Good morning on this freezing Friday.

This month, we asked readers to nominate candidates for New York Today’s New Yorkers of the Year series, our annual celebration of citizens who have made a difference in the city over the last 12 months. We received more than 100 submissions, and this week we are highlighting a few of our exemplary neighbors.

“Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow.”

So went the vocal warm-ups for a pantomime production of “Jack and the Beanstalk” at the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side.

Moments later, the cast gathered for “family circle,” a preshow pep talk led by Mat Fraser and Julie Atlas Muz, the couple who wrote and directed the play. “Be brighter, be bigger!” Ms. Muz told the huddle before the red curtain rose and the room went dark.

Mr. Fraser and Ms. Muz had gotten married years before on the same stage where “Jack” just finished its three-week run and where they put on a raunchy rendition of “Beauty and the Beast” in 2014. They called the theater their chapel and their community center.