Called "phenomenal" by The New York Times, "electrifying" by The Huffington Post and a "sly-eyed musical powerhouse" by New York Magazine, Grace McLean is a multi-hyphenate actress-singer-writer-teacher. In addition to performing on Broadway (Suffs; Bad Cinderella; Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812), Off Broadway (New Group, MCC, LCT3, Public, La MaMa, Vineyard, among others) and TV/film (The Other Two - HBO; The First Lady - Showtime), Grace also makes time for her acclaimed original music. Rolling Stone called the "avant garde pop" songs "brilliant" on her debut full length album "My Lovely Enemy." Stephen Holden of the New York Times says "Ms. McLean's voice [is] a flexible instrument with unexpected reserves of power...Behind her playful adventurousness lies a well of passion."

Grace's first original musical In The Green was commissioned and produced by Lincoln Center Theater and earned a Richard Rodgers Award for writing and a Lucille Lortel for her performance. Her work with composer Alex Bechtel and director Eva Steinmetz earned another Richard Rodgers Award for their piece Penelope. She composes music for theater (Lunar Eclise, The Apiary) and film (Marina, Our Mine - Best Score from Brooklyn Film Festival and Athens International Film Festival). Other honors include a Vivace Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, and she a Broadway Women's Fund Woman to Watch. Her band has performed for the Lincoln Center American Songbook two years in a row and she toured Pakistan and Russia with the US State Department as an artistic ambassador.

Grace has taught at NYU, The New School, Northwestern, UNCC, Orange County School of the Arts, New York Youth Symphony, among others. She has developed work at Manhattan School of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Orchard Project, The O'Neill, Johnny Mercer Writer's Colony at Goodspeed, The PiTCH, CAP21, The Civilians R&D Group, and MacDowell. The original cast recording for In The Green is available on Ghostlight Records. Original music "My Lovely Enemy," "Natural Disaster" and "Make Me Breakfast" are streaming now. www.gracemclean.com  @thatgracemclean

rigor + ruckus (Producer) is a New York-based boutique theatrical producing and general management company built on a simple premise: combine operational rigor with the ruckus of creative vision to identify and develop projects that meet the current cultural moment. Founded by two-time Tony-winning producer Rachel Sussman, Tony-nominated producer and general manager Heather Shields, and Special Tony Award-winning producer Robb Nanus, r+r's recent projects include: the critically acclaimed Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares (Edinburgh Fringe, London); the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Liberation (Broadway); and the sold-out, one-night-only concert event Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment in partnership with Jane Fonda and the Committee for the First Amendment. Upcoming: Nobody Cares US tour and Liberation in London. Several projects in development. rigor-ruckus.com

EVA STEINMETZ (Director + Co-Book) is a Philadelphia-based theater director and filmmaker, creating new works that straddle the ordinary and extraordinary. Most notably, she directed and co-created Poor Judge, a dance-theatre-cabaret exploring heartbreak and the Hollywood Dream, and featuring original renditions of Aimee Mann's musical catalogue (Pig Iron – 4 Barrymore Awards, including Outstanding Production of a Musical); Penelope, a contemporary chamber musical about Odysseus's waiting wife (Alex Bechtel & Grace McLean – Richard Rogers Award; 4 Barrymore nominations); and The Appointment, a musical satire skewering the hypocrisy and absurdity at the center of the American abortion debate (Lightning Rod Special – two-time NY Times Critic's Pick; Time Out NY Critics Pick; New Yorker "Best of 2023;" 6 Barrymore nominations).

Other credits include Sad Boys in Harpy Land (Alexandra Tatarsky), Art Houses (Theatre Horizon), The Caregivers (Pig Iron), Hart Island Requiem (Ty Defoe & Tidtaya Sinutoke), Wolfthicket (Lily Kind), and Krapp Hour (Anne Carson & Lightning Rod Special). Eva's short film, Marina, starring Grace McLean and Succession's Peter Friedman, received The Gotham Award and distribution through Focus Features. She was also a performer/creator in Josephine Decker's acclaimed movie, Madeline's Madeline. Eva is a Co-Artistic Director of the Pig Iron Theater Company, where she creates digital and live performances, and pilots educational and workshop-based initiatives.

ALEX BECHTEL (Music, Lyrics, Co-Book) is a composer, actor, sound designer, writer, director, teaching artist, and multi-instrumentalist dedicated to the creation of new works of music, theatre, and musical theatre. In addition to Penelope, recent work includes: Arrangements/Music Direction for Poor Judge, an experimental dance-theatre exploration of the music of singer/songwriter Aimee Mann, with Pig Iron Theatre Company; Music & Lyrics for Lightning Rod Special's The Appointment (NYTimes, Vulture, TimeOut NY "Best of 2019" lists); People's Light & Theatre Company's Peter Panto: A Musical Panto, Alice in Wonderland: A Musical Panto, Sleeping Beauty: A Musical Panto, and Shakespeare in Love; Arden Theatre Company's The Light Princess and A Midsummer Night's Dream; and Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's Two Gents, Henry V, Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Midsummer, Much Ado, Merry Wives and Twelfth Night.

Workshop productions of his musicals Philadelphia Nocturne (2017) and Cheer Up, Dostoevsky (2018) were presented in Philadelphia. He is the creator/director/composer for the devised musical hall drama The West, which had its world premiere in 2014 at the Off-Broad Street Theatre. Bechtel is a graduate of The Pig Iron School (Inaugural Class, 2013) and The University of the Arts (BFA 2008). He has received 7 Barrymore Awards — representing recognition for Outstanding Original Music, Music Direction, Performance by an Ensemble of a Musical, and Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. In 2015, he was awarded an Independence Fellowship in the Arts to engage in creative study with Kentucky-based composer Rachel Grimes on new approaches to the use of music in theatre. In 2026, Bechtel was awarded the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre for Penelope, alongside co-writers Grace McLean and Eva Steinmetz. He lives in New York City. www.alexbechtel.com