Tony Award®-winning writer and lyricist Lynn Ahrens is a native New Yorker. She began her musical career fresh out of college when she became one of the principal songwriters and singers for the renowned American television series, “Schoolhouse Rock.”

Since then, she has written extensively for theatre, film and television, winning theatre’s triple crown – the 1998 Tony Award®, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards – for the lyrics of the acclaimed Broadway musical, Ragtime. In the same year she received two Academy Award® nominations and two Golden Globe nominations for Best Song and Best Score, for Twentieth Century Fox’s animated feature film Anastasia.

With her longtime collaborator, composer Stephen Flaherty, her many Broadway, off-Broadway, and Lincoln Center Theatre credits include Once On This Island, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, My Favorite Year, Lucky Stiff, A Man of No Importance, Rocky, Dessa Rose, The Glorious Ones and Broadway’s Seussical, which is now one of the most performed shows in America.

A new work, Little Dancer, inspired by the Parisian Ballet world and the impressionist artist Edgar Degas, is presently awaiting production.

Ragtime was revived on Broadway in 2010 and 2025, and is presently playing at The Lincoln Centre in New York City. For the recording of Songs from Ragtime, and for the original Broadway cast recordings of Ragtime and Seussical, Lynn Ahrens has received three Grammy® nominations.

Additionally, Lynn co-wrote the book and score for the Broadway musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, in collaboration with composer Alan Menken and director Mike Ockrent, which ran for ten years at Madison Square Garden. She subsequently wrote its screenplay adaptation for the NBC/Hallmark Entertainment Special, starring Kelsey Grammer.

For her extensive work in children’s television, she has received the Emmy Award and four Emmy nominations. She has also contributed songs for the IFC feature film Camp and the documentary After the Storm, among others.

Out of this vast body of work has come a dazzling array of songs, including the power ballad “Make Them Hear You” from Ragtime, often performed by Aretha Franklin; the whimsical “Anything’s Possible,” from Seussical, recorded by Donny Osmond, and many classic “Schoolhouse Rock” songs, including “Interplanet Janet,” “Interjections,” and “The Preamble.” The pop hit “At the Beginning,” from Anastasia, sung by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis, went to Number One, and the soundtrack from that film earned a Gold Record.

Lynn Ahrens is a member of ASCAP, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. She is a Lifetime Member of Council of the Dramatists Guild of America, where she is proud to have co-founded the Dramatists Guild Fellows Program for emerging theatrical writers.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

Sam Strong is an award-winning theatre director and one of Australia’s leading cultural figures, known for combining artistic ambition with transformative leadership. He has served as Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre and Griffin Theatre Company, Associate Artistic Director of Melbourne Theatre Company, Chair of Circa, and Executive Director of Creative Industries at Creative Victoria. In 2024 he was appointed Creative Director and CEO of Gasworks Arts Park.

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and admitted as a barrister and solicitor in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Strong brings rare cross-sector insight to his work. At Griffin, he delivered seven consecutive seasons of subscriber growth and record-breaking productions. At Queensland Theatre, he rebranded and revitalised the company, achieving the highest box office in its history, overseeing the renovation of the Bille Brown Theatre, and positioning the company as a national home for new Australian stories.

Strong has directed for every Australian state theatre company and major festivals. His stage adaptation of Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe became the highest-selling production in Queensland Theatre’s 50-year history. His productions of Love Stories and Joanna Murray-Smith’s Honour were acclaimed, with the latter becoming the longest-running show in Red Stitch’s history. He made Helpmann Awards history as only the second director to have two productions nominated for Best Play in the same year.

Across more than two decades, Strong’s work — spanning classics, bold new writing and large-scale collaborations — has been seen by over 500,000 people. Renowned for unlocking potential in artists and organisations alike, he continues to champion ambitious storytelling and community-centred cultural leadership.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

Gavan Swift is a multi award-winning Lighting Designer. He graduated from Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).

His musical lighting designs include Mamma Mia!, Heathers the Musical, Mack & Mabel, The Mikado, The Pirates Of Penzance, Hot Shoe Shuffle, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweet Charity, Fiddler on the Roof, Jolson, Buddy, Oh What A Night, Footloose, Hair, Xanadu, Chess, Carousel, Follies, Annie and Saturday Night Fever both in Australia and on London’s West End. Gavan was the lighting designer for Moby Dick at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, making history as the first Australian Lighting Designer to light a production at the fabled Arts institution..

He has designed the lighting for The Production Company’s Anything Goes, Sugar (Some Like It Hot), The Music Man, Hair, Mack & Mabel, The Pirates of Penzance, Thoroughly Modern Millie and their inaugural production of Mame. For the State Theatre Company of South Australia his designs include Three Sisters (co-set designer), King Lear and Hamlet. For Bell Shakespeare; The Winter’s Tale, Pericles and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

He also designed the lighting for the Victorian Opera production of La Rodine and the multi award-winning production of Salome. Gavan has also designed lighting for productions at the Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, The Ensemble Theatre, and Opera Australia.

Gavan was the Associate Lighting Designer for the Australian productions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Book of Mormon, Aladdin, Cabaret, The Full Monty, Chicago, High School Musical, A Chorus Line, South Pacific, The Lord of the Rings, Wicked, Frozen, An American In Paris, 9 to 5, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hairspray, Beauty & the Beast, Moulin Rouge, Beetlejuice and The Lion King; as well as the West End production of A Chorus Line, the Japanese production of Beauty and the Beast, plus the Mexican production of Wicked.

In another busy year he is Associate Lighting Designer on productions that include Anastasia, Waitress, Beetlejuice and Pretty Woman. He will also create the Lighting Design for Victorian Opera’s Ned Kelly.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).