Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design
Encyclopedia
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors. It honors the sound design
ers of productions staged on Broadway
, off-Broadway
, off-off-Broadway
, and for legitimate not-for-profit theaters, all competing in the same categories. An awards ceremony is held each year at which the awards are given. The category for Outstanding Set Design was created at the 26th Annual Drama Desk Awards in 1980. The first recipient of the honor was Norman L. Berman for Strider. To date, Paul Arditti
and Dan Moses Schreier hold the record for most wins in this category, with three each.
Sound design
Sound design is the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking, television production, theatre, sound recording and reproduction, live performance, sound art, post-production and video game software...
ers of productions staged on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
, off-off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...
, and for legitimate not-for-profit theaters, all competing in the same categories. An awards ceremony is held each year at which the awards are given. The category for Outstanding Set Design was created at the 26th Annual Drama Desk Awards in 1980. The first recipient of the honor was Norman L. Berman for Strider. To date, Paul Arditti
Paul Arditti
Paul Arditti is a theatre sound designer, working mainly in the UK and the US. He specialises in designing sound scores for plays and sound systems for musicals. He has won awards for his work in both categories, including the 2006 Olivier Award for Billy Elliot the Musical...
and Dan Moses Schreier hold the record for most wins in this category, with three each.
Additional winners
- 1985: John DiFusco for Tracers and Nigel HessNigel HessNigel John Hess is a British composer best known for his television, theatre and film soundtracks, including the theme tunes to Wycliffe, Dangerfield, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and Ladies in Lavender.-Biography:...
for Cyrano de BergeracCyrano de Bergerac (play)Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears very scant resemblance to his life....
and Much Ado About NothingMuch Ado About NothingMuch Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
(tie) - 1986: Otts Munderloh for The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
- 1991: Aural Fixation for Red Scare on Sunset
- 1992: Paul ArdittiPaul ArdittiPaul Arditti is a theatre sound designer, working mainly in the UK and the US. He specialises in designing sound scores for plays and sound systems for musicals. He has won awards for his work in both categories, including the 2006 Olivier Award for Billy Elliot the Musical...
for Four Baboons Adoring the Sun - 1993: Steve Canyon Kennedy for The Who's TommyThe Who's TommyThe Who's Tommy is a rock musical by Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff based on The Who's 1969 double album rock opera Tommy, also by Pete Townshend, with additional material by John Entwistle, Keith Moon and Sonny Boy Williamson.-Productions:...
- 1994: John A. Leonard for MedeaMedeaMedea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...
- 1996: Dan Moses Schreier for Floyd CollinsFloyd Collins (musical)Floyd Collins is a musical based on the death of Floyd Collins near Cave City, Kentucky in the winter of 1925. The book is by Tina Landau, with music and lyrics by Adam Guettel and additional lyrics by Landau.-Productions:...
- 1997: John GromadaJohn GromadaJohn Gromada is a prolific, award-winning composer and sound designer. He is best known for his many scores for theatrical productions in New York on and off-Broadway and in regional theatres...
for The SkrikerThe SkrikerThe Skriker is a 1994 play by Caryl Churchill that tells the story of an ancient fairy who, during the course of the play, transforms into a plethora of objects and people as it pursues Lily and Josie, two teenage mothers whom it befriends, manipulates, seduces and entraps... - 1998: Tony MeolaTony MeolaAntonio Michael "Tony" Meola is an American former soccer goalkeeper who played for the United States national team at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, and from 1996 to 2006 played in Major League Soccer, the U.S. top soccer division, where he obtained multiple honors...
for The Lion KingThe Lion King (musical)The Lion King is a musical based on the 1994 Disney animated film of the same name with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice along with the musical score created by Hans Zimmer with choral arrangements by Lebo M. Directed by Julie Taymor, the musical features actors in animal costumes as well... - 1999: Christopher Shutt for Not About NightingalesNot About NightingalesNot About Nightingales is a three act play written by Tennessee Williams in 1938. The play itself focuses on a group of inmates who go on a hunger strike in attempt to better their situation. There is also a soft love story, with the characters Eva, the new secretary at the prison, and Jim, a...
- 2000: Jamie Mereness for Charlie Victor RomeoCharlie Victor RomeoCharlie Victor Romeo is a 1999 play whose script consists of almost-verbatim transcripts from six real-life aviation accidents and incidents. "Charlie Victor Romeo," or CVR, derived from the NATO phonetic alphabet, is aviation lingo for cockpit voice recorder...
- 2001: Christopher Shutt for Mnemonic
- 2002: Dan Moses Schreier for Into the WoodsInto the WoodsInto the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Bernadette Peters' performance as the Witch and Joanna Gleason's portrayal of the Baker's Wife brought acclaim...
- 2003: Acme Sound Partners for La BohèmeLa bohèmeLa bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
- 2004: Dan Moses Schreier for AssassinsAssassins (musical)Assassins is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman, based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr. It uses the premise of a murderous carnival game to produce a revue-style portrayal of men and women who attempted to assassinate Presidents of the United States...
- 2005: Paul Arditti for The PillowmanThe PillowmanThe Pillowman is a 2003 play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. It received its first public reading in an early version at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 1995...
- 2006: Steve Canyon Kennedy for Jersey BoysJersey BoysJersey Boys is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is a documentary-style musical, based on one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, the Four Seasons...
- 2007: Gregory Clarke for Journey's EndJourney's EndJourney's End is a 1928 drama, the seventh of English playwright R. C. Sherriff. It was first performed at the Apollo Theatre in London by the Incorporated Stage Society on 9 December 1928, starring a young Laurence Olivier, and soon moved to other West End theatres for a two-year run...
- 2008: Scott Lehrer for South PacificSouth Pacific (musical)South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
- 2009: Paul Arditti for Billy Elliot the MusicalBilly Elliot the MusicalBilly Elliot the Musical is a musical based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot. The music is by Sir Elton John, and book and lyrics are by Lee Hall, who wrote the film's screenplay. The plot revolves around motherless Billy, who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes...
- 2010: Fitz Patton for When the Rain Stops Falling (play); Acme Sound Partners for RagtimeRagtime (musical)Ragtime is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty.Based on the 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime tells the story of three groups in America, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem musician; Mother, the matriarch of a WASP family in...
(musical)