Dramatists Guild Foundation Reveals Aurin Squire as 2025 Thom Thomas Award Winner

The Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) has announced award-winning playwright, journalist, and multimedia artist Aurin Squire as the recipient of the 2025 Thom Thomas Award, given annually to an alumnus of the DGF Fellows program who demonstrates great artistic skill. Squire was part of the 2014-2015 Class of DGF Fellows.

Since 2016, DGF has awarded the Thom Thomas Award to commemorate playwright Thom Thomas’ endless passion for nurturing the next generation of dramatists and his appreciation of DGF’s support of writers. The Award grants the recipient $10,000 to use towards livelihood expenses, project expenses, travel expenses – anything that will support their ability to create their best work.

Squire wrote the book for the Tony-nominated Broadway musical A Wonderful World that opened at Studio 54 in October 2024. He won the Helen Merrill Prize for Emerging Playwrights as well as Seattle Public Theatre's Emerald Prize for new American plays. He graduated from The Juilliard School after a two-year fellowship in the Lila Acheson American Playwriting Program. Squire has had fellowships at The Dramatists Guild of America, National Black Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange.

Squire often deals with the 'other', whether it be racial, sexual, class, region of birth, or psychological. His drama Fire Season opened at Seattle Public Theatre and centered on a grieving mother in rural Washington state who just lost her pre-teen son to a drug overdose, and how her rage floods the entire town. His political satire Obama-ology is about a young awkward Black campaign staffer for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.

Squire won the grand prize in the InspiraTO Theatre’s International Play Festival in Toronto for Freefalling, about the psychological state of three passengers before a plane crash. Article 119-1, his drama about a gay rights activist in Belarus, was produced in Florence, Italy, as well as in Norway, Vancouver, and Los Angeles in March 2014. Squire’s comedy African Americana received its world premiere at London’s Theatre 503. He has been a guest artist and lecturer at Northwestern University, Penn State U (Altoona), Gettysburg College, NYU, Molloy College, and New School University. His plays have been produced in London, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, and other cities in the US and abroad. Squire lives in Brooklyn.

The Thom Thomas Award is made possible through the generous support of Thomas’ longtime friends and colleagues, Iris Rainer Dart and the late Helen Lee Henderson, and Thomas’ late husband, Janis Purins. 

“Thom was a thoughtful, gifted man and writer and my close friend for sixty years,” Rainer Dart said about the award. “I am proud to have been one of the founders of this award and moved by the legacy he left behind. Thom wanted to give young writers the breathing room and the time to create. Thanks to this award, they will have some measure of both.”

Past recipients are: Gloria Oladipo (2024), Zeniba Now (2023), Avi Amon (2021); Erika Dickerson-Despenza, Julia Meinwald, Benjamin Velez (2020); Riti Sachdeva (2019); Stefanie Zadravec (2018); Sylvan Oswald (2017); and Chisa Hutchinson (2016).  

Squire’s work will be spotlighted as part of the DGF Fellows 25th Anniversary celebration at this year’s Gala, on October 20th at Ziegfeld Ballroom (141 W. 54th St.), honoring Chisa Hutchinson, Michael Korie and Jolie Schaffzin for their commitment to mentorship and support of the future of storytelling for the stage. Comedian and Tony-Nominated writer Amber Ruffin will return as host for the third year. For tickets, tables, and journal ad inquiries, visit DGFGala.com. 

For more information about the Thom Thomas Award, the DGF Fellows program, and how to support dramatists throughout their careers, visit https://dgf.org.