| Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Puppet Design | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Outstanding Puppet Design |
| Location | New York City |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Drama Desk |
| First award | 1998 |
| Currently held by | Amanda Vollalobos for Becoming Eve (2025) |
| Website | dramadesk.org (defunct) |
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Puppetry is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. The award was first presented at the 1998 ceremony, as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Puppet Design, [1] then suspended from use until the 2017 ceremony. The current name was introduced as of the 2023 ceremony.
Unlike some Drama Desk Awards, the award for Outstanding Puppetry combines plays and musicals into a single category. Michael Curry holds the record for most wins in the category with two, while also being tied with Amanda Villalobos for most nominations, with three each.
| Year | Designer | Production | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Julie Taymor and Michael Curry | The Lion King | [2] [3] |
| The Big Nazo Studio | Jackie: An American Life | ||
| Bruce Schwartz | Ballad of Yachiyo | ||
| Basil Twist | Tell-Tale |
| Year | Designer | Production | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Basil Twist | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | [4] [5] |
| Lyndie Wright and Sarah Wright | 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips | ||
| 2018 | |||
| Michael Curry | Frozen | [6] [7] | |
| Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes | Angels in America | ||
| Charlie Kanev, Sarah Nolan, and Jonathan Levin | A Hunger Artist | ||
| Vandy Wood | The Artificial Jungle | ||
| 2019 | |||
| Sonny Tilders | King Kong | [8] [9] | |
| Michael Curry | Beetlejuice | ||
| Tschabalala Self | Daddy |
| Year | Designer | Production | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Raphael Mishler | Tumacho | [10] [11] |
| Rockefeller Productions | Paddington Gets in a Jam | ||
| Amanda Villalobos | Is This a Room | ||
| 2021 | No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. | [12] | |
| 2022 | |||
| James Ortiz | The Skin of Our Teeth | [13] [14] [15] | |
| Amanda Villalobos | Wolf Play | ||
| Rockefeller Productions | Winnie the Pooh | ||
| 2023 | Nick Barnes & Finn Caldwell | Life of Pi | [16] [17] |
| John Leader | Wuthering Heights | ||
| James Ortiz and Kennedy Kanagawa | Into the Woods | ||
| Kirjan Waage | The Immortal Jellyfish Girl | ||
| 2024 | Ray Wetmore, JR Goodman, and Camille Labarre | Water for Elephants | [18] [19] |
| Matt Acheson | Hotel Happy | ||
| Adrian Kohler & Handspring Puppet Company | Life & Times of Michael K | ||
| David Valentine | Poor Yella Rednecks | ||
| 2025 | Amanda Villalobos | Becoming Eve | [20] [21] |
| Dorothy James | Bill's 44th | ||
| Tom Lee | See What I Wanna See | ||
| Simple Mischief Studio | Small Acts of Daring Invention | ||
| Kirjan Waage | Dead as a Dodo | ||