At the nominations party for the Canberra Area Theatre Awards at Teatro Vivaldi this week, it was announced the CAT Awards would be going on the road. For the first time, the awards night next year will be held out of Canberra – at the Dubbo Civic Theatre.

CAT Awards convener Coralie Wood said, "After 21 years, with so many regional companies involved, we thought we would take the show over there to show our appreciation."

The evening will include a tribute to one of the CAT Awards' patrons, actor and musician Jon English, who died in March. Appearing at the awards will be new patrons Simon Gallaher, actor, singer and producer and Michael Edgley, entertainment producer, and current patrons, actors John Wood and Toni Lamond.

Wood said the theatre in Dubbo was the biggest regional NSW theatre she could find for this new venture. The CAT Awards would return to Llewellyn Hall in Canberra in 2018 and then would probably move between there and regional locations every two or three years.

The 2016 CAT Awards season saw 68 companies involved – 28 schools and colleges and 40 adult companies. Thirty-three of the companies are ACT-based and 35 are from regional NSW.

Of the 98 productions seen, 51 were in the ACT and 47 in NSW. Forty-six were musicals and variety shows, 45 were plays and seven were dance productions. Sixty-three were adult productions and 35 were youth productions.

Canberra Repertory Society was the company with the most nominations, a total of 37 divided between six productions as follows: Macbeth (six); Noises Off (seven);She Stoops to Conquer (nine); The Threepenny Opera (two); Uncle Vanya (eight); and Witness for the Prosecution (five).

Wollongong's So Popera Productions' presentation of the Mel Brooks musical The Producers received 11 nominations. ANU Interhall Productions' Stephen Sondheim production, Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street received 10. Free-Rain Theatre Company's two musical productions received 18 nominations, nine each for The Little Mermaid and Wicked, both Canberra premieres. Phoenix Players' two musicals, Next to Normal and Spring Awakening, received 16 nominations between them - six for the former and 10 for the latter. Both shows were also Canberra premieres.

Wood said the school and youth productions this year continued the high standard of recent years. Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts received 21 nominations for its two productions, five for Ash Girl, a reworking of Cinderella, and 16 for the musical Legally Blonde. Canberra Grammar School received five nominations for its production of Louis Nowra's play Cosi and four for its production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Daramalan College's productions of Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs adapted by Jo Turner and Michael Gerard Bauer from the latter's book and Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui received four each.

She was also impressed by the quality of the much-nominated Murder She Prescribed, the ANU Med Revue.

Edwin Briggs, a CAT judge since 2003 and the organisation's website and data co-ordinator, said it had been a big year with 98 productions, ranging from plays and musicals to variety shows and dance productions. And he had had a busy year travelling to see as many productions as he could in the region.

"I've been once to Griffith, three times to Albury, two times to Orange, taken one trip to Dubbo, three trips to Wollongong, a couple to Batemans Bay and three trips to Wagga Wagga."

Briggs echoed Wood in praising the quality of school and youth shows in 2016. He said the standard of musicals in Canberra and the region had also been very high this year. He was pleased to see Phoenix receive recognition for its presentation of two challenging and lesser-known shows in Spring Awakening and Next to Normal.

"They took great risks in many ways and did a really good job with both of them – it's a breath of fresh air. It's great to see something different."

The winners will be announced at the awards night in February. For more information, including the full list of nominations and bookings, see catawards.com.au.