September 19-21 & September 25-28
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7:00pm
Sunday at 3pm
at Ancram Center for the Arts

Music & Lyrics by Alex Bechtel
Book by Alex Bechtel, Grace McLean & Eva Steinmetz
Based on writings in The Odyssey by Homer
Directed by Eva Steinmetz
Starring Grace McLean

generously supported by
Richard and Hannah Ramsden
via Goldman Sachs Gives

Grace McLean (seen most recently in Suffs on Broadway) stars as Penelope, a woman who is waiting…and waiting…and waiting for her husband, Odysseus, to return from a decade-long war. Given the rest of the soldiers came home years ago—forgive her, but she’s going to need a drink while she tells you about it. With a beautiful folk-inflected pop score backed by an onstage band of strings, piano, and drums, Penelope confides in us about her loneliness, her son’s disappearance, her suitors, her gods, her faith in her marriage—and ultimately, the faith that she must find within herself.

“A wonderfully ingratiating new musical”—Washington Post

ALEX BECHTEL creates new works of music, theatre, and musical theatre.  He is a graduate of The University of the Arts, The Pig Iron School (Inaugural Class, 2013), and a Company Member of Lightning Rod Special. Bechtel has received two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Original Music, and Barrymores for Outstanding Music Direction and Outstanding Leading Actor in a Musical. In 2015, he was awarded an Independence Fellowship in the Arts to study with New Music composer Rachel Grimes on new approaches to the use of music in theatre. Bechtel’s musicals include Penelope (World Premiere, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; Signature Theatre DC), The Appointment (Off Broadway: “Best of 2019” – NYTimes, Vulture, TimeOut NY; “Best of 2023” – The New Yorker), Poor Judge (World Premiere, Pig Iron Theatre Co), Peter Panto and Alice in Wonderland: A Musical Panto (World Premieres, People’s Light & Theatre Co), The Light Princess (World Premiere, Arden Theatre Co), The West, Philadelphia Nocturne, and Cheer Up, Dostoevsky. He has also composed new music for the plays of William Shakespeare over 8 seasons at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. alexbechtel.com 

GRACE McLEAN (she/her) is a performer, writer, composer. In addition to performing on Broadway (Suffs; Bad Cinderella; Natasha, Pierre….), Off-Broadway and Regionally (MCC, LCT3, The Public, Vineyard, La MaMa, BAM, Weston Playhouse, ART, WTF) and TV (The First Lady [Showtime], The Other Two [HBOMax]) she also writes and composes for theater (Penelope; Lunar Eclipse; The Apiary; In The Green, Richard Rodgers, Lortel Awards) and film (Marina, Gotham Award; The Photographer; Our Mine, Best Score Brooklyn Film Festival, Black Bear Award for Best Score Athens International Film Festival). She toured Pakistan and Russia as an artistic ambassador with the US State Department and released her first full length album My Lovely Enemy May 2024 with Rolling Stone calling her “avant-garde” tracks “brilliant”. Lincoln Center Writer-in-residence, Vivace Award (’23), Larson Grant (’21), Broadway Women’s Fund’s Woman to Watch (‘21), Civilians R&D Group (‘19-’20), MacDowell Fellow (‘18), Lincoln Center Emerging Artist (‘17). www.gracemclean.com

EVA STEINMETZ (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based theater director, filmmaker, and educator. She has directed and co-created more than a dozen new works including Poor Judge (Pig Iron Theatre Company), Penelope (Alex Bechtel & Grace McLean), The Appointment (Lightning Rod Special – two-time NY Times Critic’s Pick; Time Out NY Critics Pick; New Yorker “Best of 2023;” 6 Barrymore nominations, including Best Director), 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). Her short film, Marina, starring Grace McLean and Succession’s Peter Friedman, received a Gotham Award and distribution through Focus Features. Eva was also a performer/creator in Josephine Decker’s acclaimed movie, Madeline’s Madeline. In collaboration with her producing partner Tommy Butler, Eva is currently developing her own first feature-length films. Eva serves as Artistic Producer for the Pig Iron Theater Company, creating digital and live performances, and piloting educational and workshop-based initiatives. She is a graduate of Bard College (BA, theater directing), the Pig Iron School (Graduate Certificate, devised performance), and Temple University (MFA, film). www.evasteinmetz.org