Theatre Now Will Host Master Class With Rachel Sheinkin

Theatre Now New York will host a Master Class with Tony Award-winning writer Rachel Sheinkin (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) on Monday, June 23rd at 6:30pm as part of their Industry Nights series. The evening will feature songs by 4 writing teams from TNNY's Musical Writers Lab followed by a reception. Presenters will include recent Richard Rodgers Award winners Jacinth Greywoode & AriDy Nox along with Henco Espag, Andi Lee Carter & Briana Harris; Tasha Gordon-Solmon & Faye Chiao; and Britt Bonney.

Theatre Now's Industry Nights are an ongoing series featuring experts in the field of musical theatre. This will be the final Industry Night before their summer break. Past guests include Tony winners Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty and Lisa Lambert along with Tony nominees Andrew Lippa and Susan Birkenhead, among others. More information can be found at tnny.org/industrynights.

Industry Nights are held in Midtown Manhattan and are free for Theatre Now members. Annual individual memberships start at $25 or only $15 for students and seniors. There is a suggested donation of $10 for non-members. Reservations are required as space is limited. To RSVP for any Industry Night, go to https://form.jotform.com/TNNY/industry-night-series.

Rachel Sheinkin is an award-winning playwright, lyricist and librettist. Her work has appeared on and off Broadway, regionally and internationally, including most prominently in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, with a score by William Finn, for which she received Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Book of a Musical. Other productions include Striking 12 (written with and for the band GrooveLily), Sleeping Beauty Wakes (music by Brendan Milburn, lyrics by Valerie Vigoda, originally performed in collaboration with Deaf West Theatre), Blood Drive (music by Joel Derfner), and Serenade (music by Nils Olaf Dolven). A member of Dramatists Guild, Rachel currently serves on The American Theatre Wing's Tony Nominating Committee and is a professor for the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, from which she graduated. Rachel previously received a BA from Brown University and an MFA in playwriting from Yale School of Drama, where she also taught libretto writing for musical theater.

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 readings and productions of new works as well as the annual SOUND BITES Festival of 10-Minute Musicals. SOUND BITES XII was hosted by Anna K. Jacobs (Teeth) on May 5. Their work is supported by recent grants from the NEA, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT), the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Foundation for Musical Theatre.

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; winners of the Jonathan Larson, Richard Rodgers, Alan Menken, and Helen Hayes Awards; and the first ever Black List Musical Film Fellow as well as early-career writers. In 2024, shows from Lab members were 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.