Editor's Note: Ken Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed playwright who has had numerous hits on Broadway, in London, and throughout the world. His plays and musicals include Lend Me a Tenor, which won two Tony Awards, and Crazy for You, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical. His work has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has been performed in over thirty countries in more than twenty languages. He is also the author of the book How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare. For Biographile's That Summer series, in which authors share personal stories on the summers that shaped them or their subjects, Mr. Ludwig remembers the summer he got his start and everything changed.

In the summer of 1985, I was working two jobs: one for love and one for money. I left graduate school wanting only to write plays, but I had no means of supporting myself. I got up at 4:00 a.m. every morning, showered and dressed, wrote plays from 4:30 to 8:30, then put on a suit and trudged off to work as a young associate at a law firm. I’d had a few productions here and there, in church basements, off-off-Broadway, and even a short run at the Kennedy Center, but nothing that would allow me to quit my day job. This is pretty familiar ground for anyone trying to become an artist, and it was just fine at that age. The events that transpired over the summer of 1985, however, would change my life forever.

My play Lend Me A Tenor had recently opened at the American Stage Festival in Milford, New Hampshire with the great actor-director Walter Bobbie (at the start of his career) in the lead. Soon after this production, I met an English director named David Gilmore who was visiting the United States. He showed some interest in my early plays and asked me casually what I had written lately. I told him about Lend Me A Tenor and he took a copy home to England with him.

A few days later David called me from London. He was enthusiastic about the play and said that he would like to show it to a “producer friend” of his. At that moment I was seized by the ridiculous notion that I would sound more important if I had some connections myself, so I answered, “Well, David, I don’t want the play to look shopped around, and I do have interest from some big-time producers. Who’s your friend?” To which he answered, “Andrew Lloyd Webber.”

Fortunately, I didn’t faint. In fact, I said quite calmly, “Well that’s nice. Why don’t you show it to him.”

Two days later, Andrew Lloyd Webber called me and said that he thought Lend Me A Tenor was the funniest play he had ever read and asked me if he could present it in London and New York. With tremendous wisdom, I said yes. Two weeks after that, I found myself on a plane to London, and within an hour of landing, I joined Andrew at the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel.

Over that summer, thanks to Andrew and David, I worked on Tenor in London for weeks on end. There were meetings with designers, casting sessions, discussions about publicity -- all the wonderful practical aspects of putting on a play. On some occasions I would stay at Andrew’s country house, Sydmonton Court, and I there I met Andrew’s then wife Sarah Brightman and his friend Cameron Mackintosh. Heady stuff indeed for a young writer.

True to his word, Andrew opened Lend Me A Tenor the following season on the West End with David Gilmore directing. The production was stunning, we had great reviews, and the show enjoyed long, healthy runs in both London and New York.

Many plays and journeys later, I still think with affection about that summer of ’85, recalling the remarkable circumstances that led to my first major commercial production -- an experience which, in turn, led happily to a lifetime of writing for the theatre.

If you are moved by your own summer memories, submit your story to Paste’s That Summer writing contest.