| Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design of a Play | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Outstanding Sound Design of a Play |
| Location | New York City |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Drama Desk |
| First award | 2010 |
| Currently held by | Paul Arditti for Stranger Things: The First Shadow (2025) |
| Website | dramadesk.org (defunct) |
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design of a Play 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 established in 1980, with the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design being presented each year to any play or musical production. Starting in 2010, the singular award was replaced by separate play and musical categories.
Four individuals hold the record for most wins in the category--Fitz Patton, Gareth Fry, Paul Arditti and Ben and Max Ringham--with two each. For nominations, Bray Poor, Gareth Fry and Tom Gibbons hold the record for most nominations with four each.
| Year | Designer | Production | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | |||
| Fitz Patton | When the Rain Stops Falling | [1] | |
| Dan Bianchi and Wes Shippee | Frankenstein | ||
| Dale Bigall | Underground | ||
| Adam Cork | ENRON | ||
| Lindsay Jones | Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers | ||
| Elizabeth Rhodes | John Ball's In the Heat of the Night | ||
| 2011 | |||
| Acme Sound Partners and Cricket S. Myers | Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo | [2] [3] [4] | |
| Acme Sound Partners | The Merchant of Venice | ||
| Ian Dickinson | John Gabriel Borkman | ||
| Brett Jarvis | Baby Universe | ||
| Bray Poor | Wings | ||
| Eric Shimelonis | The Hallway Trilogy | ||
| 2012 | |||
| John Gromada | The Best Man | [5] [6] [7] | |
| Quentin Chiappetta | The Navigator | ||
| Gregory Clarke | Misterman | ||
| Gareth Fry | Richard III | ||
| Stowe Nelson | Samuel and Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War | ||
| Shane Rettig | She Kills Monsters | ||
| 2013 | |||
| Mel Mercier | The Testament of Mary | [8] [9] | |
| Ien DeNio | The Pilo Family Circus | ||
| Steve Fontaine | Last Man Club | ||
| Christian Frederickson | Through the Yellow Hour | ||
| Lindsay Jones | Wild With Happy | ||
| Fergus O'Hare | Macbeth | ||
| 2014 | |||
| Matt Tierney | Machinal | [10] [11] [12] | |
| M.L. Dogg | The Open House | ||
| Katie Down | The Golden Dragon | ||
| Paul James Prendergast | All the Way | ||
| Dan Moses Schreier | Act One | ||
| Christopher Shutt | Love and Information | ||
| 2015 | |||
| Ian Dickinson | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | [13] [14] | |
| Nathan Davis | The Other Mozart | ||
| Ien Denio | Deliverance | ||
| Gareth Fry | Let the Right One In | ||
| John Gromada | Lives of the Saints (an anthology of short plays by David Ives) | ||
| Matt Tierney | Our Lady of Kibeho | ||
| 2016 | |||
| Fitz Patton | The Humans | [15] [16] | |
| Fitz Patton | An Act of God | ||
| Miles Polaski | Fulfillment | ||
| Bray Poor | John | ||
| Ryan Rumery | Empanada Loca | ||
| 2017 | |||
| Gareth Fry and Pete Malkin | The Encounter | [17] [18] | |
| Mikhail Fiksel | A Life | ||
| Brian Quijada | Where Did We Sit on the Bus? | ||
| Leon Rothenberg | Notes from the Field | ||
| Jane Shaw | Men on Boats | ||
| 2018 | |||
| Gareth Fry | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child | [19] [20] | |
| Brendan Aanes | Balls | ||
| Tom Gibbons | 1984 | ||
| People, Places and Things | |||
| Stefan Gregory | Yerma | ||
| Palmer Hefferan | Today is My Birthday | ||
| 2019 | |||
| Nick Powell | The Ferryman | [21] [22] | |
| Tyler Kieffer | Plano | ||
| Fitz Patton | Choir Boy | ||
| Jane Shaw | I Was Most Alive with You | ||
| Mikaal Sulaiman | Fairview |
| Year | Designer | Production | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | |||
| Paul Arditti and Christopher Reid | The Inheritance | [23] [24] | |
| Justin Ellington | Heroes of the Fourth Turning | ||
| Mikhail Fiksel | Dana H. | ||
| Palmer Hefferan | Fefu and Her Friends | ||
| Lee Kinney and Sanae Yamada | 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 | [25] | |
| 2022 | |||
| Ben and Max Ringham | Cyrano de Bergerac | [26] [27] [28] | |
| Tyler Kieffer | Seven Deadly Sins | ||
| Hidenori Nakajo and Ryan Rumery | Autumn Royal | ||
| Mikaal Sulaiman | Sanctuary City | ||
| Lee Kinney | Selling Kabul | ||
| 2023 | |||
| Ben & Max Ringham | A Doll's House | [29] [30] | |
| Justin Ellington | Ohio State Murders | ||
| Tom Gibbons | Hamlet | ||
| Josh Anio Grigg | Love | ||
| Lee Kinney & Daniel Kluger | You Will Get Sick | ||
| Mikaal Sulaiman | Fat Ham | ||
| 2024 | |||
| Ryan Rumery | Stereophonic | [31] [32] | |
| Adam Cork | The Hunt | ||
| Tom Gibbons | Grey House | ||
| Palmer Hefferan | The Comeuppance | ||
| Bray Poor and Will Pickens | Appropriate | ||
| 2025 | |||
| Paul Arditti | Stranger Things: The First Shadow | [33] [34] | |
| Johnny Gasper | Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica in the Woods | ||
| Matt Otto | All of Me | ||
| Bray Poor | Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp. | ||
| Clemence Williams | The Picture of Dorian Gray | ||
| Fan Zhang | Good Bones | ||