Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director
Awarded for	Outstanding Director
Location	New York City
Country	United States
Presented by	Drama Desk
First award	1955
Final award	1974
Website	dramadesk.org (defunct)

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director was introduced in 1955 to honor directors, with no distinction between work in plays or musicals. From 1968, multiple awards were presented for each season. In 1975 the category was retired and replaced by two awards: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical.

Award winners

Key

  and bold indicates the winner.

Year	Designer	Production	Ref.
1955	Jack Landau	The Clandestine Marriage / The White Devil	[1]
1956	José Quintero	The Iceman Cometh	[2]
1957-1958	N/A
1959	William Ball	Ivanov	[3]

1960s

Year	Designer	Production	Ref.
1960-1964	N/A
1965	Ulu Grosbard	A View from the Bridge	[4]
1966	N/A
1967	Joseph Hardy	You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown	[5]
1968	Robert Moore	The Boys in the Band	[6]
Tom O'Horgan	Tom Paine
1969	Tom O'Horgan	Futz	[7]
	Neal Kenyon	Dames at Sea
	Alan Arkin	Little Murders
Michael Schultz	Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
Gordon Davidson	In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Edwin Sherin	The Great White Hope

1970s

Year	Designer	Production	Ref.
1970	Jerzy Grotowski	The Apocalypse	[8]
	Alan Arkin	The White House Murder Case
	Ron Field	Applause
Joseph Hardy	Child's Play
Harold Prince	Company
1971	Robert Wilson	Deafman Glance	[9]
	Andre Gregory	Alice in Wonderland
	Peter Brook	A Midsummer Night's Dream
Michael Bennett and Harold Prince	Follies
Tom O'Horgan	Lenny
Paul Sills	Ovid's Metamorphoses and Paul Sills' Story Theatre
1972	Mel Shapiro	Older People	[10]
	Andrei Șerban	Medea
	Peter Hall	Old Times
Jeff Bleckner	Sticks and Bones
A. J. Antoon	That Championship Season
Mel Shapiro	Two Gentlemen of Verona
1973	Victor Garcia	Yerma	[11]
	Joseph Chaikin and Roberta Sklar	The Mutation Show
	Harold Prince	A Little Night Music
Bob Fosse	Pippin
Michael Rudman	The Changing Room
Harold Prince	The Great God Brown
1974	José Quintero	A Moon for the Misbegotten	[12]
	Harold Prince	Candide
	The Visit
Frank Dunlop	Scapino
Marvin Felix Camillo	Short Eyes

See also

• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play
• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical

References

1. "1955 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
2. "1956 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
3. "1959 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
4. "1965 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
5. "1967 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
6. "1968 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
7. "1969 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
8. "1970 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
9. "1971 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
10. "1972 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
11. "1973 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
12. "1974 Awards – Nominees and Recipients". Drama Desk. Retrieved October 2, 2025.