Fellows

The ideas of today’s writers become the groundbreaking shows of the future. DGF’s Fellows program helps create that future by propelling the most promising creative talents to their full potential.

The Fellows program is a selective, year-long intensive for playwrights, composers, lyricists, and bookwriters. The program provides these talented writers access to accomplished professionals who help them hone their process and find their unique voice through one-on-one mentoring, exclusive internships, and staged presentations of their work for top theater professionals.

The program was founded in 2000 by Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, Janet Neipris, and Arthur Kopit, who led the program for many years, joined by Susan Miller. They set out to create a program where established writers would mentor and support the next generation of writers by helping them hone their process and find their unique voices. They believed it was vital to put playwrights and musical theater writers in the same room, to learn from each other’s different perspectives, to see how collaboration creates magic, and to foster community. Little did they know, the Fellows program would go on to launch the careers of more than 200 writers and cultivate a group of established alumni that includes Pulitzer finalists, Tony nominees, and recipients of Oscars, Grammys, Emmys, Larson Awards, Kleban Awards, and Fred Ebb Awards.

The Fellows program, currently headed by Michael Korie (Grey Gardens), Laurence O’Keefe (Legally Blonde), Migdalia Cruz (Fur), and Lucy Thurber (The Hill Town Plays), is highly sought after for its uniquely successful format of partnering playwrights and musical theater writers together in the learning process. In addition, Fellows receive a stipend and the opportunity to partner with several arts organizations for Fellows-specific development opportunities.

DGF Fellows is supported through the generosity of the Seller-Lehrer Family Foundation.

Thank you for your interest in DGF Fellows. The Fellows program is in the process of necessary growth and change. The first step in that process is the timeline of our season. Applications for the 2022-2023 Class will be open in early 2022. Check back here for more information throughout the year.

“I was in the Fellows during my first year in New York, and it was wonderful to have a little family of writer friends and mentors…And one of the best perks of the whole thing was the series of visits from veteran writers. Ten of us in a room with Doug Wright or Sarah Ruhl or Terrence McNally, picking the brains of our heroes in an intimate conference room, what could be more awesome?”
SARAH HAMMOND,
Playwright, Bookwriter, and DGF Fellows Alumna, Barefoot Persephone, String

2020-2021 Fellows

Calley N. Anderson, Aya Aziz, Christiana Cole, David Gomez, John-Michael Lyles, Dylan MarcAurele, Eliana Pipes,
Juan Ramirez, Jr., Mike Ross, and Regina Velázquez

Alumni

Since its inception in 2000, the Fellows program has given over 160 writers a path forward in the industry, with several going on to achieve the highest levels of recognition in both theater and film.

Fellows alumni include Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman, La La Land), Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Frozen, In Transit, Coco), Lauren Yee (The Great Leap, King of the Yees), Chisa Hutchinson (She Like Girls, The Wedding Gift), and many more.

View Our Fellows Directory