THE CAT Awards  are coming back with “CATS Interrupted”.

After two successive years of disruption where some shows did get on stage, but most productions were cancelled, re-scheduled or curtailed, the CAT Awards will celebrate amateur theatre with a one-off celebration.

What would have been the 26th & 27th CAT Awards will now become “CATS Interrupted”, with recipients receiving certificates of recognition at an event in mid-December.

“We won’t be following our usual categories. Instead, we want to put on the record our appreciation, and that of audiences across the region, of the work put in to keep theatre alive,” CATS founder Coralie Wood says.

“Over the last two years our judges have attended more than 40 productions – about a quarter the number they would have judged in normal times – so in all fairness we can’t pretend it’s business as usual. That’s why we’ve come up with ‘CATS Interrupted’.

“It has been such a struggle just to keep going and we wanted to acknowledge those efforts”.

The more than 60 recipients of “Cats Interrupted” recognition and commendation will be announced at an event at Canberra Rep’s Theatre 3 on Sunday, December 19.

“The show must go on and there will be a show – of sorts,” Wood says, adding “As for next year – our judges can’t wait to get back into theatres in southern NSW and the ACT”.