Theatre Now Offers Free Online Q&A With Ahrens & Flaherty This Week

Theatre Now, an artist service organization dedicated to supporting musical theatre writers, continues its Industry Q&A series with an online conversation with Tony Award winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty May 10th at 6:30pm. The event is free and open to anyone who wishes to attend. Reservations can be made at www.tnny.org/industryqaseries.

The free series is designed to "remove the gatekeeping of information that often slows the career progress of early career writers, those without industry contacts or financial resources to cut through the hurdles that may be in their paths," explains Colleen Harris, Theatre Now's Managing Director. Past guests have included literary agent Brian Sherman, cultural consultant Humaira Ghilzai, and dramaturgs Martine Kei Green-Rogers and Kim Euell.

This month, the interactive conversation will focus on collaboration, project development, and creative practice. Guests Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty are the musical team behind numerous acclaimed shows, including Ragtime, Once on This Island, Seussical, Anastasia, and Lucky Stiff. They have received theater, film and music's highest honors-the Tony Award, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Olivier Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and four Grammys. They serve on the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America and founded the DGF Fellows Program for Emerging Writers. In 2014 they received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement and in 2015 they were inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

Theatre Now is an artist service 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. Theatre Now bridges the gap between early readings and fully produced theatrical runs by offering staged and performed developmental productions to pieces that are ready to live on their feet. They strive for continuity and growth in their production process by collaborating with artists on story development through song and dialogue and focusing on their prospective audience. For more information, visit tnny.org.