So the big winners at last night’s Helen Hayes awards were… puppets?

Indeed, Aaron Posner’s unique vision for Measure for Measure, produced at the Folger this year, where puppets took on many of the play’s roles, earned him a best director trophy (he tied with Michael Kahn, for his zany take on Love’s Labor Lost), as well as the award for Outstanding Resident Play.

Signature Theater’s Assassins won the most awards of the night with four, three for acting and one for director Joe Calarco – to no one’s surprise, but it was a bit of a shock to see it not take home the trophy for best resident musical. That instead went to Studio Theater’s Caroline or Change, whose lead Julia Nixon also snagged the best lead actress in a musical trophy.

A number of DCist favorites were successful in winning awards, among them Synetic choreographer Irina Tsikurishvili (whose smashing blue dress was the knockout outfit of the evening), and actors Kate Eastwood Norris, Andrew Long and Will Gartshore.

Catalyst Theater was one of the night’s unexpected winners, being the first group to win the award for best ensemble, a new category this year (though an acceptance speech from the group’s spokesman expressing annoyance that individual actors weren’t recognized seemed a bit ungracious, giving the setting). Another surprise was the solid but less than splashy performance of Johanna Day in Arena’s The Rainmaker, besting out the light of Woolly’s Kimberly Gilbert, Studio’s Nancy Robinette and Shakespeare Theater’s Veanne Cox.