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Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Direction of a Play
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Drama Desk Award |
| for Outstanding Direction of a Play | |
| image | Danya Taymor in 2024.jpg |
| image_size | 160 |
| caption | Danya Taymor, 2025 winner |
| awarded_for | Outstanding Direction of a Play |
| presenter | Drama Desk |
| location | New York City |
| country | United States |
| year | 1975 |
| holder | Danya Taymor for John Proctor is the Villain (2025) |
| website |
for Outstanding Direction of a Play The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Direction of a Play is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements by theatre directors across collective Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City, United States. The awards were established in 1955, with the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director being presented each year to a director from any play or musical production. Starting in 1975, the singular director's award was replaced by separate play and musical categories.
Jack O'Brien and Jerry Zaks hold the record for most wins in the category, with three each. Daniel J. Sullivan holds the record for most nominations, with seven, followed closely by Joe Mantello with six and Mike Nichols with five. Mary Zimmerman was the first female winner, receiving the award in 2002 for Metamorphoses. Since her win, Anna D. Shapiro, Pam MacKinnon, Marianne Elliott, Rebecca Frecknall and current winner Danya Taymor have also won the award as female directors.
Winners and nominees
;Key
1970s
| Year | Director | Production | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Dexter | Equus | ||||||
| Frank Dunlop | Sherlock Holmes | ||||||
| Athol Fugard | Sizwe Banzi Is Dead | ||||||
| The Island | |||||||
| Peter H. Hunt | Goodtime Charlie | ||||||
| Ron Link | Women Behind Bars | ||||||
| Gene Saks | Same Time, Next Year | ||||||
| Ellis Rabb | The Royal Family | ||||||
| Edward Albee | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | ||||||
| Arvin Brown | Dual Bill | ||||||
| Mike Nichols | Streamers | ||||||
| Stephen Porter | They Knew What They Wanted | ||||||
| Tom Signorelli | Lamppost Reunion | ||||||
| Mike Nichols | Comedians | ||||||
| Alan Schneider | *A Texas Trilogy* | ||||||
| Frank Dunlop | The New York Idea | ||||||
| Tony Giordano | G.R. Point | ||||||
| Ulu Grosbard | American Buffalo | ||||||
| Oz Scott | For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf | ||||||
| Melvin Bernhardt | Da | ||||||
| Peter Bennett | Dracula | ||||||
| Joseph Chaikin | The Dybbuk | ||||||
| Mike Nichols | The Gin Game | ||||||
| Steven Robman | Uncommon Women | ||||||
| Garland Wright | K | ||||||
| Jack Hofsiss | The Elephant Man | ||||||
| Alan Ayckbourn | Bedroom Farce | ||||||
| John Madden | Wings | ||||||
| Stephen Porter | Man and Superman | ||||||
| Horacena J. Taylor | Nevis Mt. Dew | ||||||
| Ted Weiant | The Miracle Worker |
1980s
| Year | Director | Production | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vivian Matalon | Morning's at Seven | |||||||||||
| Kevin Conway | Mecca | |||||||||||
| Gordon Davidson | Children of a Lesser God | |||||||||||
| Lynne Gannaway and Robert Kalfin | Strider | |||||||||||
| Marshall W. Mason | Talley's Folly | |||||||||||
| Alan Schneider | Loose Ends | |||||||||||
| Peter Hall | Amadeus | |||||||||||
| Melvin Bernhardt | Crimes of the Heart | |||||||||||
| Geraldine Fitzgerald | Mass Appeal | |||||||||||
| Douglas Seale | The Winslow Boy | |||||||||||
| Tommy Tune | *Cloud Nine* | |||||||||||
| Athol Fugard | "Master Harold"...and the Boys | |||||||||||
| Jacques Levy | Potsdam Quartet | |||||||||||
| John Tillinger | Entertaining Mr Sloane | |||||||||||
| Douglas Turner Ward | A Soldier's Play | |||||||||||
| Trevor Nunn | All's Well That Ends Well | |||||||||||
| Robert Allan Ackerman | Extremities | |||||||||||
| Michael Bennett | Third Street | |||||||||||
| George C. Scott | Present Laughter | |||||||||||
| Arthur Sherman | The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial | |||||||||||
| Gary Sinise | True West | |||||||||||
| Michael Blakemore | Noises Off | |||||||||||
| Lee Grant | A Private View | |||||||||||
| Gerald Gutierrez | Isn't It Romantic | |||||||||||
| Terry Kinney | And a Nightingale Sang | |||||||||||
| Gregory Mosher | Glengarry Glen Ross | |||||||||||
| Mike Nichols | The Real Thing | |||||||||||
| John Malkovich | *Balm in Gilead* | |||||||||||
| Ron Lagomarsino | Digby | |||||||||||
| Marshall W. Mason | As Is | |||||||||||
| Gene Saks | Biloxi Blues | |||||||||||
| Claudia Weill | Found a Peanut | |||||||||||
| Jerry Zaks | *The Marriage of Bette & Boo* | |||||||||||
| The House of Blue Leaves | ||||||||||||
| Liviu Ciulei | Hamlet | |||||||||||
| Jonathan Miller | Long Day's Journey into Night | |||||||||||
| Mary B. Robinson | Lemon Sky | |||||||||||
| Gary Sinise | Orphans | |||||||||||
| John Tillinger | It's Only a Play | |||||||||||
| Loot | ||||||||||||
| Howard Davies | Les Liaisons Dangereuses | |||||||||||
| Simon Gray and Michael McGuire | The Common Pursuit | |||||||||||
| Ron Lagomarsino | Driving Miss Daisy | |||||||||||
| Lloyd Richards | Fences | |||||||||||
| Carole Rothman | Coastal Disturbances | |||||||||||
| Gene Saks | Broadway Bound | |||||||||||
| John Dexter | M. Butterfly | |||||||||||
| W. H. Macy | Boys' Life | |||||||||||
| Lynne Meadow | Woman in Mind | |||||||||||
| Gregory Mosher | Speed-the-Plow | |||||||||||
| Lloyd Richards | Joe Turner's Come and Gone | |||||||||||
| Jerry Zaks | Lend Me a Tenor | |||||||||||
| Simon Callow | Shirley Valentine | |||||||||||
| Robin Lefèvre | Aristocrats | |||||||||||
| Jack O'Brien | The Cocktail Hour | |||||||||||
| Norman René | Reckless | |||||||||||
| Daniel Sullivan | The Heidi Chronicles |
1990s
| Year | Director | Production | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Galati | The Grapes of Wrath | |||||||||||
| Roger Michell | Some Americans Abroad | |||||||||||
| Adrian Noble | The Art of Success | |||||||||||
| Norman René | Prelude to a Kiss | |||||||||||
| Lloyd Richards | The Piano Lesson | |||||||||||
| Jerry Zaks | Six Degrees of Separation | |||||||||||
| Michael Greif | Machinal | |||||||||||
| Richard Jones | La Bête | |||||||||||
| Kevin Kline | Hamlet | |||||||||||
| Patrick Mason | Dancing at Lughnasa | |||||||||||
| JoAnne Akalaitis | 'Tis Pity She's a Whore | |||||||||||
| Michael Bloom | Sight Unseen | |||||||||||
| David Chambers | Search and Destroy | |||||||||||
| Mark Wing-Davey | Mad Forest | |||||||||||
| George C. Wolfe | Angels in America: Millennium Approaches | |||||||||||
| Christopher Ashley | Jeffrey | |||||||||||
| Adrian Hall | As You Like It | |||||||||||
| Ariane Mnouchkine | Les Atrides | |||||||||||
| Daniel Sullivan | The Sisters Rosensweig | |||||||||||
| Stephen Daldry | An Inspector Calls | |||||||||||
| JoAnne Akalaitis | In the Summer House | |||||||||||
| Jonathan Kent | Medea | |||||||||||
| Mark Wing-Davey | The Lights | |||||||||||
| Mary Zimmerman | Arabian Nights | |||||||||||
| Gerald Gutierrez | The Heiress | |||||||||||
| Declan Donnellan | As You Like It | |||||||||||
| David Esbjornson | Iphigenia and Other Daughters | |||||||||||
| Emily Mann | Having Our Say | |||||||||||
| Joe Mantello | Love! Valour! Compassion! | |||||||||||
| Sean Mathias | Indiscretions | |||||||||||
| Gerald Gutierrez | A Delicate Balance | |||||||||||
| Scott Elliott | The Monogamist | |||||||||||
| Doug Hughes | The Grey Zone | |||||||||||
| Adrian Noble | A Midsummer Night's Dream | |||||||||||
| Lloyd Richards | Seven Guitars | |||||||||||
| George C. Wolfe | The Tempest | |||||||||||
| Mark Brokaw | *How I Learned to Drive* | |||||||||||
| Robert La Page | The Seven Streams of the River Ota | |||||||||||
| Lynne Meadow | Nine Armenians | |||||||||||
| Deborah Warner | The Waste Land | |||||||||||
| Mark Wing-Davey | The Skriker | |||||||||||
| Michael Mayer | A View from the Bridge | |||||||||||
| *Side Man* | ||||||||||||
| Scott Elliott | Goose-Pimples | |||||||||||
| James Houghton | The American Clock | |||||||||||
| Garry Hynes | The Beauty Queen of Leenane | |||||||||||
| Joe Mantello | ''Mizlansky/Zilinsky or 'Schmucks''' | |||||||||||
| Simon McBurney | The Chairs | |||||||||||
| Trevor Nunn | Not About Nightingales | |||||||||||
| Derek Anson Jones | Wit | |||||||||||
| Howard Davies | The Iceman Cometh | |||||||||||
| Robert Falls | Death of a Salesman | |||||||||||
| Patrick Marber | Closer | |||||||||||
| Nicholas Martin | Betty's Summer Vacation |
2000s
| Year | Director | Production | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Blakemore | Copenhagen | |||||||||||
| Thomas Hulce and Jane Jones | The Cider House Rules (Part One) | |||||||||||
| James Lapine | Dirty Blonde | |||||||||||
| Michael Mayer | Uncle Vanya | |||||||||||
| Marion McClinton | Jitney | |||||||||||
| Daniel J. Sullivan | Dinner with Friends | |||||||||||
| Jack O'Brien | The Invention of Love | |||||||||||
| Mark Brokaw | Lobby Hero | |||||||||||
| Michael Greif | Dogeaters | |||||||||||
| Philip Seymour Hoffman | Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train | |||||||||||
| Jonathan Kent | Richard II | |||||||||||
| Matthew Warchus | The Unexpected Man | |||||||||||
| Mary Zimmerman | Metamorphoses | |||||||||||
| Howard Davies | Private Lives | |||||||||||
| Richard Eyre | The Crucible | |||||||||||
| Carl Forsman | The Voice of the Turtle | |||||||||||
| Neil LaBute | The Shape of Things | |||||||||||
| Bartlett Sher | Cymbeline | |||||||||||
| Robert Falls | Long Day's Journey into Night | |||||||||||
| Philip Seymour Hoffman | Our Lady of 121st Street | |||||||||||
| Joe Mantello | Take Me Out | |||||||||||
| Sam Mendes | Twelfth Night | |||||||||||
| Uncle Vanya | ||||||||||||
| Deborah Warner | Medea | |||||||||||
| Jack O'Brien | Henry IV | |||||||||||
| Hilary Adams | Moby Dick | |||||||||||
| Dexter Bullard | Bug | |||||||||||
| Edward Hall | A Midsummer Night's Dream | |||||||||||
| Moisés Kaufman | I Am My Own Wife | |||||||||||
| Kenny Leon | A Raisin in the Sun | |||||||||||
| Doug Hughes | Doubt | |||||||||||
| Josh Carlebach | Frankenstein | |||||||||||
| Scott Elliott | Hurlyburly | |||||||||||
| Scott Ellis | Twelve Angry Men | |||||||||||
| Edward Hall | Rose Rage | |||||||||||
| Joe Mantello | Glengarry Glen Ross | |||||||||||
| Nicholas Hytner | The History Boys | |||||||||||
| Alan Ayckbourn | Private Fears in Public Places | |||||||||||
| Gisela Cardenas | Agamemnon | |||||||||||
| Daniel J. Sullivan | Stuff Happens | |||||||||||
| Robert Wilson | Peer Gynt | |||||||||||
| Jerry Zaks | The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial | |||||||||||
| Jack O'Brien | The Coast of Utopia | |||||||||||
| Declan Donnellan | Twelfth Night | |||||||||||
| Michael Grandage | Frost/Nixon | |||||||||||
| Doug Hughes | Inherit the Wind | |||||||||||
| Ciaran O'Reilly | The Hairy Ape | |||||||||||
| Tom Ridgely | Marco Millions | |||||||||||
| Anna D. Shapiro | August: Osage County | |||||||||||
| David Schweizer | Horizon | |||||||||||
| Leigh Silverman | From Up Here | |||||||||||
| Jonathan Silverstein | The Dining Room | |||||||||||
| Matthew Warchus | Boeing-Boeing | |||||||||||
| Deborah Warner | Happy Days | |||||||||||
| Matthew Warchus | The Norman Conquests | |||||||||||
| Sarah Benson | Blasted | |||||||||||
| Michael Blakemore | Blithe Spirit | |||||||||||
| Garry Hynes | The Cripple of Inishmaan | |||||||||||
| Terry Kinney | reasons to be pretty | |||||||||||
| Kate Whoriskey | Ruined |
2010s
| Year | Director | Production | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Grandage | Red | |||||||||||
| Jonathan Bank | So Help Me God! | |||||||||||
| Jack Cummings III | The Boys in the Band | |||||||||||
| Sam Gold | Circle Mirror Transformation | |||||||||||
| Michael Grandage | Hamlet | |||||||||||
| Ethan Hawke | A Lie of the Mind | |||||||||||
| Joel Grey and George C. Wolfe | The Normal Heart | |||||||||||
| Trip Cullman | A Small Fire | |||||||||||
| Moisés Kaufman | Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo | |||||||||||
| Davis McCallum | A Bright New Boise | |||||||||||
| Daniel J. Sullivan | The Merchant of Venice | |||||||||||
| Kirjan Waage and Gwendolyn Warnock | Baby Universe | |||||||||||
| Mike Nichols | Death of a Salesman | |||||||||||
| Jo Bonney | By the Way, Meet Vera Stark | |||||||||||
| David Cromer | Tribes | |||||||||||
| Ed Sylvanus Iskandar | These Seven Sicknesses | |||||||||||
| Sam Mendes | Richard III | |||||||||||
| Tony Speciale | Unnatural Acts | |||||||||||
| Pam MacKinnon | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | |||||||||||
| Lear de Bessonet | The Good Person of Szechwan | |||||||||||
| Sam Gold | Uncle Vanya | |||||||||||
| Ed Sylvanus Iskandar | Restoration Comedy | |||||||||||
| Lynne Meadow | The Assembled Parties | |||||||||||
| Ruben Santiago-Hudson | The Piano Lesson | |||||||||||
| Tim Carroll | Twelfth Night | |||||||||||
| Joe Calarco | A Christmas Carol | |||||||||||
| Thomas Kail | Family Furniture | |||||||||||
| Bill Rauch | All the Way | |||||||||||
| Anna D. Shapiro | Domesticated | |||||||||||
| Julie Taymor | A Midsummer Night's Dream | |||||||||||
| Marianne Elliott | *The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time * | |||||||||||
| Jeremy Herrin | Wolf Hall Parts One & Two | |||||||||||
| Anne Kauffman | You Got Older | |||||||||||
| Lila Neugebauer | The Wayside Motor Inn | |||||||||||
| Austin Pendleton | Between Riverside and Crazy | |||||||||||
| Joe Tantalo | Deliverance | |||||||||||
| John Tiffany | Let the Right One In | |||||||||||
| Ivo van Hove | A View from the Bridge | |||||||||||
| Rachel Chavkin | The Royale | |||||||||||
| Sam Gold | John | |||||||||||
| Rupert Goold | King Charles III | |||||||||||
| Joe Mantello | The Humans | |||||||||||
| Jenn Thompson | Women Without Men | |||||||||||
| Ruben Santiago-Hudson | Jitney | |||||||||||
| Anne Kauffman | A Life | |||||||||||
| Richard Nelson | What Did You Expect? and Women of a Certain Age | |||||||||||
| Daniel J. Sullivan | The Little Foxes | |||||||||||
| If I Forget | ||||||||||||
| John Tiffany | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child | |||||||||||
| Marianne Elliott | Angels in America | |||||||||||
| Jeremy Herrin | People, Places and Things | |||||||||||
| Joe Mantello | Three Tall Women | |||||||||||
| Lila Neugebauer | Miles for Mary | |||||||||||
| Simon Stone | Yerma | |||||||||||
| Sam Mendes | The Ferryman | |||||||||||
| Sarah Benson | Fairview | |||||||||||
| Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin | The Jungle | |||||||||||
| Tyne Rafaeli | Usual Girls | |||||||||||
| Taylor Reynolds | Plano | |||||||||||
| Jeff Wise | Life Sucks |
2020s
| Year | Director | Production | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen Daldry | *The Inheritance* | |||||||
| Jessica Blank | Coal Country | |||||||
| John Ortiz | Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven | |||||||
| Tina Satter | Is This A Room | |||||||
| Erica Schmidt | Mac Beth | |||||||
| No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City}} | ||||||||
| Rebecca Frecknall | *Sanctuary City* | |||||||
| Knud Adams | English | |||||||
| Saheem Ali | Merry Wives | |||||||
| Taibi Magar | Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 | |||||||
| Whitney White | On Sugarland | |||||||
| Max Webster | *Life of Pi* | |||||||
| Zi Alikhan | On That Day in Amsterdam | |||||||
| Shayok Misha Chowdhury | Public Obscenities | |||||||
| Miranda Cromwell | Death of a Salesman | |||||||
| Adam Meggido | Peter Pan Goes Wrong | |||||||
| Alexander Zeldin | Love | |||||||
| Daniel Aukin | *Stereophonic* | |||||||
| Rupert Goold | The Hunt | |||||||
| Kenny Leon | Purlie Victorious | |||||||
| Lila Neugebauer | Appropriate | |||||||
| Ciarán O’Reilly | Philadelphia, Here I Come! | |||||||
| Danya Taymor | John Proctor is the Villain | |||||||
| David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan | The Antiquities | |||||||
| Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin | Stranger Things: The First Shadow | |||||||
| Tyne Rafaeli | Becoming Eve | |||||||
| Jack Serio | Grangeville | |||||||
| Whitney White | Liberation | |||||||
| Kip Williams | The Picture of Dorian Gray |
Multiple wins
;3 wins
- Jack O'Brien
- Jerry Zaks
;2 wins
- John Dexter
- Mike Nichols
- Trevor Nunn
- George C. Scott
- Michael Blakemore
- Gerald Gutierrez
- Stephen Daldry
Multiple nominations
;7 nominations
- Daniel J. Sullivan
;6 nominations
- Joe Mantello
;5 nominations
- Mike Nichols
;4 nominations
- George C. Scott
- Lloyd Richards
- Jack O'Brien
- Jerry Zaks
- Stephen Daldry
- Sam Mendes
;3 nominations
- Athol Fugard
- Gene Saks
- John Tillinger
- Michael Blakemore
- Gerald Gutierrez
- Howard Davies
- Lynne Meadow
- Mark Wing-Davey
- Scott Elliott
- Doug Hughes
- Deborah Warner
- Matthew Warchus
- Michael Grandage
- Sam Gold
- Lila Neugebauer
;2 nominations
- John Dexter
- Frank Dunlop
- Stephen Porter
- Alan Schneider
- Melvin Bernhardt
- Alan Ayckbourn
- Marshall W. Mason
- Trevor Nunn
- Gary Sinise
- Terry Kinney
- Gregory Mosher
- Ron Lagomarsino
- Norman René
- Adrian Noble
- Michael Greif
- JoAnne Akalaitis
- Jonathan Kent
- Mary Zimmerman
- Declan Donnellan
- Mark Brokaw
- Garry Hynes
- Michael Mayer
- Robert Falls
- Philip Seymour Hoffman
- Edward Hall
- Moisés Kaufman
- Kenny Leon
- Ciarán O’Reilly
- Anna D. Shapiro
- Sarah Benson
- David Cromer
- Ruben Santiago-Hudson
- Marianne Elliott
- Jeremy Herrin
- Anne Kauffman
- John Tiffany
- Rupert Goold
- Justin Martin
- Tyne Rafaeli
- Whitney White
References
References
- Evans, Greg. (2021-05-05). "Broadway To Reopen Sept. 14, Says Gov. Andrew Cuomo; Broadway League "Cautiously Optimistic"". [[Deadline Hollywood]].
- (2024-06-10). "Stereophonic Leads 2024 Drama Desk Awards with 7 Wins Including Outstanding Play - Playbill.com".
- Culwell-Block, Logan. (April 30, 2025). "Boop! Leads 2025 Drama Desk Award Nominations With 11 Nods Including Outstanding Musical; Read the Full List Here".
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