• Jeanine Jesori Accept award
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    Sharai Bohannon (Photo by Lia Chang)
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On Monday, July 25 at Joe's Pub, the Dramatists Guild held our annual awards night, celebrating playwrights, composers, lyricists, librettists, and our colleagues in the theatre industry.

The evening was hosted by DG Council President Amanda Green, with special performances by DG Council member Adam Gwon, as well as Darius de Haas (As You Like It), and Alex Vinh (Kimberly Akimbo). Chris Fenwick accompanied on piano. Additional presenters included DG Council members Deborah Zoe Laufer and Kia Corthron, and 2020 DG Lanford Wilson Award winner Madhuri Shekar. 

The 2022 Dramatists Guild award winners are as follows:

Jeanine Tesori received the 2022 Frederick Loewe Award for her work on Kimberly Akimbo. Given by the Frederick Loewe Foundation, this award is presented annually by the Dramatists Guild Council to a composer in recognition of their outstanding achievement writing a theatrical score. 


Kirsten Childs received the 2022 Flora Roberts Award. Administered by the Dramatists Guild Foundation, this award is presented to a dramatist in recognition of distinguished work in the theatre and to encourage the continuation of that work.


Sanaz Toossi received the 2022 Horton Foote Award. Sponsored by the Richenthal Foundation, this award is presented to a dramatist whose work seeks to plumb the ineffable nature of being human.


Nancy García Loza and Ren Dara Santiago shared the 2022 Lanford Wilson Award. Established by the estate of Lanford Wilson, the award is presented by the Dramatists Guild Council to a dramatist  (or dramatists) based primarily on their work as an early career playwright(s).


Martyna Majok received the 2022  Hull-Warriner Award for her play Sanctuary City.  This award is the only award given by dramatists to dramatists; it is presented annually by the Dramatists Guild Council to an author or team of authors in recognition of their play dealing with controversial subjects involving the fields of political, religious, or social mores of the times. The finalists for this year’s Hull-Warriner Award were Donnetta Lavinia Grays for Where We Stand, C.A. Johnson for All the Natalie Portmans, Sylvia Khoury for Selling Kabul, Haruna Lee for Suicide Forest, and Celine Song for Endlings


Alice Childress posthumously received the 2022 DLDF Defender Award. Presented by the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, this award recognizes efforts in support of free expression in the dramatic arts.


Pearl Cleage and Tina Howe received 2022 Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Awards. This award is presented by the Dramatists Guild Council in recognition of a distinguished lifetime of achievement in theatrical writing. Previous recipients include Adrienne Kennedy, A.R. Gurney, John Guare, Micki Grant, Paula Vogel, Terrence McNally, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, Lanford Wilson, Joseph Stein, Horton Foote, August Wilson, Stephen Sondheim, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Edward Albee and Arthur Miller. DG Career Achievement Awards have also been presented to Marsha Norman and Stephen Schwartz. 


This year's ceremony was the first live, in-person DG awards event since 2019. (The 2020 DG awards ceremony is available to watch via the Guild's YouTube channel.) The ceremony therefore also acknowledged and honored the 2021 Dramatists Guild Awards recipients. They include Sharai Bohannon (the DLDF Defender Award), William S. Yellow Robe Jr, (the Flora Roberts Award), Mariam Bazeed and Rhiana Yazzie (the Lanford Wilson Award),  and Carla Ching, Kia Corthron, Aleshea Harris, Donja R. Love, and Mfoniso Udofia  (the Horton Foote Award). The Dramatists Guild also gave out a 2021 DG Lifetime Achievement Award to Adrienne Kennedy. 

All awards are overseen by the DG Awards Committee, chaired by playwright Lloyd Suh and administered by Tari Stratton, Director of Education and the Dramatists Guild Institute of Dramatic Writing.


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