Our far-ranging conversation with one of America’s most important playwrights, Terrance McNally, was the highlight of our 2017 Broadway Teachers Workshop event. We learned how Ethel Merman made a lasting impression, how his first job out of college led to an around-the-world adventure with a famous novelist, and why teachers have held such an esteemed place in his life. McNally's stories about New York 'then and now' remind us how important theater is as a cultural beacon for the city and how — for him — it remained at the center of his life.

Described by Philip Galens for The New York Times as “the bard of American theatre,” McNally was the recipient of five Tony Awards, for Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class (Best Play), for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime (Best Book of a Musical), and for Lifetime Achievement in 2019. Other plays include Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire de Lune, The Ritz, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, and Corpus Christi.