Shaina Taub, Itamar Moses Receive 2025 Dramatists Guild Awards

The Dramatists Guild of America has announced Shaina Taub, Itamar Moses, Peter Parnell, Morgan McGuire, Kristiana Rae Colon, Clarence Coo, C.A. Johnson, and students and teachers from Santa Rosa High School as the recipients of the Guild’s 2025 Awards. The honors will be presented at the Guild’s annual awards ceremony on Monday, April 28.

Shaina Taub will be receiving the Frederick Loewe Award recognizing achievement in a theatrical score, for Suffs.

Peter Parnell will be honored with the Flora Roberts Award, presented to a dramatist in recognition of distinguished work in the theatre and to encourage the continuation of that work.

The Lanford Wilson Award, established by the estate of Lanford Wilson, is for an early-career or “emerging” writer. The co-recipients are Morgan McGuire and Kristiana Rae Colon.

Clarence Coo and C.A. Johnson will both be receiving the Horton Foote Playwriting Award, funded by the Richenthal Foundation. This award is presented to a dramatist whose work seeks to plumb the ineffable nature of being human.

The DLDF Defender Award is selected by the board of the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, in recognition of an individual’s (or team of individuals) efforts in support of free expression in the dramatic arts. This year, the DLDF board has named drama teacher Jereme Anglin, on behalf of the ArtQuest theatre program at Santa Rosa High School, as one of this year’s recipients.

The other recipients selected are Dean Jahnsen and Leila Paine, on behalf of their fellow students at Santa Rosa High School, who led a fight against the school’s attempt to shut down their production of Dog Sees God and then helped create a new theatrical work, [REDACTED], to comment on their experience; Brent Lindsay, artistic director of The Imaginists theater company of Santa Rosa, who helped the students create [REDACTED], and The Mercury Theater of Petaluma, for providing a new home for Dog Sees God after performances were suspended at the high school.

The Hull-Warriner Award is the only award given by dramatists to dramatists. It is presented annually to an author in recognition of their play dealing with controversial subjects involving the fields of political, religious, or social mores of the times. This year’s recipient is Itamar Moses for The Ally.

 The other finalists for the Hull-Warriner Award are Maybe Happy Ending – Will Aronson and Hue Park; Cult of Love – Leslye Headland; An Enemy of the People – Amy Herzog; Jordans – Ife Olujobi; Mother Play – Paula Vogel.

As previously announced, David Henry Hwang (Yellow Face, M. Butterfly) will be receiving this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.