Guest Editor's Notes on The Terrence McNally Issue
Photo of Lynn Ahrens and Gretchen Cryer
Lynn Ahrens and Gretchen Cryer

Guest-editing an issue of The Dramatist devoted to Terrence McNally has been a joyful and daunting task. He was so prolific, so profound, and so beloved that this issue could have been twice its size. We have tried to capture the essence of Terrence: his passion, his wit, his wisdom, and his devotion to the theatre and to other writers and theater artists. As we poured over his plays, his essays and the tsunami of tributes we received from those whose lives he touched, we were overwhelmed at the sheer volume of his life! How did one person do so much in a lifetime?

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Lynn Ahrens 
Lynn Ahrens 

wrote lyrics for Ragtime, Once On This Island, A Christmas Carol, Anastasia, Seussical, Lucky Stiff, A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose, The Glorious Ones, Rocky, and the upcoming Marie and Knoxville. She’s won Tony, Drama Desk, Emmy, and Olivier Awards, plus multiple Oscar and Grammy nominations, and is a member of the Theater Hall of Fame. She co-founded the DGF Fellows program and is a member of Council at the Guild.

Gretchen Cryer 
Gretchen Cryer 

is best known for writing and starring in I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road. She has written eight other musicals with composer Nancy Ford which have won the Obie, the Outer Circle Critics Award, and the Drama Desk Award. Gretchen is also a recipient of the Ed Kleban Award. She was inducted into the Off-Broadway Hall of Fame in 2020 as a Legend of Off-Broadway, is President Emeritus of the Dramatists Guild Foundation, and serves on the Dramatists Guild Council.