NYC professionals who love writing, theater, and kids!

We think deeply, laugh together, and are socially curious and conscious about the world, creating musicals with an aim to help kids grow.

We’ve been developing musicals since 2004. Betina Hershey, Broadway and movie performer, turned down a tour and started leading Garden Players, a childrens musical theater program, with a vow to write a new childrens musical every year for the next five years. Over 15 years later she and Garden Players is still going, with original musicals published and performed in over 32 countries with over 2,000 performances worldwide. Our first musicals written by Betina Hershey, Gwynne Watkins and Denver Casado are available at Beat by Beat Press. Our newest works are available right here at Garden Players Publishing. Betina Hershey, Gwynne Watkins, and Sunny Knable bring their expertise, creativity, and social awareness to the childrens theater and youth acting community with works focused on immigration (So Far From Home), climate change (Your Turn), the digital world (Switch It Off), bullying (Lemontales), and magic (Magic It Up!).

Betina Hershey, Gwynne Watkins and Denver Casado met as members of the BMI Lehman Engle Musical Theatre Workshop. They met Sunny Knable when Denver moved home to California and Sunny joined Garden Players as musical director and composer. They work and play at a fast and fun pace, meeting deadlines and putting together theater magic for kids and families both locally and world wide.