TV Exclusive: BACKSTAGE WITH RICHARD RIDGE- Tonys Special with 2015 Honoree Stephen Schwartz!

Welcome to BWW's exclusive talk show, BACKSTAGE WITH Richard Ridge. Follow Richard as he visits the theater's best and brightest in their dressing rooms, on their stages and favorite hang outs to talk about their lives, careers and all of the things you don't know, but want to know. In the special interview below, Richard welcomes 2015 Isabelle Stevenson recipient Stephen Schwartz!

Schwartz began his Broadway career in 1969 with the title song for Butterflies Are Free. Since then, he has become known for his music and lyrics for such shows as Godspell, Pippin and Wicked. But he has also worked on many projects of educational, charitable and social value to the theatre community. For the past six years, as President of the Dramatists Guild, he has worked to strengthen and protect the rights of American dramatists, including battling censorship and piracy and improving the relationship between writers and directors, actors and producers.

As a long-standing board member of the ASCAP Foundation, he has served as artistic director of the Musical Theatre Workshops in New York and Los Angeles for more than 20 years, nurturing many of the young composers and lyricists working in the theatre today. He has also brought the ASCAP workshop to multiple cities around the country, as well as conducting frequent master classes at universities and regional theatres for aspiring writers and performers. Internationally, Schwartz has done master classes for musical theatre writers and performers in such countries as Germany, Australia, Latvia and Kenya.

His other charitable work has included organizing last fall's Uprising of Love concert at the Gershwin Theatre to benefit and raise awareness of LGBT people in hostile countries, producing benefits for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Faustman Clinic, and appearing in benefits for such causes as the Sandy Hook families, Marriage Equality, the Orphaned Starfish Foundation, the Gender and Family Project, etc.