Hard to believe another season has flown by. It’s time for the producers to name our Most Valuable Performers (MVPs) for the past season. This year, it was particularly difficult to choose. Many have worked hard, onstage and off, to make this year so memorable. Still, when it comes to work above and beyond the call of duty, two names come to the fore — Kelly Allen and Matthew Whiteside.

Kelly Allen came to us as a proud stage mother a few years back, her talented daughter Tess Ammerman in tow. Tess would dazzle our audiences as young Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker and Kelly seemed to catch the bug. The acting bug. Before she knew it, we had her onstage pushing calves-foot jelly in The Man Who Came to Dinner, getting her dress torn off her by a crazed comic in Animal Crackers and, perhaps her greatest feat, bringing a sense of order to the chaos behind the scenes here at the Heritage Center. And, oh yes — she keeps much of our costume collection in order at her own home.

Kelly is known as "a neat freak." That we have not perished under the clutter that collects when dozens of people perform a show a month in cramped quarters can be singularly traced to Kelly Allen. She is also a compulsive organizer, and therefore a terrific stage manager. We thank her actor husband Ken and actress daughter Tess for sharing her with us. She is becoming a first rate actress. But as long as we’ve known her, she has been a first rate person.

Matthew Whiteside kind of wandered in one day. The young man had an interest in theatre back in college. Guess he figured hanging around with us would do him some good. But we have gained far more from the deal than he has. Matthew has been learning to hone his skills as an actor while bringing to backstage chores a discipline and dedication that have won the gratitude of the producers. Most actors just deliver their lines and go home. Matthew has stayed, night after night — cheerfully helping out. Climb a ladder and hang lights? Sure. No problem. Haul set pieces to and from Flemington, NJ? Hey, why not?

Honoring Kelly and Matthew — neither of whom are our most accomplished actors (yet) — is the right thing to do. Critics seldom notice them, but without their efforts, Actors’ NET could not have achieved the level of excellence we have this year.

-Cheryl and Joe Doyle, Co-Founders