Nominations for the 66th Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced late on Monday, May 16, 2022. Below is a list of the design nominations. In keeping with the Drama Desk’s mission, the nominators considered shows that opened on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway during the 2021-2022 New York theater season, that the Drama Desk determined ended as of May 1, 2022. Only live performances were eligible – if performances were also available for streaming, 21 or more unique live performances were required.
Due to the realities of Covid, the 2022 Drama Desk Awards ceremony will be different this year. Winners will be announced the week of June 6. The Awards will be presented during an abbreviated ceremony at Sardi’s (234 West 44th Street) on Tuesday, June 14 from 3:00 – 6:00PM.
In addition to the nominations, there were additional special awards recognizing two designers – Costume Designer, Dede Ayite and Scenic Designer Adam Rigg.
Dede Ayite seems to have costumed half the actors of this theater season with her designs for Merry Wives, Seven Deadly Sins, The Last of the Love Letters, Chicken and Biscuits, Slave Play, Nollywood Dreams, American Buffalo, and How I learned to Drive. Whether dressing working-class Marylanders of the 1960s, amateur criminals of the 1970s, or West African immigrants in today’s Harlem, Ayite has a knack for conveying characters’ means, values, and aspirations before the actors utter a word.
Adam Rigg enhanced storytelling through wildly varying scenic designs this season including: a house in wood, shadow, and reflective glass that draws the audience into the Flint, Michigan water crisis in Cullud Wattah; a community cul-de-sac where trauma and history are celebrated in On Sugarland; and the falling walls, flower-covered hillsides, and functional seaside fun ride of The Skin of Our Teeth.
In determining eligibility of the Broadway productions of A Strange Loop, For Colored Girls, Hangmen, Is This a Room, Skeleton Crew, and The Lehman Trilogy which had recent Off-Broadway runs in previous seasons, the nominating committee considered only those elements that constituted new work. Additional productions on and off Broadway not eligible as they were considered in their entirety in prior seasons included Beyond Babel, Coal Country, Dana H., Get on Your Knees, Girl from the North Country, The Patsy, and What to Send Up When It Goes Down. Trouble in Mind was considered a revival due to its Drama Desk-eligible 1955 off-Broadway production.
2022 Drama Desk Design Nominations:
Outstanding Scenic Design for a Play
Beowulf Boritt, Merry Wives, The Public Theater (Free Shakespeare in the Park)
Wilson Chin, Pass Over
Marsha Ginsberg, English, Atlantic Theater Company
Takeshi Kata, Clyde’s, Second Stage Theater
Junghyun Georgia Lee, Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, New York Theatre Workshop
Outstanding Scenic Design for a Musical
Emma Bailey, Six
Beowulf Boritt, Flying Over Sunset, Lincoln Center Theater
Bunny Christie, Company
David Zinn, Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company
Outstanding Costume Design for a Play
Linda Cho, The Chinese Lady, The Public Theater
Gregory Gale, Fairycakes
Tilly Grimes, The Alchemist, Red Bull Theater
Qween Jean, On Sugarland, New York Theatre Workshop
Jennifer Moeller, Clyde’s, Second Stage Theater
Outstanding Costume Design for a Musical
Machine Dazzle, The Hang, HERE Arts Center
Susan Hilferty, Funny Girl
Santo Loquasto, The Music Man
Gabriella Slade, Six
Catherine Zuber, Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater
Outstanding Lighting Design for a Play
Christopher Akerlind, Clyde’s, Second Stage Theater
Reza Behjat, English, Atlantic Theater Company
Isabella Byrd, Sanctuary City, New York Theatre Workshop
Amith Chandrashaker, Prayer for the French Republic, Manhattan Theatre Club
Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, Cullud Wattah, The Public Theater
Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical
Natasha Katz, Diana
Natasha Katz, MJ
Bradley King, Flying Over Sunset, Lincoln Center Theater
Jennifer Tipton, Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater
Outstanding Projection Design
59 Productions, Flying Over Sunset, Lincoln Center Theater
David Bengali, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Signature Theatre
Stephania Bulbarella and Alex Basco Koch, Space Dogs, MCC Theater
Shawn Duan, The Chinese Lady, The Public Theater
Sven Ortel, Thoughts of a Colored Man
Outstanding Sound Design for a Play
Tyler Kieffer, Seven Deadly Sins, Tectonic Theater Project and Madison Wells Live
Hidenori Nakajo and Ryan Rumery, Autumn Royal, Irish Repertory Theatre
Ben and Max Ringham, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Jamie Lloyd Company at Brooklyn Academy of Music
Mikaal Sulaiman, Sanctuary City, New York Theatre Workshop
Lee Kinney, Selling Kabul, Playwrights Horizons
Outstanding Sound Design for a Musical
Ian Dickinson for Autograph, Company
Paul Gatehouse, Six
Kai Harada, Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company
Gareth Owen, MJ
Outstanding Wig and Hair
Matthew B. Armentrout, Paradise Square
David Brian Brown, Mrs. Doubtfire
Paul Huntley, Diana
Charles G. LaPointe, MJ
Outstanding Puppet Design
Amanda Villalobos, Wolf Play, Soho Rep.
James Ortiz, The Skin of Our Teeth, Lincoln Center Theater
Rockefeller Productions, Winnie the Pooh, The Hundred Acre Theatre
2022 Drama Desk Play and Musical Nominations
Outstanding Play
Cullud Wattah, by Erika Dickerson-Despenza, The Public Theater
English, by Sanaz Toossi, Atlantic Theater Company
Prayer for the French Republic, by Joshua Harmon, Manhattan Theatre Club
Sanctuary City, by Martyna Majok, New York Theatre Workshop
Selling Kabul, by Sylvia Khoury, Playwrights Horizons
The Chinese Lady, by Lloyd Suh, The Public Theater
Outstanding Musical
Harmony, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene
Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater
Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company
Six
The Hang, HERE Arts Center
Outstanding Revival of a Play
for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf
How I Learned to Drive, Manhattan Theatre Club
Lackawanna Blues, Manhattan Theatre Club
Skeleton Crew, Manhattan Theatre Club
Trouble in Mind, Roundabout Theatre Company
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Signature Theatre
Outstanding Revival of a Musical
Assassins, Classic Stage Company
Baby, Out of the Box Theatrics
Caroline, or Change, Roundabout Theatre Company
Company
The 2021-2022 Drama Desk Nominating Committee is composed of: Martha Wade Steketee (Chair; freelance, UrbanExcavations.com), Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio), Kenji Fujishima (freelance: TheaterMania), Juan Michael Porter II (TheBody.com; freelance: TDF Stages, Did They Like It?, New York Theatre Guide, Queerty), Ayanna Prescod (freelance: Variety, New York Theatre Guide, Today Tix), Zachary Stewart (TheaterMania), and Diep Tran (freelance: Backstage, American Theatre, Broadway News, New York Theatre Guide).
About The Drama Desk
The Drama Desk was founded in 1949 to explore key issues in the theater and to bring together critics and writers in an organization to support the ongoing development of theater in New York. The organization began presenting its awards in 1955, and it is the only critics’ organization to honor achievement in the theater with competition among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions in the same categories.
Further information from the Drama Desk Awards: www.DramaDeskAwards.com
