wrote lyrics for the title song for After the Storm, the documentary film about young Hurricane Katrina survivors putting on Once On This Island. Other Ahrens writes short stories which have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Calyx, Glimmer Train Stories and others. Her personal essays have appeared in Narrative Magazine and have been nominated for "Best American Essays" and the "Pushcart Anthology". Ahrens and Flaherty gave a series of concerts of their work in Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia from September 4 to 13, 2009. Ahrens is a lifetime member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America, and is a founder and co-chair of the Dramatists Guild Fellows Program for Emerging Writers. She wrote text for the concert piece With Voices Raised (composer, Stephen Flaherty), which was commissioned by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 2000. She wrote text for the concert piece The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers (composer, Peter Boyer), which was commissioned and performed by the Boston Pops in 2009, and narrated by Robert De Niro, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman and Cherry Jones. She wrote lyrics for the choral piece, "The Song I Sing" (music composed by Stephen Flaherty), commissioned by the Young People's Chorus of New York, and performed at Carnegie Hall by a chorus of 1000 children. Musicals Lucky Stiff (1988) (book and lyrics) Once on This Island (1990) (book and lyrics) My Favorite Year (1992) (lyrics) A Christmas Carol (1994–2004) (co-book and lyrics) (produced as a TV film in 2004) (teleplay) Ragtime (1998) (lyrics) Seussical (2000) (book and lyrics) A Man of No Importance (2002) (lyrics) Dessa Rose (2005) (book and lyrics) Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life (2005) (lyrics—special material) The Glorious Ones (2007) (book and lyrics) Rocky the Musical (2012) (lyrics) Little Dancer (2014) (book and lyrics) Anastasia (2016) (lyrics) Knoxville (2020) (lyrics) Contributions "I Eat", contribution to The Seven Deadly Sins: A Song Cycle for Audra McDonald Music and lyrics for "Interplanet Janet", "No More Kings", "The Preamble", "The Great American Melting Pot", "A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing", and many others, contributions to Schoolhouse Rock! Songs for Captain Kangaroo, notably "There's So Much To Do" and the 1982—85 theme song, "Here Comes Captain Kangaroo" Awards and nominations Emmy Award Best Informational Daytime Program "H.E.L.P" — (winner) Tony Award Best Book of a Musical (1991) Once on This Island — (nominee) Tony Award Best Original