1968-1969 award record
- Categories
- 9
- Honoured
- 37
- Nominated
- —
- New this season
- 9
37 awards were given across 9 categories. 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.
The first season with craft categories of any kind, and the shape is unlike anything later. Thirty-seven people were honoured across nine headings, with no nominee lists at all — several names could share one category, so nobody on this page is a runner-up.
The Great White Hope, Dames at Sea and Promises, Promises each took three. Set design appears here for the first time in the whole record; costume followed the next season, lighting not for another five.
Among the thirty-seven names honoured this season, several went on to careers well beyond off-Broadway. Al Pacino, honoured for Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, and James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander, both honoured for The Great White Hope, were still years from the film roles that made them widely known — Jones and Alexander reprised their stage roles in the 1970 film adaptation of the same play.
Dustin Hoffman, honoured here for Jimmy Shine, had also been honoured two seasons earlier, for Eh?, before either role or The Graduate had made his name widely known outside off-Broadway — this record's second, later sighting of a name it had already carried once before.
Patricia Zipprodt, who takes the season's set design award for 1776 and Zorba, is the most frequently recorded name on this record for this season specifically, appearing across seven seasons in total — a run that starts, for the record's purposes, on this very thin, nominee-free page.
Sources: The Great White Hope
Most Promising Playwrights
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
- Charles Gordone No Place to be Somebody
- Elaine May Adaptation
- Lonnie Elder III Ceremonies in Dark Old Men
Outstanding Book
Winner
- Peter Stone 1776
Outstanding Choreography
Winner
- Grover Dale Billy
Outstanding Directors
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
- Alan Arkin Little Murders
- Edwin Sherin The Great White Hope
- Gordon Davidson In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer
- Michael A. Schultz Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
- Neal Kenyon Dames at Sea
Outstanding Lyrics
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
- Fred Ebb Zorba
- George Haimoshn, Robin Miller Dames at Sea
Outstanding Music
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
- Al Carmines Peace
- Burt Bacharach Promises, Promises
Outstanding Performers
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
- Al Pacino Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
- Alec McCowen Hadrian VII
- Bernadette Peters Dames at Sea
- Brian Bedford The Misanthrope
- Donald Pleasence The Man in the Glass Booth
- Dorothy Loudon The Fig Leaves are Falling
- Douglas Truner Ward Ceremonies in Dark Old Men
- Dustin Hoffman Jimmy Shine
- Frank Langella A Cry of Players
- James Coco Next
- James Earl Jones The Great White Hope
- Jane Alexander The Great White Hope
- Jerry Orbach Promises, Promises
- Joseph Wiseman In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer
- Linda Lavin Little Murders
- Marian Mercer Promises, Promises
- Nathan George No Place to be Somebody
- Nicol Williamson Hamlet
- Ron Leibman We Bombed in New Haven
- Ron O'Neal No Place To Be Somebody
Outstanding Set Design
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
- Patricia Zipprodt 1776 / Zorba
- Tanya Moiseiwitsch The House of Atreus
Vernon Rice Awards
Winner
- Joseph Chaikin
Outstanding Lyrics enters the record here, for the first time in any season. It is one of 3 headings new to the record this season. Sound and scoring on record →
Questions about this season's record
Why does this page list no nominees at all?
Because the earliest seasons on this record published no shortlist. Thirty-seven people are honoured across nine categories here, and everyone named simply received that year's award — nobody on this page lost to anyone else. Nominee lists do not appear on this record until 1974-1975, six seasons later.
Which three productions each took three awards this season?
The Great White Hope, Dames at Sea and Promises, Promises — the only three productions to take three awards apiece among this season's honorees. Between them they account for nine of the thirty-seven awards given; every other production on the page won once or twice.
Which craft category enters the record on this page?
Set design, appearing here for the first time in the archive held on this site. Costume design follows in the very next season, 1969-1970, and lighting design does not arrive until 1974-1975 — five seasons after costume, six seasons after this one.
Does anyone honoured this season also appear elsewhere on the record?
Ten of the thirty-seven names honoured this season recur in at least one other season held here. Patricia Zipprodt is the longest-running of them, appearing across seven seasons in total — the widest span of anyone named on this particular page.
Which craft categories still did not exist by this season?
Costume design, lighting design and sound design — none had entered the record yet. Costume followed the very next season, 1969-1970; lighting arrived six seasons later, in 1974-1975; and sound design, the last of the five original crafts, not until 1979-1980, eleven seasons after this one.
Who else on this page appears elsewhere in the record
10 of the 37 names on this page appear in at least one other season held here. Reading a person as a run rather than a single entry is the point of an index like this one. A designer's work shows up under two or three different category names as the headings were renamed.
- Patricia Zipprodt 7 seasons 1972-1973, 1978-1979, 1980-1981, 1982-1983, 1990-1991, 1993-1994
- Brian Bedford 4 seasons 1969-1970, 1970-1971, 1973-1974
- James Earl Jones 4 seasons 1964-1965, 1970-1971, 1972-1973
- Al Carmines 3 seasons 1967-1968, 1973-1974
- Alan Arkin 2 seasons 1969-1970
- Alec McCowen 2 seasons 1970-1971
- Dustin Hoffman 2 seasons 1966-1967
- Grover Dale 2 seasons 1987-1988
- Nicol Williamson 2 seasons 1973-1974
- Ron Leibman 2 seasons 1969-1970