien's "The Syringa Tree" at Little Lake and Cindy Swanson as the craftily crazy Bananas in "The House of Blue Leaves."

Lead actor: This was the easiest selection of the year. Jerry Summers gave, by turns, the funniest, grittiest and most touching performance I saw as the boot camp Sergeant with a heart of barbed wire in "Biloxi Blues." Jerry Wienand did an admirable job as an 11th-hour fill-in in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" at The Theatre Factory."

Featured actress: Toniaray Digiacomo was hilarious as the outspoken real estate agent in McKeesport Little Theater's "I Hate Hamlet" by Paul Rudnick. Praise is also due comically gifted student Laura A. Stracko in "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" and the Chekhov one-act "Drama," both at Seton Hill, and Lesa Guzzo as the tacky mistress in "The House of Blue Leaves."

Featured actor: Chip Kerr might have been an undersized "Big Daddy" physically, but his performance was leonine in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Close on his heels was Tim Bass' turn as a man both mentally challenged and socially inept in Tom Griffin's "The Boys Next Door," also at Apple Hill. Matthew Henderson did some fine comedic work in "The Sneeze" and "The Proposal" for Seton Hill's Chekhov one-acts.

Set design and construction: Scott P. Calhoon, Vickie Voller, et al. for "Company," and DeBree, in her last season at South Park, for "Blue Leaves."

Most painful: The "ey, whatsa matta you" Italian accents (OK, I'm a little sensitive) in The Theatre Factory's "Breaking Legs."

Best farewell: Much-loved 50-year Little Lake veteran Adelyn "Addie" Sommer passed away shortly after her role as a septuagenarian prize-fight manager in "The Last of Jane Austen."