Alan Menken & Kristen Anderson-Lopez Featured in DGF's 'LEGACY PROJECT' Screening in NYC

The Dramatists Guild Fund presents a screening of the third volume of The Legacy Project documentary series featuring a conversation with Alan Menken and Kristen Anderson-Lopez at The TimesCenter 242 West 41st Street on Saturday, December 3 at 6:00 PM.

The screening is free and open to the public, but RSVP required at bit.ly/DGF_Legacy.

Created by The Dramatists Guild Fund in 2009 and conceived by playwright Jonathan Reynolds, The Legacy Project documents and preserves the creative process of America's most esteemed dramatists in a series of filmed conversations between prominent and promising playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists. The two-volume set of 20 individual documentary films is used in classrooms nationwide to provide insight to the craft and creative process of America's most esteemed dramatists.

The third volume of The Legacy Project is made possible through the support of DGF Board Member Roe Green & The Roe Green Foundation.

The series provides insight into the craft and business of writing for the theater with dramatists including veteran writers such as Stephen Sondheim, Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, and Charles Fuller as well as those who have since passed including Mary Rodgers, Edward Albee, and Lanford Wilson, with established writers ranging from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kirsten Childs, Itamar Moses, and Lynn Nottage.

VOLUME III Will Include:

Gretchen Cryer & Nancy Ford Interviewed By Georgia Stitt

Christopher Durang Interviewed By David Lindsay-Abaire

Micki Grant Interviewed By Charlayne Woodard

Larry Kramer Interviewed By George C. Wolfe

Tony Kushner Interviewed By Michael Friedman

James Lapine Interviewed By Lisa Kron

Alan Menken Interviewed By Kristen Anderson-Lopez

Stephen Schwartz Interviewed By Jeanine Tesori

John Patrick Shanley Interviewed By Stephen Adly Guirgis

John Weidman Interviewed By J.T. Rogers

Clips from the first two volumes of The Legacy Project are available to the public at dgfund.org/legacyprojectarchive.

Alan Menken's music and lyrics have become an integral part of the fabric of our lives since his first works were produced nearly 40 years ago. His stage musicals include God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Atina: Evil Queen of the Galaxy, Real Life Funnies, Little Shop of Horrors, Kicks, The Dream on Royal Street, Beauty and The Beast, A Christmas Carol, Weird Romance, King David, The Little Mermaid, Sister Act, Leap of Faith, Newsies, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and A Bronx Tale. Song and score credits for film musicals include The Little Mermaid, Beauty and The Beast, Newsies, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, The Shaggy Dog, Home on the Range, Enchanted, Tangled, Mirror Mirror, Sausage Party. Individual songs for film include Rocky V - "The Measure of a Man", Home Alone 2: Lost in New York - "My Christmas Tree", Life With Mikey - "Cold Enough to Snow", Noel - "Winter Light", Captain America: First Avenger - "Star Spangled Man" and Sausage Party - "The Great Beyond". Television credits include writing songs for Sesame Street, the ABC mini-series Lincoln, a musical episode of The Neighbors and the ABC series Galavant. His chart topping songs have included "Beauty and the Beast", "A Whole New World", "Colors of the Wind" and "Go the Distance". Winner of the 2012 Tony and Drama Desk awards for his score for Newsies, he has won more Academy Awards than any other living individual, including eight Oscars with 4 for Best Score and 4 for Best Song; 11 Grammy Awards (including Song of the Year for "A Whole New World"); 7 Golden Globes; London's Evening Standard Award; the Olivier Award; the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award. Other notable achievements include induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Billboard's number one single ("A Whole New World") and number one album (Pocahontas). In 2001 he received the distinction of being named a Disney Legend. Awarded two doctorates in Fine Arts from New York University and the North Carolina School of the Arts. In 2010 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Recent live concert appearances include the Hollywood Bowl, Segerstrom Center and the Royal Albert Hall. Upcoming works include a live-action film adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and an as-yet-untitled film musical project at Universal Pictures.

Kristen Anderson-Lopez is the Oscar and Grammy award winning co-writer of Disney's Frozen, along with her husband and collaborator Robert Lopez. She is also the co-writer of the upcoming, first-ever, all a capella musical, In Transit currently running on Broadway. In Transit earned recognition at the Drama Desk, Drama League and Lucille Lortel awards for its 2010 Off-Broadway run. Anderson-Lopez and Lopez have written for television, film and stage, including the Emmy nominated song, "Moving Pictures," which opened the 2015 Academy Awards, Finding Nemo: The Musical, and the Winnie the Pooh animated film. Their original musical, Up Here, was featured in the La Jolla Playhouse's 2015-16 season. Anderson-Lopez is currently co-writing songs for Disney's Gigantic and is adapting Frozen for the Broadway stage. A graduate of Williams College, Anderson-Lopez now resides in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

An initiative of The Dramatists Guild Fund, The Legacy Project documents and preserves the creative process of America's most esteemed dramatists in a series of filmed conversations, each featuring an established stage author (or team of collaborators) and an emerging one. These videos serve to heighten awareness of writing and composing for the stage and are intended for an audience of students, historians, aficionados of the theatre, and the public in general. They provide a unique window into the thinking of America's most prominent and promising playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists.

The Legacy Project producers include Nancy Ford, Carol Hall, Peter Ratray and Jonathan Reynolds. The interviews are filmed and directed by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest of Transient Pictures. The Dramatists Guild Fund's Media Advisor is Leonard Majzlin.

The Legacy Project was originally conceived by Jonathan Reynolds.

The Legacy Project: Volume III is made possible through the support of DGF Board Member Roe Green & The Roe Green Foundation.

The Dramatists Guild Fund is the public charity arm of the Dramatists Guild of America. Its mission is to aid and nurture writers for the theater; to fund non-profit theaters producing contemporary American works; and to heighten awareness, appreciation, and support of theater across the country. Each year, DGF awards grants to non-profit theatrical organizations across the country that produce works by American writers, provides emergency aid to writers facing illness or other unforeseen circumstances, and supports numerous educational programs and writing development opportunities for dramatists.

For more information visit www.DGFund.org.