Who Decides the Drama Desk and Drama League Awards?

It is award season. And every year newcomers to the industry ask what most of the awards are. In this series, I’ll hopefully explain that. I'll be looking at many of the major awards other than the Tony Awards. First up today: the Drama Desk Awards and the Drama League Awards.

The Drama Desk Awards are considered to be closest to the Tony Awards, except Drama Desks not only deal with Broadway, they also cover off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway. In the not-too-distant past, the categories were fairly similar, the Drama Desks were also televised, and they also took place in a hall with nominees present. That has changed somewhat. The awards have not been televised recently. Last year, the Drama Desks eliminated gender-based performance categories and allowed for two winners in gender-free categories. Winners were announced by press release ahead of a smaller award show at Sardi’s. However, the Drama Desks are still very talked about in the industry.

The Drama Desk, now primarily known for the awards, was founded in 1949 by New York theater writers, critics, and publishers. The organization hosted its first awards in 1955. It now has over 100 writers and photographers on its voting rolls. Co-Presidents David Barbour and Charles Wright explained these folks have to submit clips to apply for membership and then also annually to re-up membership (which helps ensure they are currently covering the theater). The 2023-2024 Drama Desk nominating committee is freelancer Martha Wade Steketee, New York Amsterdam News critic Linda Armstrong, Theatre Is Easy Editor-in-Chief Daniel Dinero, former critic and current columnist (Masterworks Broadway, Kritzerland, Music Theatre International Marquee blog) Peter Filichia, freelancer Kenji Fujishima, Playbill’s Margaret Hall and Wright.

The Drama Desk Presidents explained that to obtain the list of nominees, Nominating Committee Chair Wade Steketee keeps a list of all eligible shows and the nominators discuss each category. “It is a matter of discussing show by show and, for each show, category by category,” Wright said.

During this discussion, the Nominating Committee also decides on special citations. After the nominations for the competitive categories are decided, voters receive an online form to register their votes. Wright said the expectation is that voters have seen everything on Broadway and “the bulk of” off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway, but there is no hard and fast rule that voters cannot vote in a category if they have not seen all the nominees (a difference from the typical Tony rule). While it is up to the individual production whether to give Drama Desk voters tickets, most traditionally do.

The Drama League Awards are a very different animal. The Drama League in general, as a non-profit, is known for supporting directors. The organization was founded in 1916 and the first Drama League Award, singular, was given in 1922. The honors have evolved through the years; currently, nominations are announced in seven competitive categories with only one for performers, the Distinguished Performance Award (which can be awarded to a performer just once in that performer’s lifetime). This year, four honors are also being bestowed. There are more nominees for each Drama League Awards category than there are at other award shows, but what is more interesting to me is the nomination and award process.

“We have a nominating pool ranging between 45 to 55 people, depending on the year, of alumni of our Directors Project and industry veterans (some of whom are members of the Drama League some of them were not),” Drama League Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian Shanks said, explaining that the nominating pool is invitation only. “We have a mandate that over 50% of those be people of color. We recognize both Broadway and off-Broadway, so they see around 200 productions a year, and they rotate because we want as many voices as possible. We think awards do not need to be picked by a select few.”

To be eligible, a production has to give six pairs of tickets to Drama League nominators. Only six people in the nominating committee need to see each of the productions. In other words, the majority of nominators have not necessarily seen much of the nominated work. Once the nominations are decided, voting members vote.

Anyone can be a Drama League voting member as long as you pay your fee. These fees are 90% tax deductible and support the work the Drama League does year-round supporting young directors. There are many levels of membership, each with different benefits. Stelian Shanks said voting membership varies: it was previously in the thousands but now is at four to five hundred.

These members are not given comp tickets to every show. Members are asked not to vote in categories where they have not seen all the nominees and there is a place on the ballot to select that you are not voting in a given category because you have not seen all the nominees.

Drama League Awards are given at a fancy luncheon each year, for which non-members and members can buy tickets.

“Awards for us are really only useful if they serve a greater purpose—if they trumpet and bring to attention to this community,” Stelian Shanks said. “We wake up on the morning of the Drama League nominations to articles in China, in Europe, in Africa, it's a real global platform. So we want to use that in the best way possible. We want people to [know about] what we think is the greatest theatrical community on the planet. Awards are fun, on some level they're a little silly, but we try to have this more noble purpose underneath it.”

Industry Trends Weekly is a short column that runs in the weekly Industry Pro Newsletter. To read past columns and subscribe click here. If you have an idea for the column, you can reach the author at cara@broadwayworld.com.