1959-1960 award record
- Categories
- 1
- Honoured
- 4
- Nominated
- —
- New this season
- 1
4 awards were given across 1 category. Shortlists were not published in this period, so everyone named here was honoured — none of them is a runner-up. The entries come from the announcements issued at the time, the only public record of this season.
A single heading, Best Authors, and four writers honoured under it together. No shortlist, no runners-up, and no craft categories in sight.
The awards were five seasons old and still recognising writing, performance and direction and nothing else. All four names here are recognised for a specific play rather than a body of work, which is worth knowing before reading the early record as a career index.
The most consequential entry on this page is Edward Albee's, and it is his first play. The Zoo Story was written in 1958 and completed in three weeks.
It premiered not in New York but in West Berlin, at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt on 28 September 1959, on a double bill with the German premiere of Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. Its American premiere came off-Broadway on 14 January 1960 at the Provincetown Playhouse.
That American production was staged by a company billed as Theatre 1960 — a name worth holding on to, because the following season this record honours Theatre '61 Productions.
Jack Gelber's The Connection was first produced by the Living Theatre, directed by co-founder Judith Malina and designed by co-founder Julian Beck, with music by the jazz pianist Freddie Redd. Gelber received a Vernon Rice Award for it, which is the entry recorded here.
Rick Besoyan wrote the book, music and lyrics for Little Mary Sunshine, an affectionate sendup of old-fashioned operettas. It opened at the Orpheum Theatre on 18 November 1959 and ran 1,143 performances across three venues before closing in September 1962.
Jack Richardson, also honoured on this page for The Prodigal, was staged off-Broadway the same season the Vernon Rice name still ran — a fourth writer, alongside Albee, Gelber and Besoyan, honoured for work the mainstream Broadway stage was not producing that year. Four writers, four different registers, one shared heading.
The season before this one carried two headings, Best Performances and Best Direction; this one carries neither, honouring only Best Authors instead. The category list was not building steadily upward in these earliest years — it moved sideways as often as it grew, recognising a different slice of the craft from one season to the next rather than accumulating headings in order.
None of the four names on this page recurs elsewhere in the record — a genuine one-season appearance for all four. This season sits inside the longest such stretch on the whole record: seven consecutive seasons, 1957-58 through 1963-64, with no recurring name at all. That is a property of who happened to be writing that year, not evidence the record has lost track of anyone.
Little Mary Sunshine and The Zoo Story could hardly be further apart in tone — an affectionate operetta parody sharing a page with the play that opens Edward Albee's entire body of work — and that range, comedy and confrontation honoured side by side under one heading, is itself a fair summary of what Best Authors was judging that year. Neither is a small work to judge in the same breath as the other two.
Sources: The Zoo Story, The Connection, Little Mary Sunshine
Best Authors
These entries did not carry a heading of their own in the surviving announcement. They are placed here from their position in the original, so the heading above is the most likely one rather than a recorded one.
Honoured
- Edward Albee The Zoo Story
- Jack Gelber The Connection
- Jack Richardson The Prodigal
- Rick Besoyan Little Mary Sunshine
Questions about this season's record
Why is Best Authors the only category this season?
It is the only heading the surviving record holds for 1959-60, with four writers honoured under it together. The awards were five seasons old and still recognising writing, performance and direction, with no craft categories anywhere on the list. All four are recognised for one specific play rather than for a body of work.
Is this Edward Albee's earliest entry on this record?
Yes, and it is for his first play. The Zoo Story was written in 1958 and completed in three weeks. He is being recognised here at the very start, for the first thing he wrote, before any of the work he is now known for.
Where was The Zoo Story first performed?
In West Berlin, not New York. It premiered at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt on 28 September 1959, on a double bill with the German premiere of Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. Its American premiere came off-Broadway on 14 January 1960. Albee is honoured here for the American staging, the season it reached New York.
What was The Connection?
Jack Gelber's play, first produced by the Living Theatre, directed by co-founder Judith Malina and designed by co-founder Julian Beck, with music by the jazz pianist Freddie Redd. The same company takes a Special Award on this record six seasons later.
Are nominees recorded for this season?
There are none to record. Published nominee shortlists appear on this record only from the mid-1970s. Before then the announcements named who was honoured and nothing else, so this page has four honourees and no field behind them. That is a property of 1960, not a gap in the transcription of it.