Nancy Ford is a composer and writer who grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she started and directed a Girls Glee Club from age five to eleven and studied with the renowned piano teacher Frances Clark for ten years. At DePauw University she met Gretchen Cryer, with whom she has collaborated on 13 musicals since 1955. At DePauw they wrote two musicals for the annual Monon Revue. They later wrote a third musical which was performed at Boston University and directed by Gretchen’s then husband, David Cryer. Both women eventually ended up in New York City, where Nancy’s first jobs were working as a secretary at Benton Bowles during the day while playing the piano at night for the Off-Broadway shows BRECHT ON BRECHT and THE FANTASTICKS.  It was in the latter show that she met her husband, actor Keith Charles. They were married for 44 years before his death in 2008. “THE FANTASTICKS” authors, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, were helpful in making connections which led to the production of Cryer and Ford’s first Off-Broadway musical, “NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN,” at the Theatre de Lys in 1967. Nancy’s secretarial work at Benton Bowles was a pathway to the 23 years she worked as a scriptwriter for soap operas. Her other musicals with Gretchen Cryer are listed below. She has arranged and written additional music for Tom Jones’s ‘The Game of Love’ and has collaborated with Mimi Turque on “Blue Roses,” a musical adaptation of “The Glass Menagerie.”  She produced a number of videos for The Dramatist Guild Foundation’s Legacy Project, served on the Council of the Writers Guild of America East and The Dramatists Guild Council, and has been an officer and board member of the League of Professional Theatre Women/New York. She is the recipient of an honorary Doctor of Arts Degree from Eastern Michigan University, a Doctor of Fine Arts from DePauw University, a New York Outer Critics Circle award, a Drama Desk Award, an Obie award, a Grammy nomination, two Writers Guild awards and two Daytime Emmys. After living in New York City for 58 years, she returned to her home town where she currently resides and accompanies The Friendship Village Kitchen Band.

CRYER & FORD Musicals: ‘For Reasons of Royalty’ (1955, DePauw University), ‘Hey Angie!’ (1957,DePauw University), ‘Rendezvous’ (1960, Boston University) NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN (1967 – Theatre De Lys, NYC, directed by Word Baker) THE LAST SWEET DAYS OF ISAAC (1970 – The East Side Playhouse, directed by Word Baker), ‘Shelter’ (1973 - The Golden Theatre, directed by Austin Pendleton), I’M GETTING MY ACT TOGETHER AND TAKING IT ON THE ROAD (1978 – The Public Theatre and Circle in the Square downtown, directed by Word Baker), HANG ON TO THE GOOD TIMES (1986 – The Manhattan Theatre Club , directed by Richard Maltby, Jr.), ‘Eleanor’ (1986 -Williamstown Theatre Festival – directed by Gretchen Cryer), ‘The American Girls Revue’– (1998,Chicago, New York, Los Angeles – directed by Kim Rubenstein), ‘Circle of Friends’ – (2000 –Chicago, New York – directed by Scott Davidson), ANNE OF GREEN GABLES (2008 - Theatreworks/USA, Lucille Lortel Theatre – directed by Tyler Marchant), STILL GETTING MY ACT TOGETHER (2011, York Theatre – directed by West Hyler). Cryer and Ford are represented by The Barbara Hogenson Agency.