Are you ever working on beats, objectives, and tactics and you just can’t seem to find the right acting verbs to use as tactics? This is an extensive list of great acting verbs. And it doubles as an SAT prep. 🙂 We hope you find it useful.
What do Campers Say About Scott Thompson?
Scott Thompson is a phenomenal person. I have never worked with someone as dedicated to their craft as he, and I don’t know if I will again because I have a sneaking suspicion that even on Broadway, people as passionate are somewhat of an anomaly. Scott did more for me than just teach me dance moves and block my scenes: he gave me a drive in every area of musical theatre including singing and acting. Working with Scott was life-changing, and I am ecstatic to hear that he is coming back. I can only hope that more of his talent rubs off on me. He is one of the most skilled, hardworking, and sincere people you will ever meet.
-Jacob Scott
What I learned the most from Scott Thompson was that you can honestly push yourself far past your own expectations. Before this past summer I had never considered myself to be a dancer, but after 3 weeks with Scott, it finally didn’t feel out of place to say that I was one. I was cast as the lead dancer in my school show this year and I know without his help, I honestly would have had no shot at being cast as that. Not only did my dancing improve but overall performing improved dramatically. He taught me that you have to always be working for it, and never let your acting slip for even a second when you’re dancing. He taught me that acting was the most important part of the dance.
-Korina Lurie
TAP Camp is a wonderful place where the staff takes a personal
interest in each camper. If there’s something you feel you’re not as
strong in, you’ll probably feel much more confident after TAP. Scott
Thompson is a wonderful director full of life experience, wonderful
stories, and just plain talent! He makes rehearsals fun and efficient.
I learned so much from the TAP Camp staff and Scott Thompson last year
and wouldn’t trade it for anything.
-Lizzie Guest
Let me begin by saying that I cannot dance, or rather, I could not dance until I met the incredible Scott Thompson. This man literally changed my life (as is the nature of every faculty member brought into Texas Arts Project). For the three weeks the camp ran, I watched in amazement as he made girls belt and turned boys into strong leading men, including myself. However, in addition to all of this, he gave me the opportunity I had given up hope on ever receiving — he gave me the chance to dance. Until this point I had been told I would never dance, but “no” and “can’t” aren’t in Scott’s vocabulary. This man was the first person to tell me I could be everything I ever wanted to be, he took a chance and trusted me and now I am pursuing a BFA in Musical Theatre at Millikin University, where I am being cast in musicals as a main dancer. Who would have ever known? I guess Scott did! I’ve heard people jokingly say, “TAP Camp changes lives,” but it really does. Do yourself a favor and sign up for this amazing opportunity.
-Coy Branscum
From my point of view, he was the best teacher I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Just by the way he taught he made everyone love and learn the theatre craft. I’ve learned way more about the industry in 3 weeks with him than I have any other way. He really provided the students a great relaxing environment to learn the craft. He taught dance as though it was acting which is hard to find in some choreographers. We students weren’t learning choreography, but instead we were acting out different emotions that just so happened to have synchronized movement to them! I felt that he made everyone feel like they could do anything, if they tried hard enough. If they wanted to be successful, they could do it. He was a firm believer in “if you want it, go and get it”. And he made everyone learning from him try their absolute hardest each chance they got, with no wasted repetition. “Look the tiger in the eye”!!
-Hayden Warzek
Junior 2011 Shine It On...
Enjoy the TAP 2011 Junior Camp performing Shine It On…
TAP 2011 Junior Camp Number "Footloose"
Check out a number from the TAP 2011 Junior Showcase…
TAP11jr Footloose
Sr 2011_Preacher Man Video
Check out a number from the TAP 2011 Senior Showcase…
TAP11 Preacher Man
Character Analysis Packet for Actors
For every show I direct, each student is asked to go through a detailed character analysis process. I’ve spent the past ten years putting together this comprehensive packet. In my experience, a detailed character study is important in both musicals and non-musicals. It seems obvious to theatre educators to delve into character analysis for straight plays. I have also found that it can truly change a musical, especially when the ensemble takes time to truly develop their characters. The ensemble is easily forgotten after they have been taught their songs and dances, but they create the world of the play. The more the ensemble understands about their characters and relationships, the more invested they will be in making them come to life. Feel free to use all or parts of this for your future productions. I hope you find it useful.
Character Analysis
-Ginger Morris (TAP Camp Director)
Director/Choreographer
Austin, Texas
What do Librettists Do? An interesting article from Playbill.com
An Open Book: Explaining What Musical Librettists Do
By Marc Acito
Playbill.com February 19, 2012
Veteran musical book writers Marsha Norman, Harvey Fierstein and Douglas Carter Beane spill the beans on the profession that gets "all of the blame and none of the praise."
*
Quick: Who wrote Godspell? Porgy and Bess? Mamma Mia!?
If your answers are “Stephen Schwartz,” “the Gershwins” and “those guys from ABBA with the extra letters in their names,” you’re two-thirds correct. Because in addition to the composer and the lyricist, there’s the misunderstood middle child of musical theatre, the clunkily-monikered “book writer” or “librettist.”
The job description itself is bound to confuse, particularly in the case of Pulitzer Prize – winning playwright Marsha Norman, who adapted the novels The Secret Garden and The Color Purple into musicals. “Whenever I say I wrote the book,” Norman says, “they think that I’m claiming I’m Frances Hodgson Burnett or Alice Walker. So I say I wrote the musical book.”
Tony Award – winning playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein tried (and discarded) the titles “librettist” and “author” when he wrote the musicals La Cage aux Folles, A Catered Affair and Disney’s upcoming Newsies. “Nobody really knows what the book is,” he says. “If the show’s a hit, the composer gets the credit; if the show’s a flop, it’s the book’s fault.”
“You’re going to get all of the blame and none of the praise,” echoes Norman. “But you’ll still get a third of the money.”
So what do book writers do, exactly?
While theatregoers understand that a playwright creates the entire story of a play, many think that book writers just write the dialogue between the songs. But more often, the book writer first decides where the songs go and what they will be about, acting as the structural engineer of the whole piece.
“Think of a musical as a string of pearls,” says Norman. “If you don’t have a string, you can’t put the pearls around your neck.”
Fierstein puts it another way: “A musical has all these moving parts, but the book is the chassis,” providing both the framework and the running gear for the show to operate.
So with Newsies, it was Fierstein who took the character of Denton, a male reporter in the film, and gave him a sex change to become Catherine, the love interest.
However, once a composer and lyricist create the songs, the book writer’s role changes. “At first, the book writer dictates what happens,” Fierstein says, “but then you become subservient. The music is the hardest to change, so you have to adapt the scenes to the songs.”
Even a theatre legend like Stephen Sondheim finds the task of book writing daunting. “I’ve often been asked why don’t I write my own librettos, because often the songs seem to be libretto-like songs,” he said in the Roundabout Theatre Company docu-revue Sondheim on Sondheim. “I think playwriting is too difficult and I don’t ever think I could write a play.”
Unlike a play, though, “the book shouldn’t stand out and wave at you,” says Fierstein.
Veteran book writer Peter Stone, writer of 12 Broadway musicals including 1776 and Titanic, once advised playwright Douglas Carter Beane, “The book is like lighting — if you notice it, it’s bad.”
The exception to that rule seems to be musicals that deliver big laughs, like Beane’s books for Xanadu, Sister Act and this season’s Lysistrata Jones. Beane is influenced by the frothy books of vintage comedy writers like George S. Kaufman and Comden & Green, saying, “I go back to them the way evangelicals go back to Leviticus.”
Yet he, too, feels the need to serve the songs: “Writing the book is so tight, it’s like writing haiku.” When Beane rewrote Sister Act, director Jerry Zaks was so determined to get to the music faster he asked Beane to change the words “do not” in the dialogue to “don’t.”
And no matter how funny the jokes are, no one walks out of a theatre humming the dialogue. Likewise, you won’t find anyone at the intermission of Wicked, having just heard Elphaba wail “Defying Gravity,” say, “That Winnie Holzman did a great job deciding to end the act there!”
That’s because book writers craft the story around key emotional/musical moments. “When you can no longer talk about it, you have to sing,” says Marsha Norman. “It’s the moment in conversation when you say ‘but….’ The songs represent the inside of your brain: the things you think are the songs, the things you say are the book.”
“Musicals amplify emotions,” says Fierstein. When Fierstein wrote La Cage aux Folles, legendary book writer Arthur Laurents (West Side Story, Gypsy) taught him his number one rule of musicalizing a story: “Does it sing?”
Similarly, Norman teaches her playwriting students at Juilliard that audiences respond to musicals emotionally rather than intellectually. “People listen to music with cavemen ears: Is it a bird song or the call of a lion?” Norman says. “The audience at a musical is dancing in their hearts.”
So when your heart dances to the music of Godspell, Porgy and Bess and Mamma Mia!, try to remember that it was the book writers John-Michael Tebelak, DuBose Heyward (and Suzan-Lori Parks for the recent Broadway revival) and Catherine Johnson who pulled you onto the dance floor.
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/159878-An-Open-Book-Explaining-What-Musical-Librettists-Do
Tony Award Nominations 2011 Announced
Nominations for the 2011 American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards®
Presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing
Best Play
Good People
Author: David Lindsay-Abaire
Producers: Manhattan Theatre Club, Lynne Meadow, Barry Grove
Jerusalem
Author: Jez Butterworth
Producers: Sonia Friedman Productions, Stuart Thompson, Scott Rudin, Roger Berlind, Royal Court Theatre Productions, Beverly Bartner/Alice Tulchin, Dede Harris/Rupert Gavin, Broadway Across America, Jon B. Platt, 1001 Nights/Stephanie P. McClelland, Carole L. Haber/Richard Willis, Jacki Barlia Florin/Adam Blanshay
The Motherf**ker with the Hat
Author: Stephen Adly Guirgis
Producers: Scott Rudin, Stuart Thompson, Public Theater Productions, Oskar Eustis, Joey Parnes, Labyrinth Theater Company, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Mimi O’Donnell, Yul Vázquez, Danny Feldman, Fabula Media Partners LLC, Jean Doumanian, Ruth Hendel, Carl Moellenberg, Jon B. Platt, Tulchin Bartner/Jamie deRoy
War Horse
Author: Nick Stafford
Producers: Lincoln Center Theater, André Bishop, Bernard Gersten, National Theatre of Great Britain, Nicholas Hytner, Nick Starr, Bob Boyett, War Horse LP
Best Musical
The Book of Mormon
Producers: Anne Garefino, Scott Rudin, Roger Berlind, Scott M. Delman, Jean Doumanian, Roy Furman, Important Musicals LLC, Stephanie P. McClelland, Kevin Morris, Jon B. Platt, Sonia Friedman Productions, Stuart Thompson
Catch Me If You Can
Producers: Margo Lion, Hal Luftig, Stacey Mindich, Yasuhiro Kawana, Scott & Brian Zeilinger, The Rialto Group, The Araca Group, Michael Watt, Barbara & Buddy Freitag, Jay & Cindy Gutterman/Pittsburgh CLO, Elizabeth Williams, Johnny Roscoe Productions/Van Dean, Fakston Productions/Solshay Productions, Patty Baker/Richard Winkler, Nederlander Presentations, Inc., Warren Trepp, Remmel T. Dickinson, Paula Herold/Kate Lear, Stephanie P. McClelland, Jamie deRoy, Barry Feirstein, Rainerio J. Reyes, Rodney Rigby, Loraine Boyle, Amuse Inc., Joseph & Matthew Deitch/Cathy Chernoff, Joan Stein/Jon Murray, The 5th Avenue Theatre
The Scottsboro Boys
Producers: Barry and Fran Weissler, Jacki Barlia Florin, Janet Pailet/Sharon A. Carr/Patricia R. Klausner, Nederlander Presentations, Inc./The Shubert Organization, Beechwood Entertainment, Broadway Across America, Mark Zimmerman, Adam Blanshay/R2D2 Productions, Rick Danzansky/Barry Tatelman, Bruce Robert Harris/Jack W. Batman, Allen Spivak/Jerry Frankel, Bard Theatricals/Probo Productions/Randy Donaldson, Catherine Schreiber/Michael Palitz/Patti Laskawy, Vineyard Theatre
Sister Act
Producers: Whoopi Goldberg & Stage Entertainment, The Shubert Organization and Disney Theatrical Productions
Best Book of a Musical
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Alex Timbers
The Book of Mormon
Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone
The Scottsboro Boys
David Thompson
Sister Act
Cheri Steinkellner, Bill Steinkellner and Douglas Carter Beane
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
The Book of Mormon
Music & Lyrics: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone
The Scottsboro Boys
Music & Lyrics: John Kander and Fred Ebb
Sister Act
Music: Alan Menken
Lyrics: Glenn Slater
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Music & Lyrics: David Yazbek
Best Revival of a Play
Arcadia
Producers: Sonia Friedman Productions, Roger Berlind, Stephanie P. McClelland, Scott M. Delman, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Disney Theatrical Group, Robert G. Bartner, Olympus Theatricals, Douglas Smith, Janine Safer Whitney
The Importance of Being Earnest
Producers: Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Harold Wolpert, Julia C. Levy
The Merchant of Venice
Producers: The Public Theater, Oskar Eustis, Andrew D. Hamingson, Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Debbie Bisno & Eva Price, Amy Nederlander, Jonathan First, Stewart F. Lane & Bonnie Comley, Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Merritt Forrest Baer, The Araca Group, Broadway Across America, Joseph & Matthew Deitch, JK Productions, Terry Allen Kramer, Cathy Chernoff/Jay & Cindy Gutterman, Mallory Factor/Cheryl Lachowicz, Joey Parnes, The Shubert Organization
The Normal Heart
Producers: Daryl Roth, Paul Boskind, Martian Entertainment, Gregory Rae, Jayne Baron Sherman/Alexander Fraser
Best Revival of a Musical
Anything Goes
Producers: Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Harold Wolpert, Julia C. Levy
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Producers: Broadway Across America, Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, Joseph Smith, Michael McCabe, Candy Spelling, Takonkiet Viravan/Scenario Thailand, Hilary A. Williams, Jen Namoff/Fakston Productions, Two Left Feet Productions/Power Arts, Hop Theatricals, LLC/Paul Chau/Daniel Frishwasser/Michael Jackowitz, Michael Speyer-Bernie Abrams/Jacki Barlia Florin-Adam Blanshay/Arlene Scanlan/TBS Service
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Brian Bedford, The Importance of Being Earnest
Bobby Cannavale, The Motherf**ker with the Hat
Joe Mantello, The Normal Heart
Al Pacino, The Merchant of Venice
Mark Rylance, Jerusalem
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Nina Arianda, Born Yesterday
Frances McDormand, Good People
Lily Rabe, The Merchant of Venice
Vanessa Redgrave, Driving Miss Daisy
Hannah Yelland, Brief Encounter
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Norbert Leo Butz, Catch Me If You Can
Josh Gad, The Book of Mormon
Joshua Henry, The Scottsboro Boys
Andrew Rannells, The Book of Mormon
Tony Sheldon, Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Sutton Foster, Anything Goes
Beth Leavel, Baby It’s You!
Patina Miller, Sister Act
Donna Murphy, The People in the Picture
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Mackenzie Crook, Jerusalem
Billy Crudup, Arcadia
John Benjamin Hickey, The Normal Heart
Arian Moayed, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Yul Vázquez, The Motherf**ker with the Hat
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Ellen Barkin, The Normal Heart
Edie Falco, The House of Blue Leaves
Judith Light, Lombardi
Joanna Lumley, La Bête
Elizabeth Rodriguez, The Motherf**ker with the Hat
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Colman Domingo, The Scottsboro Boys
Adam Godley, Anything Goes
John Larroquette, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Forrest McClendon, The Scottsboro Boys
Rory O’Malley, The Book of Mormon
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Laura Benanti, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Tammy Blanchard, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Victoria Clark, Sister Act
Nikki M. James, The Book of Mormon
Patti LuPone, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Todd Rosenthal, The Motherf**ker with the Hat
Rae Smith, War Horse
Ultz, Jerusalem
Mark Wendland, The Merchant of Venice
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Beowulf Boritt, The Scottsboro Boys
Derek McLane, Anything Goes
Scott Pask, The Book of Mormon
Donyale Werle, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Best Costume Design of a Play
Jess Goldstein, The Merchant of Venice
Desmond Heeley, The Importance of Being Earnest
Mark Thompson, La Bête
Catherine Zuber, Born Yesterday
Best Costume Design of a Musical
Tim Chappel & Lizzy Gardiner, Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Martin Pakledinaz, Anything Goes
Ann Roth, The Book of Mormon
Catherine Zuber, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Paule Constable, War Horse
David Lander, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Kenneth Posner, The Merchant of Venice
Mimi Jordan Sherin, Jerusalem
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Ken Billington, The Scottsboro Boys
Howell Binkley, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Peter Kaczorowski, Anything Goes
Brian MacDevitt, The Book of Mormon
Best Sound Design of a Play
Acme Sound Partners & Cricket S. Myers, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Simon Baker, Brief Encounter
Ian Dickinson for Autograph, Jerusalem
Christopher Shutt, War Horse
Best Sound Design of a Musical
Peter Hylenski, The Scottsboro Boys
Steve Canyon Kennedy, Catch Me If You Can
Brian Ronan, Anything Goes
Brian Ronan, The Book of Mormon
Best Direction of a Play
Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, War Horse
Joel Grey & George C. Wolfe, The Normal Heart
Anna D. Shapiro, The Motherf**ker with the Hat
Daniel Sullivan, The Merchant of Venice
Best Direction of a Musical
Rob Ashford, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Kathleen Marshall, Anything Goes
Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker, The Book of Mormon
Susan Stroman, The Scottsboro Boys
Best Choreography
Rob Ashford, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Kathleen Marshall, Anything Goes
Casey Nicholaw, The Book of Mormon
Susan Stroman, The Scottsboro Boys
Best Orchestrations
Doug Besterman, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Larry Hochman, The Scottsboro Boys
Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus, The Book of Mormon
Marc Shaiman & Larry Blank, Catch Me If You Can
* * *
Recipients of Awards and Honors in Non-competitive Categories
Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre
Athol Fugard
Philip J. Smith
Regional Theatre Tony Award
Lookingglass Theatre Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Isabelle Stevenson Award
Eve Ensler
Special Tony Award
Handspring Puppet Company
Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre
William Berloni
The Drama Book Shop
Sharon Jensen and Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts
* * *
Tony Nominations by Production
The Book of Mormon — 14
The Scottsboro Boys — 12
Anything Goes — 9
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying — 8
The Merchant of Venice — 7
Jerusalem — 6
The Motherf**ker with the Hat — 6
The Normal Heart — 5
Sister Act — 5
War Horse — 5
Catch Me If You Can — 4
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo — 3
The Importance of Being Earnest — 3
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown — 3
Arcadia — 2
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson — 2
Born Yesterday — 2
Brief Encounter — 2
Good People — 2
La Bête — 2
Priscilla Queen of the Desert — 2
Baby It’s You! — 1
Driving Miss Daisy — 1
The House of Blue Leaves — 1
Lombardi — 1
The People in the Picture — 1
www.TonyAwards.com
New Developments for Arts Education
From the “Americans for the Arts”
With a recent budget victory, high visibility on Capitol Hill, and three new arts education reports being released, arts education advocates are gathering momentum to impact education policy nationally.
On April 15, Congress and the president approved the FY 2011 appropriations bill which included restoration of the federal Arts In Education program – the only education program to be restored from being cut or terminated earlier in the year. This is a huge victory! This was directly following a successful grassroots advocacy campaign by 550 advocates from across the country who joined actors Alec Baldwin, Hill Harper, Kerry Washington, and Kevin Spacey during the national Arts Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill to support the arts and arts education.
Last week, Americans for the Arts published its National Arts Policy Roundtable final report which captures the recommendations from an event co-convened at the Sundance Preserve by President and CEO of Americans for the Arts Robert L. Lynch, and Robert Redford, founder of the Sundance Institute. Officials from both the U.S. Department of Education and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities participated in the National Arts Policy Roundtable. The report identifies four key recommendations, including the need for increased research, strong public policy support, and better casemaking efforts from the field.
These recommendations arrive at an important time. The chairmen of the House and Senate education committees in Congress have promised action soon on the reauthorization of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (also known as No Child Left Behind). Most immediately, the need for increased federal research cited in the National Arts Policy Roundtable recommendations will be answered, in part, by two new federal studies being released this week:
Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics is releasing the preview of a study on the national status and condition of arts education — it has been almost a decade since the last one was published! The full study is scheduled to be released by the end of 2011 and will be a key measurement of access to arts education.
Later this week, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities is set to release their study “Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools” which will promote successful arts education models and best practices as identified by this committee appointed by President Obama and chaired by the First Lady.
The momentum that has been built by recent advocacy on Capitol Hill and the boost from these national studies will serve the arts education field well as Congress considers education reforms later this year.
If you are interested in becoming an official member of the Arts Action Fund, join the Arts Action Fund today — it’s free and simple.
Pulitzer Prize for Drama Winners
In our follow up to this past week’s article congratulating Clybourne Park for winning the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, here is a list of all of the previous winners: (and for those of you playing along at home, last years winner was the musical Next to Normal).
2010: Next to Normal, by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt
2009: Ruined, by Lynn Nottage
2008: August: Osage County, by Tracy Letts
2007: Rabbit Hole, by David Lindsay-Abaire
2006: No award
2004-05: Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley
2003-04: I Am My Own Wife, by Doug Wright
2002-03: Anna in the Tropics, by Nilo Cruz
2001-02: Topdog/Underdog, by Suzan-Lori Parks
2000-01: Proof, by David Auburn
1999 – 00: Dinner with Friends, by Donald Margulies
1998 – 99: Wit, by Margaret Edson
1997 – 98: How I Learned To Drive, by Paula Vogel
1996 – 97: No award
1995 – 96: Rent, by Jonathan Larson
1994 – 95: The Young Man From Atlanta, by Horton Foote
1993 94: Three Tall Women, by Edward Albee
1992 – 93: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, by Tony Kushner
1991 – 92: The Kentucky Cycle, by Robert Schenkkan
1990 – 91: Lost in Yonkers, by Neil Simon
1989 – 90: The Piano Lesson, by August Wilson
1988 – 89: The Heidi Chronicles, by Wendy Wasserstein
1987 88: Driving Miss Daisy, by Alfred Uhry
1986 – 87: Fences, by August Wilson
1985 – 86: No award
1984 – 85: Sunday in the Park With George, by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim
1983 – 84: Glengarry Glen Ross, by David Mamet
1982 – 83: ‘night, Mother, by Marsha Norman
1981 82: A Soldier’s Play, by Charles Fuller
1980 – 81: Crimes of the Heart, by Beth Henley
1979 – 80: Talley’s Folly, by Lanford Wilson
1978 – 79: Buried Child, by Sam Shepard
1977 – 78: The Gin Game, by D.L. Coburn
1976 – 77: The Shadow Box, by Michael Cristofer
1975 – 76: A Chorus Line, by Michael Bennett, James Kirkwood, Nicholas Dante, Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban
1974 – 75: Seascape, by Edward Albee
1973 74: No award
1972 – 73: That Championship Season, by Jason Miller
1971 – 72: No award
1970 – 71: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, by Paul Zindel
1969 – 70: No Place To Be Somebody, by Charles Gordone
1968 – 69: The Great White Hope, by Howard Sackler
1967 – 68: No award
1966 67: A Delicate Balance, by Edward Albee
1965 – 66: No award
1964 65: The Subject Was Roses, by Frank D. Gilroy
1963 – 64: No award
1962 – 63: No award
1961 – 62: How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, by Abe Burrows, Willie Gilbert, Jack Weinstock and Frank Loesser
1960 – 61: All the Way Home, by Tad Mosel
1959 – 60: Fiorello!, by Jerome Weidman, George Abbott, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock
1958 – 59: J.B., by Archibald MacLeish
1957 – 58: Look Homeward, Angel, by Ketti Frings
1956 – 57: Long Day’s Journey Into Night, by Eugene O’Neill
1955 – 56: The Diary of Anne Frank, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
1954 – 55: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams
1953 – 54: The Teahouse of the August Moon, by John Patrick
1952 – 53: Picnic, by William Inge
1951 – 52: The Shrike, by Joseph Kramm
1950 – 51: No award
1949 – 50: South Pacific, by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan
1948 – 49: Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller
1947 – 48: A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams
1946 – 47: No award
1945 – 46: State of the Union, by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
1944 – 45: Harvey, by Mary Chase
1943 – 44: No award
1942 – 43: The Skin of Our Teeth, by Thornton Wilder
1941 – 42: No award
1940 – 41: There Shall Be No Night, by Robert E. Sherwood
1939 – 40: The Time of Your Life, by William Saroyan
1938 – 39: Abe Lincoln in Illinois, by Robert E. Sherwood
1937 – 38: Our Town, by Thornton Wilder
1936 – 37: You Can’t Take It With You, by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
1935 – 36: Idiot’s Delight, by Robert E. Sherwood
1934 – 35: The Old Maid, by Zoe Akins
1933 – 34: Men in White, by Sidney Kingsley
1932 – 33: Both Your Houses, by Maxwell Anderson
1931 – 32: Of Thee I Sing, by George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Ira and George Gershwin
1930 – 31: Alison’s House, by Susan Glaspell
1929 – 30: The Green Pastures, by Marc Connelly
1928 – 29: Street Scene, by Elmer Rice
1927 – 28: Strange Interlude, by Eugene O’Neill
1926 – 27: In Abraham’s Bosom, by Paul Green
1925 – 26: Craig’s Wife, by George Kelly
1924 – 25: They Knew What They Wanted, by Sidney Howard
1923 – 24: Hell-Bent fer Heaven, by Hatcher Hughes
1922 – 23: Icebound, by Owen Davis
1921 – 22: Anna Christie, by Eugene O’Neill
1920 – 21: Miss Lulu Bett, by Zona Gale
1919 – 20: Beyond the Horizon, by Eugene O’Neill
1918 – 19: No award
1917 – 18: Why Marry?, by Jesse Lynch Williams
1916 – 17: No award
Source: Playbill Online