Theatre Now Hosts Master Class With Susan Birkenhead

Theatre Now's next Industry Night will be held on Monday, October 21st at 6:30pm, featuring a Master Class with Tony-nominated lyricist Susan Birkenhead (Jelly's Last Jam, Working, BOOP!). The evening will include songs by TNNY Musical Writers Lab members Bob Kelly & Jonathan Keebler, Carrie Caffrey & Earl Marrows, Kit Goldstein Grant with guest writer Luke Simnett, and Yuriko Shibata & Andrew Strano, followed by a reception.

The remaining Industry Nights this year will include Master Classes with Tony winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Seussical, Once on This Island) and Jonathan Larson Award winner Anna K. Jacobs (Teeth, POP!). 2025 dates will be announced soon. More information can be found at www.tnny.org/industrynights.

Future evenings will be devoted to the Business of Musical Theatre, Getting Your Show Produced, Collaborator Speed Dating, and more. Industry Nights are held in Midtown Manhattan and are free for Theatre Now members. There is a suggested donation of $10 for non-members. Annual individual memberships start at $25 or only $15 for students and seniors. Reservations are required as space is limited. To RSVP for any Industry Night, go to https://form.jotform.com/TNNY/industry-night-series.

Susan Birkenhead made her Broadway debut as one of the lyricists for Working (Tony nomination) and received a Tony Nomination, a Grammy nomination, and a Drama Desk Award for her lyrics for Jelly's Last Jam. Her many other shows include Triumph of Love (Drama Desk Award), What About Luv (Outer Critics Circle Award), Minsky's (L.A. Drama Critics Award), and Pieces of Eight (with Jule Styne). She wrote additional songs for the 1998 Broadway revival of Cole Porter's High Society and contributed lyrics to Stars of David and A...My Name Is Alice Off-Broadway. Recent projects include The Secret Life of Bees with Lynn Nottage, Duncan Sheik and Sam Gold; Black Orpheus with Lynn Nottage and George C. Wolfe; and BOOP! with Bob Martin, David Foster and Jerry Mitchell, opening on Broadway March 11, 2025.

Founded in 2013, Theatre Now New York (TNNY) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development, production, publication, and circulation of short and long-form musicals by providing ongoing support for writers and their work in order to nurture voices and forms that push the boundaries of musical theatre. TNNY produces developmental productions of new works as well as the annual SOUND BITES Festival of 10-Minute Musicals. Published in 2019, The 10-Minute Musical: an Anthology from the SOUND BITES Festival collects 25 short musicals from the first six years of the festival, all of which are licensed for production through an ongoing partnership with Music Theatre International (MTI).

Formed in 2019, the Theatre Now Musical Writers Lab is a community of 20 writing teams who meet regularly to work on the development of new musicals. This is a highly skilled, active, and collaborative group focused on embracing and fostering the diversity of musical theatre. The current Lab consists of 35 librettists, lyricists, and composers from the NYC area and around the world from diverse backgrounds ‒ straight and gay, cis and trans, young and old, rural and urban, white, Black, Latinx, and Asian. It includes members of ASCAP, BMI, and the Dramatists Guild; an Alan Menken Award winner; a Fulbright Scholar; and the first ever Black List Musical Film Fellow as well as early-career writers. These artists have received recognition from prestigious awards, organizations, and festivals, and their work has been heard everywhere from NPR to MTV.

This year, shows from Lab members will be featured in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Eugene O'Neill National Music Theatre Conference (NMTC), and, for the third year in a row, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) Festival of New Musicals.

Bob Kelly is a Minneapolis-based composer, pianist, and music director. His work as a composer has received support from the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Prospect Theater Company, and Music Theatre International. His second solo EP It Begins, It Begins will be available on all streaming platforms in October 2024. Bob is a graduate of St. Olaf College and the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. www.bobkelly-music.com

Jonathan Keebler is a lyricist and bookwriter based in New York City. Musicals include Gay Card, A Most Average Musical, and Meet and Run. He was a finalist for the Jonathan Larson Grants and has work licensed by MTI and Uproar Theatrics. He has an MFA in musical theatre writing from NYU Tisch and is a member of the Dramatist Guild. www.jonathankeebler.com

Carrie Caffrey and Earl Marrows are a team of musical theatre writers based somewhere in between Brooklyn, New York, and Melbourne, Australia. They have been featured in the Lincoln Center Broadway's Future Songbook Series, Rattlestick Playwrights' Theater's Village Song, Tisch's New Studio on Broadway, 54 Below, NYMF, and at venues internationally including London's Bread & Roses Theatre, Musical Theatre Radio, York University in Toronto and the Under the Arch Incubator in St. Louis. Caffrey & Marrows are both graduates of NYU Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. www.carriecaff.com, www.earlmarrows.com 

Kit Goldstein Grant is a New York City-based composer, lyricist and librettist. She wrote the musical MICRO-FACE for NPR podcast Planet Money, and her musicals have been seen in South Africa (The Nose) and at various venues in NYC including Theater Row (The Giant Hoax). Five of her musicals for young audiences have toured schools with the Schenectady Theatre for Children, including It's Raining Tamales!, which is published by YouthPLAYS. Kit has studied at Juilliard and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and holds a M.M. in Composition from Brooklyn College. She is also a teaching artist, working with New York City Children's Theater and the Metropolitan Opera and with her own company, Paper Kite Arts. Member: ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild, Composers Collective. www.kitgoldstein.com, www.paperkitearts.com

Luke Simnett is a British musical theatre composer and lyricist. His work has been received professionally on both sides of the Atlantic, including Off-West End, the Edinburgh Fringe and on the television series Broadway Bound (sponsored by AMDA), and has been performed by various stars of the West End and International Artists. His lyrics are featured on the upcoming album of a major celebrity singer (tba soon) described as the UK's best-selling classical artist.

Japanese composer Yuriko Shibata (she/her) and Australian playwright and lyricist Andrew Strano (they/them) met at NYU-Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Members of the NYC Artist Corps, their musical SKIN—a queer reimagining of the myth of the Selkie—debuted Off-Broadway at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre. Yuriko is also a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre workshop and holds a B.Mus (Tokyo College of Music). Andrew completed a M.A. in Writing for Performance (VCA, Melbourne University) and underwent their studies in the U.S. as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship. www.yuriko-shibata.com, andrewstrano.com

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