LA JOLLA — La Jolla Playhouse retained its status as a powerhouse in the theater community, garnering top honors on Monday, Jan. 10, at the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle’s 2010 Craig Noel Awards for Theatrical Excellence. The Playhouse was honored in 12 of the 29 categories at the awards show, held on at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla. Its production of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Ruined” earned the most honors, with awards for Outstanding Dramatic Production, Direction (Liesl Tommy), Lead Performance, Female (Tonye Patano), Featured Performance, Female (Zainab Jah), Ensemble, Set Design (Clint Ramos) and Sound Design (Broken Chord). “It’s rare to have one production win in so many categories, but when we held our voting session in December, virtually every member of the Critics Circle ranked ‘Ruined’ No. 1, so it was a hard act to follow,” Circle president Pam Kragen said in a recent statement. Christopher Ashley, artistic director for the Playhouse, said he was “very proud” of the Playhouse’s productions in 2010. “As much as these awards appreciate San Diego theater, we at the Playhouse feel exceptionally appreciated,” he said. “It was a fantastic night.” The Playhouse’s productions of “Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin” and “Notes From Underground” also won multiple awards. Ashley, who accepted the award for Outstanding Touring Production for “Notes From Underground,” described it as a “challenging piece” in his acceptance speech. It was a theme the Playhouse visited with more than one production last year, and it seems to have paid off. “We did a lot of challenging and dark productions this last year, and our audiences went there with us,” he said. “It has been a great pleasure.”