--Sitting in a rec room at Dartmouth College in 1993 during the Workshop’s annual retreat, listening as a young, vibrant Jonathan Larson played snippets of his score for a new musical he called RENT;

--Hearing a hilarious, antic Claudia Shear telling anecdotes about her peripatetic career life, until artistic director Jim Nicola interrupted her to say, “You should write a play about it,” which Claudia later did, calling it BLOWN SIDEWAYS THROUGH LIFE;

--Giving celebrated film actor Geoffrey Rush a tour of the Workshop following his Academy Award nomination for the screen version of my play QUILLS, and telling him, “This is where it all began.”

--Traveling to Washington on behalf of NYTW to urge congressional support of the arts, and chatting about Tennessee Williams and the Dutch avant-garde with Senator Chuck Schumer;

--Watching celebrated actor and playwright Sam Shephard bring Caryl Churchill’s unnerving political allegory THE NUMBER to life;

--Meeting members of Peter Brooks’ world-renowned acting company during their residency with Dostoevsky’s potent dialogue THE GRAND INQUISITOR;

--Experiencing painful dispatches from the front lines of world history, as Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen presented their harrowing documentary piece about Iraqi refugees called AFTERMATH.

Like so many artists throughout New York City and the nation, I have benefited first-hand from the Workshop’s remarkable programs: the free access to rehearsal space, workshop and reading opportunities, summer residencies, fellowships, and ongoing participation in Usual Suspects, the Workshop’s family of more than 460 theatre artists across
the city.