History
The Stanley Drama Award was established in 1957 by Staten Island philanthropist Alma Guyon Timolat Stanley and endowed through the Stanley-Timolat Foundation to encourage and support aspiring playwrights. The national Stanley Award competition is administered by the Wagner College Theatre program, listed for the last decade among the top five college theater programs in the country in the Princeton Review’s annual Best Colleges Guide. The award carries with it a monetary prize along with the distinction of joining the illustrious list of past Stanley Award winners.
The Stanley Drama Award has a long and distinguished history. Past winners include Terrence McNally’s “This Side of the Door” (aka “Things That Go Bump in the Night”), Lonne Elder III’s “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men,” and Jonathan Larson’s “Rent.” Among those judging for the Stanley Award have been playwrights Edward Albee and Paul Zindel, actresses Geraldine Page and Kim Stanley, and TV producer/pioneer talk-show host David Susskind.
Visit our online Newsroom for a complete history of the Stanley Drama Awards, including profiles of winning playwrights and synopses of winning plays. You will find the complete history here.
| 2024 | Competition Suspended |
| 2023 | The Magician’s Sister, Jami Brandli |
| 2022 | Marilyn, Mom and Me, Luke Yankee |
| 2021 | Competition Suspended due to Covid-19 |
| 2020 | Truth Be Told, William Cameron |
| 2019 | Some Other Verse, Carl L. Williams |
| 2018 | Incident at Willow Creek, Benjamin V. Marshall |
| 2017 | The Showman and the Spirit, Elisabeth Karlin |
| 2016 | Bad Hearts, Mike Bencivenga |
| 2015 | The Good Bet, Bob Clyman |
| 2014 | Out of Orbit, Jennifer Maisel |
| 2013 | The Return of Tartuffe, Brian Mulholland |
| 2012 | The Perfect Wife, Karen L. Lewis |
| 2011 | Eyes Forward, Philip Gerson |
| 2010 | The Restoration of Sight, Richard Martin Hirsch |
| 2009 | Memory Fragments, Sam Wallin |
| 2008 | Stray, Ruth McKee |
| 2007 | Guided Tour, Peter Snoad |
| 2006 | Farmers of Men, Richard Aellen |
| 2005 | Mother, May I, Dylan Brody |
| 2004 | Be Our Joys, Joseph Zaitchik |
| 2003 | Skin of a Lawyer, Richard Kalinoski |
| 2002 | How High the Moon, Timothy Jay Smith |
| 2001 | The Pagans, Ann Noble (Massey) — winning play prev. listed as And Neither Have I Wings to Fly (wr. 1995) |
| 2000 | Shadow Plays, Frank Basloe |
| 1999 | Flight, music by James Scully; book by Steve and Elise Seyfried |
| 1998 | Gone Astray, Jennie Staniloff Redling |
| 1997 | The Job, Shem Bitterman |
| 1996 | Cold War Comedy, Thomas S. Hischak |
| 1995 | No award on record |
| 1994 | Tierra Del Fuego, Robert Alan Ford |
| 1993 | Rent, Jonathan Larson |
| 1992 | Boca, Christopher Kyle |
| 1991 | Planet of the Mutagens, Mary Fengar Gail |
| 1990 | Beast, Susan Arnout Smith |
| 1989 | Washington Square Moves, Matthew Witten |
| 1988 | Norm Rex, Phil Atlakson |
| 1987 | no decision made, all finalists carried over to following year |
| 1986 | Cue the Violins, David Graham Richmond |
| 1985 | Interstates, Daniel A. Dervin |
| 1984 | The Mountains of Arafat, Geoffrey Brown |
| 1983 | Cafe Con Leche, Gloria Gonzalez |
| 1982 | Jonas, Billy Bly |
| 1981 | Sissy and the Baby Jesus, Barbara Allan Hite |
| 1980 | Private Opening, Norman Wexler |
| 1979 | The Stag at Eve, Robert Riche |
| 1978 | Cutting Away, Barry Knower |
| 1977 | Past Tense, Jack Zeman |
| 1976 | A Safe Place, Carol Klein Mack |
| 1975 | Jonathan! A musical play in two acts suggested by characters in the novel “Jonathan Wild,” by Henry Fielding; book & lyrics by Alan Riefe; music by Robert Haymes |
| 1974 | Son of the Last Mule Dealer, Gus Weill |
| 1973 | Carnivori, C. Richard Gillespie |
| 1972 | Fortune Teller Man, Marvin Denicoff |
| 1971 | Obtuse Triangle: A Romantic Comedy in Two Acts, Bernard “Ben” Rosa |
| 1970 | Three Sons (Of Sons & Brothers), Richard Lortz |
| 1969 | A Happy New Year to the Whole World Except Alexander Graham Bell, Bernard Sabath Two one-acts: The Club and The Little Gentleman, Yale Udoff |
| 1968 | Bag of Flies, Venable Herndon |
| 1967 | The Prize in the Crackerjack Box, William Parchman |
| 1966 | To Become a Man, Albert Zuckerman |
| 1965 | Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, Lonne Elder IIIÂ |
| 1964 | Hothouse, Megan Terry |
| Thompson, Joseph Baldwin | |
| 1963 | Funnyhouse of a Negro and The Owl Answers, Adrienne Kennedy |
| 1962 | This Side of the Door, Terrence McNally (later revision titled, “And Things That Go Bump in the Night”) |
| 1961 | La Loca (La Fiesta), Ernesto Fuentes |
| 1960 | The Busy Martyr, George Hitchcock |
| 1959 | The Apple Doesn’t Fall, Gene Radano |
| 1958 | Hear that Sweet Laughter (Published by Dramatists Play Service, 1961, as Clandestine on the Morning Line: A Play in Three Acts), Josh Greenfeld |
| 1957 | To Learn to Love, William I. Oliver |