# Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. 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.

## Winners and nominees
### 1970s

| Year | Director | Production |
| 1975 |
| 1975 | John Dexter | Equus |
| 1975 | Frank Dunlop | Sherlock Holmes |
| 1975 | Athol Fugard | Sizwe Banzi Is Dead |
| 1975 | Athol Fugard | The Island |
| 1975 | Peter H. Hunt | Goodtime Charlie |
| 1975 | Ron Link | Women Behind Bars |
| 1975 | Gene Saks | Same Time, Next Year |
| 1976 |
| 1976 | Ellis Rabb | The Royal Family |
| 1976 | Edward Albee | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
| 1976 | Arvin Brown | Dual Bill |
| 1976 | Mike Nichols | Streamers |
| 1976 | Stephen Porter | They Knew What They Wanted |
| 1976 | Tom Signorelli | Lamppost Reunion |
| 1977 |
| 1977 | Mike Nichols | Comedians |
| 1977 | Alan Schneider | A Texas Trilogy |
| 1977 | Frank Dunlop | The New York Idea |
| 1977 | Tony Giordano | G.R. Point |
| 1977 | Ulu Grosbard | American Buffalo |
| 1977 | Oz Scott | For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf |
| 1978 |
| 1978 | Melvin Bernhardt | Da |
| 1978 | Peter Bennett | Dracula |
| 1978 | Joseph Chaikin | The Dybbuk |
| 1978 | Mike Nichols | The Gin Game |
| 1978 | Steven Robman | Uncommon Women |
| 1978 | Garland Wright | K |
| 1979 |
| 1979 | Jack Hofsiss | The Elephant Man |
| 1979 | Alan Ayckbourn | Bedroom Farce |
| 1979 | John Madden | Wings |
| 1979 | Stephen Porter | Man and Superman |
| 1979 | Horacena J. Taylor | Nevis Mt. Dew |
| 1979 | Ted Weiant | The Miracle Worker |

### 1980s

| Year | Director | Production |
| 1980 |
| 1980 | Vivian Matalon | Morning's at Seven |
| 1980 | Kevin Conway | Mecca |
| 1980 | Gordon Davidson | Children of a Lesser God |
| 1980 | Lynne Gannaway and Robert Kalfin | Strider |
| 1980 | Marshall W. Mason | Talley's Folly |
| 1980 | Alan Schneider | Loose Ends |
| 1981 |
| 1981 | Peter Hall | Amadeus |
| 1981 | Melvin Bernhardt | Crimes of the Heart |
| 1981 | Geraldine Fitzgerald | Mass Appeal |
| 1981 | Douglas Seale | The Winslow Boy |
| 1982 |
| 1982 | Tommy Tune | Cloud Nine |
| 1982 | Athol Fugard | "Master Harold"...and the Boys |
| 1982 | Jacques Levy | Potsdam Quartet |
| 1982 | John Tillinger | Entertaining Mr Sloane |
| 1982 | Douglas Turner Ward | A Soldier's Play |
| 1983 |
| 1983 | Trevor Nunn | All's Well That Ends Well |
| 1983 | Robert Allan Ackerman | Extremities |
| 1983 | Michael Bennett | Third Street |
| 1983 | George C. Scott | Present Laughter |
| 1983 | Arthur Sherman | The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial |
| 1983 | Gary Sinise | True West |
| 1984 |
| 1984 | Michael Blakemore | Noises Off |
| 1984 | Lee Grant | A Private View |
| 1984 | Gerald Gutierrez | Isn't It Romantic |
| 1984 | Terry Kinney | And a Nightingale Sang |
| 1984 | Gregory Mosher | Glengarry Glen Ross |
| 1984 | Mike Nichols | The Real Thing |
| 1985 |
| 1985 | John Malkovich | Balm in Gilead |
| 1985 | Ron Lagomarsino | Digby |
| 1985 | Marshall W. Mason | As Is |
| 1985 | Gene Saks | Biloxi Blues |
| 1985 | Claudia Weill | Found a Peanut |
| 1986 |
| 1986 | Jerry Zaks | The Marriage of Bette & Boo |
| 1986 | Jerry Zaks | The House of Blue Leaves |
| 1986 | Liviu Ciulei | Hamlet |
| 1986 | Jonathan Miller | Long Day's Journey into Night |
| 1986 | Mary B. Robinson | Lemon Sky |
| 1986 | Gary Sinise | Orphans |
| 1986 | John Tillinger | It's Only a Play |
| 1986 | John Tillinger | Loot |
| 1987 |
| 1987 | Howard Davies | Les Liaisons Dangereuses |
| 1987 | Simon Gray and Michael McGuire | The Common Pursuit |
| 1987 | Ron Lagomarsino | Driving Miss Daisy |
| 1987 | Lloyd Richards | Fences |
| 1987 | Carole Rothman | Coastal Disturbances |
| 1987 | Gene Saks | Broadway Bound |
| 1988 |
| 1988 | John Dexter | M. Butterfly |
| 1988 | W. H. Macy | Boys' Life |
| 1988 | Lynne Meadow | Woman in Mind |
| 1988 | Gregory Mosher | Speed-the-Plow |
| 1988 | Lloyd Richards | Joe Turner's Come and Gone |
| 1989 |
| 1989 | Jerry Zaks | Lend Me a Tenor |
| 1989 | Simon Callow | Shirley Valentine |
| 1989 | Robin Lefèvre | Aristocrats |
| 1989 | Jack O'Brien | The Cocktail Hour |
| 1989 | Norman René | Reckless |
| 1989 | Daniel Sullivan | The Heidi Chronicles |

### 1990s

| Year | Director | Production |
| 1990 |
| 1990 | Frank Galati | The Grapes of Wrath |
| 1990 | Roger Michell | Some Americans Abroad |
| 1990 | Adrian Noble | The Art of Success |
| 1990 | Norman René | Prelude to a Kiss |
| 1990 | Lloyd Richards | The Piano Lesson |
| 1991 |
| 1991 | Jerry Zaks | Six Degrees of Separation |
| 1991 | Michael Greif | Machinal |
| 1991 | Richard Jones | La Bête |
| 1991 | Kevin Kline | Hamlet |
| 1992 |
| 1992 | Patrick Mason | Dancing at Lughnasa |
| 1992 | JoAnne Akalaitis | 'Tis Pity She's a Whore |
| 1992 | Michael Bloom | Sight Unseen |
| 1992 | David Chambers | Search and Destroy |
| 1992 | Mark Wing-Davey | Mad Forest |
| 1993 |
| 1993 | George C. Wolfe | Angels in America: Millennium Approaches |
| 1993 | Christopher Ashley | Jeffrey |
| 1993 | Adrian Hall | As You Like It |
| 1993 | Ariane Mnouchkine | Les Atrides |
| 1993 | Daniel Sullivan | The Sisters Rosensweig |
| 1994 |
| 1994 | Stephen Daldry | An Inspector Calls |
| 1994 | JoAnne Akalaitis | In the Summer House |
| 1994 | Jonathan Kent | Medea |
| 1994 | Mark Wing-Davey | The Lights |
| 1994 | Mary Zimmerman | Arabian Nights |
| 1995 |
| 1995 | Gerald Gutierrez | The Heiress |
| 1995 | Declan Donnellan | As You Like It |
| 1995 | David Esbjornson | Iphigenia and Other Daughters |
| 1995 | Emily Mann | Having Our Say |
| 1995 | Joe Mantello | Love! Valour! Compassion! |
| 1995 | Sean Mathias | Indiscretions |
| 1996 |
| 1996 | Gerald Gutierrez | A Delicate Balance |
| 1996 | Scott Elliott | The Monogamist |
| 1996 | Doug Hughes | The Grey Zone |
| 1996 | Adrian Noble | A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| 1996 | Lloyd Richards | Seven Guitars |
| 1996 | George C. Wolfe | The Tempest |
| 1997 |
| 1997 | Mark Brokaw | How I Learned to Drive |
| 1997 | Robert La Page | The Seven Streams of the River Ota |
| 1997 | Lynne Meadow | Nine Armenians |
| 1997 | Deborah Warner | The Waste Land |
| 1997 | Mark Wing-Davey | The Skriker |
| 1998 |
| 1998 | Michael Mayer | A View from the Bridge |
| 1998 | Michael Mayer | Side Man |
| 1998 | Scott Elliott | Goose-Pimples |
| 1998 | James Houghton | The American Clock |
| 1998 | Garry Hynes | The Beauty Queen of Leenane |
| 1998 | Joe Mantello | Mizlansky/Zilinsky or 'Schmucks' |
| 1998 | Simon McBurney | The Chairs |
| 1999 |
| 1999 | Trevor Nunn | Not About Nightingales |
| 1999 | Derek Anson Jones | Wit |
| 1999 | Howard Davies | The Iceman Cometh |
| 1999 | Robert Falls | Death of a Salesman |
| 1999 | Patrick Marber | Closer |
| 1999 | Nicholas Martin | Betty's Summer Vacation |

### 2000s

| Year | Director | Production |
| 2000 |
| 2000 | Michael Blakemore | Copenhagen |
| 2000 | Thomas Hulce and Jane Jones | The Cider House Rules (Part One) |
| 2000 | James Lapine | Dirty Blonde |
| 2000 | Michael Mayer | Uncle Vanya |
| 2000 | Marion McClinton | Jitney |
| 2000 | Daniel J. Sullivan | Dinner with Friends |
| 2001 |
| 2001 | Jack O'Brien | The Invention of Love |
| 2001 | Mark Brokaw | Lobby Hero |
| 2001 | Michael Greif | Dogeaters |
| 2001 | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train |
| 2001 | Jonathan Kent | Richard II |
| 2001 | Matthew Warchus | The Unexpected Man |
| 2002 |
| 2002 | Mary Zimmerman | Metamorphoses |
| 2002 | Howard Davies | Private Lives |
| 2002 | Richard Eyre | The Crucible |
| 2002 | Carl Forsman | The Voice of the Turtle |
| 2002 | Neil LaBute | The Shape of Things |
| 2002 | Bartlett Sher | Cymbeline |
| 2003 |
| 2003 | Robert Falls | Long Day's Journey into Night |
| 2003 | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Our Lady of 121st Street |
| 2003 | Joe Mantello | Take Me Out |
| 2003 | Sam Mendes | Twelfth Night |
| 2003 | Sam Mendes | Uncle Vanya |
| 2003 | Deborah Warner | Medea |
| 2004 |
| 2004 | Jack O'Brien | Henry IV |
| 2004 | Hilary Adams | Moby Dick |
| 2004 | Dexter Bullard | Bug |
| 2004 | Edward Hall | A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| 2004 | Moisés Kaufman | I Am My Own Wife |
| 2004 | Kenny Leon | A Raisin in the Sun |
| 2005 |
| 2005 | Doug Hughes | Doubt |
| 2005 | Josh Carlebach | Frankenstein |
| 2005 | Scott Elliott | Hurlyburly |
| 2005 | Scott Ellis | Twelve Angry Men |
| 2005 | Edward Hall | Rose Rage |
| 2005 | Joe Mantello | Glengarry Glen Ross |
| 2006 |
| 2006 | Nicholas Hytner | The History Boys |
| 2006 | Alan Ayckbourn | Private Fears in Public Places |
| 2006 | Gisela Cardenas | Agamemnon |
| 2006 | Daniel J. Sullivan | Stuff Happens |
| 2006 | Robert Wilson | Peer Gynt |
| 2006 | Jerry Zaks | The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial |
| 2007 |
| 2007 | Jack O'Brien | The Coast of Utopia |
| 2007 | Declan Donnellan | Twelfth Night |
| 2007 | Michael Grandage | Frost/Nixon |
| 2007 | Doug Hughes | Inherit the Wind |
| 2007 | Ciaran O'Reilly | The Hairy Ape |
| 2007 | Tom Ridgely | Marco Millions |
| 2008 |
| 2008 | Anna D. Shapiro | August: Osage County |
| 2008 | David Schweizer | Horizon |
| 2008 | Leigh Silverman | From Up Here |
| 2008 | Jonathan Silverstein | The Dining Room |
| 2008 | Matthew Warchus | Boeing-Boeing |
| 2008 | Deborah Warner | Happy Days |
| 2009 |
| 2009 | Matthew Warchus | The Norman Conquests |
| 2009 | Sarah Benson | Blasted |
| 2009 | Michael Blakemore | Blithe Spirit |
| 2009 | Garry Hynes | The Cripple of Inishmaan |
| 2009 | Terry Kinney | reasons to be pretty |
| 2009 | Kate Whoriskey | Ruined |

### 2010s

| Year | Director | Production |
| 2010 |
| 2010 | Michael Grandage | Red |
| 2010 | Jonathan Bank | So Help Me God! |
| 2010 | Jack Cummings III | The Boys in the Band |
| 2010 | Sam Gold | Circle Mirror Transformation |
| 2010 | Michael Grandage | Hamlet |
| 2010 | Ethan Hawke | A Lie of the Mind |
| 2011 |
| 2011 | Joel Grey and George C. Wolfe | The Normal Heart |
| 2011 | Trip Cullman | A Small Fire |
| 2011 | Moisés Kaufman | Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo |
| 2011 | Davis McCallum | A Bright New Boise |
| 2011 | Daniel J. Sullivan | The Merchant of Venice |
| 2011 | Kirjan Waage and Gwendolyn Warnock | Baby Universe |
| 2012 |
| 2012 | Mike Nichols | Death of a Salesman |
| 2012 | Jo Bonney | By the Way, Meet Vera Stark |
| 2012 | David Cromer | Tribes |
| 2012 | Ed Sylvanus Iskandar | These Seven Sicknesses |
| 2012 | Sam Mendes | Richard III |
| 2012 | Tony Speciale | Unnatural Acts |
| 2013 |
| 2013 | Pam MacKinnon | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
| 2013 | Lear de Bessonet | The Good Person of Szechwan |
| 2013 | Sam Gold | Uncle Vanya |
| 2013 | Ed Sylvanus Iskandar | Restoration Comedy |
| 2013 | Lynne Meadow | The Assembled Parties |
| 2013 | Ruben Santiago-Hudson | The Piano Lesson |
| 2014 |
| 2014 | Tim Carroll | Twelfth Night |
| 2014 | Joe Calarco | A Christmas Carol |
| 2014 | Thomas Kail | Family Furniture |
| 2014 | Bill Rauch | All the Way |
| 2014 | Anna D. Shapiro | Domesticated |
| 2014 | Julie Taymor | A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| 2015 |
| 2015 | Marianne Elliott | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |
| 2015 | Jeremy Herrin | Wolf Hall Parts One & Two |
| 2015 | Anne Kauffman | You Got Older |
| 2015 | Lila Neugebauer | The Wayside Motor Inn |
| 2015 | Austin Pendleton | Between Riverside and Crazy |
| 2015 | Joe Tantalo | Deliverance |
| 2015 | John Tiffany | Let the Right One In |
| 2016 |
| 2016 | Ivo van Hove | A View from the Bridge |
| 2016 | Rachel Chavkin | The Royale |
| 2016 | Sam Gold | John |
| 2016 | Rupert Goold | King Charles III |
| 2016 | Joe Mantello | The Humans |
| 2016 | Jenn Thompson | Women Without Men |
| 2017 |
| 2017 | Ruben Santiago-Hudson | Jitney |
| 2017 | Anne Kauffman | A Life |
| 2017 | Richard Nelson | What Did You Expect? and Women of a Certain Age |
| 2017 | Daniel J. Sullivan | The Little Foxes |
| 2017 | Daniel J. Sullivan | If I Forget |
| 2018 |
| 2018 | John Tiffany | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child |
| 2018 | Marianne Elliott | Angels in America |
| 2018 | Jeremy Herrin | People, Places and Things |
| 2018 | Joe Mantello | Three Tall Women |
| 2018 | Lila Neugebauer | Miles for Mary |
| 2018 | Simon Stone | Yerma |
| 2019 |
| 2019 | Sam Mendes | The Ferryman |
| 2019 | Sarah Benson | Fairview |
| 2019 | Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin | The Jungle |
| 2019 | Tyne Rafaeli | Usual Girls |
| 2019 | Taylor Reynolds | Plano |
| 2019 | Jeff Wise | Life Sucks |

### 2020s

| Year | Director | Production |
| 2020 |
| 2020 | Stephen Daldry | The Inheritance |
| 2020 | Jessica Blank | Coal Country |
| 2020 | John Ortiz | Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven |
| 2020 | Tina Satter | Is This A Room |
| 2020 | Erica Schmidt | Mac Beth |
| 2021 | No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City | No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City |
| 2022 |
| 2022 | Rebecca Frecknall | Sanctuary City |
| 2022 | Knud Adams | English |
| 2022 | Saheem Ali | Merry Wives |
| 2022 | Taibi Magar | Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 |
| 2022 | Whitney White | On Sugarland |
| 2023 |
| 2023 | Max Webster | Life of Pi |
| 2023 | Zi Alikhan | On That Day in Amsterdam |
| 2023 | Shayok Misha Chowdhury | Public Obscenities |
| 2023 | Miranda Cromwell | Death of a Salesman |
| 2023 | Adam Meggido | Peter Pan Goes Wrong |
| 2023 | Alexander Zeldin | Love |
| 2024 |
| 2024 | Daniel Aukin | Stereophonic |
| 2024 | Rupert Goold | The Hunt |
| 2024 | Kenny Leon | Purlie Victorious |
| 2024 | Lila Neugebauer | Appropriate |
| 2024 | Ciarán O’Reilly | Philadelphia, Here I Come! |