Thank the goddess for theater artists. The ghastly year we’ve just survived would have been considerably more awful without plays to make us think or cry or laugh and remind us of the humanity we all share.

I saw lots of fine plays this year. Here are the ones I’m still thinking about.

1. Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City): Stunning in concept, brilliant in execution and absolutely unforgettable. A philosophical (two-legged) tiger, two American soldiers and Uday Hussein converge in a surreal ghost story inspired by a news item about an American soldier who killed a tiger at the Baghdad zoo. The Mark Taper Forum will present this show again next season.

2. Cyrano de Bergerac (Old Globe Shakespeare festival): A terrific overall production brilliantly directed by Darko Tresnjak featured a smashing performance in the title role by local favorite Patrick Page.

3. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Compass): Dale Morris and Glynn Bedington were almost frightening as they tore into each other psychologically in this American classic.

4. Talley’s Folly (North Coast Rep): David Ellenstein and Amy Biedel were as close to perfect as you can get in Lanford Wilson’s charming ode to romance as healer, the magic in the script matched by two lovely performances.

5. Killer Joe (Compass): Tracy Letts’ in-your-face dark comedy about trailer trash and their extralegal maneuvers to make a buck boasted a great cast, fabulous set and killer direction from Lisa Berger.

6. Equivocation (Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles): Shakespeare, commissioned by King James I to write a play about the Gunpowder Plot based on the king’s biased information, must decide how much equivocation he can/must engage in to save his head and at the same time serve his art. Bill Cain’s new play is a riveting meditation on art, politics and artistic integrity.

7. Opus (Old Globe at the Copley Arena Stage): A fascinating glimpse into the professional and personal lives of a fictional string quartet auditioning a new member. Terrific ensemble work here.

8. Better Angels (Colony Theatre in Burbank): Wisconsin widow Cordelia Harvey visited the White House in 1863 to ask President Lincoln to build hospitals in the North for the war wounded. This lovely play by Wayne Peter Liebman shows what might have happened, and reveals both the well-known sadness of Lincoln and his lesser known playful side.

9. Rabbit Hole (North Coast Rep): Grief is a heavy topic for a play, but Director Stephen Elton’s taut direction and terrific cast kept this story about the effects of the accidental death of a child on his family from falling into bathos.

10. The Little Dog Laughed (Diversionary): This hilarious, biting satire on the price of stardom gave Karson St. John – as a shark-in-stilettos actor’s agent – a chance to run away with the show, and she did.

Those were my favorites, but there were many other fine productions.

The mysterious power of love has never seemed so amusing as in Cygnet’s fine production of John Kolvenbach’s quirky Love Song.

Diversionary and ion joined forces for a production of Bent that actually made moving rocks from one side of the stage to the other a riveting experience.

Scripps Ranch Theatre did a pitch-perfect I’m Not Rappaport, thanks to director Robert May and stars Charlie Riendeau and Antonio “TJ” Johnson.

Broadway San Diego came through with a terrific return engagement of Julie Taymor’s spectacular The Lion King; also in that series, Topol enchanted audiences as Tevye in the old favorite Fiddler On the Roof.

Other fine musicals were Cygnet’s Bed and Sofa, Lyric Opera’s Trial By Jury, Ariel Performing Arts’ Zanna, Don’t, Groovelily’s delightful homegrown Long Story Short at San Diego Rep, Moonlight’s fabulous 42nd Street and the “other” Phantom.

Poor Players did a terrific Measure for Measure; especially memorable were Richard Baird as Angelo and Eric Schoen as Lucio.

Moxie’s wonderful production of Lucy Prebble’s oddball The Sugar Syndrome at Diversionary left me wanting more from this playwright (and I always want more from the women of Moxie).

Al Germani’s Lynx Performance Theatre brought us Dickinson and a luminous Rhianna Basore as the famous American poet.

Claudio Raygoza and Glenn Paris’ ion theatre gave us a fine production of Marianne McDonald’s translation of Euripides’ moving Trojan Women as well as excellent readings of Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow and Bryony Lavery’s troubling Frozen, the last two against nearly insurmountable odds in downtown’s noisy Sushi space.

San Diego Repertory’s Doubt, Moonlight’s The Foreigner, Inukshuk’s Side Man (at Diversionary), Mo’olelo’s Good Boys and Compass’ American Buffalo round out my list of terrific shows this year.

Individual awards are listed in alphabetical order.

Best Actress: Rhianna Basore, Dickinson (Lynx); Glynn Bedington, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Compass); Amy Biedel, Talley’s Folly (North Coast Rep); Kandis Chappell, Collected Stories (South Coast Rep); Celeste Ciulla, Coriolanus (Old Globe); Dana Hooley, Frozen (ion); Jessica John, Love Song (Cygnet); Veronica Murphy, Trojan Women (ion); Rosina Reynolds, Doubt (San Diego Rep); Karson St. John, The Little Dog Laughed (Diversionary).

Best Actor: David Ellenstein, Talley’s Folly (North Coast Rep); Francis Gercke, Love Song (Cygnet); Robert Grossman, Old Wicked Songs (North Coast Rep); Jonathan McMurtry, The Dresser and A Christmas Carol (North Coast Rep); Dale Morris, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Compass); Patrick Page, Cyrano de Bergerac (Old Globe); Matt Scott, Frozen and Speed-the-Plow (ion); Sean Sullivan, The Dresser (North Coast Rep); Greg Wittman, Dickinson (Lynx).

Best Director: Lisa Berger, Killer Joe (Compass); Darko Tresnjak, Cyrano de Bergerac (Old Globe).

Best Ensemble Cast: Bed and Sofa (Cygnet); The Little Dog Laughed (Diversionary); Mauritius (Cygnet).

Best Student Productions: 1001 (UCSD); The Misanthrope (UCSD); Musical of Musicals (the musical!), SDSU; Two Gentlemen of Verona (USD/Globe).

Best Set Design: Marty Burnett, Over the Tavern (North Coast Rep); Sean Fanning, Mauritius (Cygnet); Thomas George, The Misanthrope (UCSD); Andrew Hull, Bed and Sofa (Cygnet) and Good Person of Szechwan (SDSU); Michael McKeon, Killer Joe (Compass); Todd Rosenthal, August: Osage County (Ahmanson).

The belt-tightening demanded by the economic hole many of us find ourselves in has also affected the arts here and elsewhere.

Cygnet Theatre decided not to renew its lease at the Rolando site and to concentrate efforts at their Old Town location. Fortunately, Rolando will be Moxie Theatre’s new home.

And after nine years at Compass Theatre (originally 6th@Penn), Dale Morris has abandoned producing in favor of acting. The good news: scrappy little ion theater finally has a home there.