Waiting. More than 2,500 years ago, Homer gave us Penelope, Odysseus’s wife who spends two decades grieving, weaving, and enduring his absence. That mythic patience becomes urgent and intimate in “Penelope,” a concert musical opening Friday, Sept. 19 at the Ancram Center for the Arts, where it runs through Sept. 28.
The show is the work of composer Alex Bechtel, director Eva Steinmetz, and Broadway star Grace McLean. It began in 2020, when Bechtel, living through the pandemic and separated from his partner by city lines, found himself writing songs about waiting. “Songs started emerging organically,” he said. “And I started to realize they were from the point of view of Penelope, from “The Odyssey.” It is a personal piece for all of us — a lot of our personal emotions and experiences have been poured into it. But what’s amazing about the [Homeric] source material is that it was so readily there for us. It’s this enduring story that has found its way into how we see and process the world.”
Bechtel reached out to Steinmetz, a longtime collaborator. “Alex was working on an album,” she said. “But I wanted to convince him that live performance would return, that we could form the songs into a show. What’s incredible about the songs Alex writes is that we all see ourselves in them. It’s not just the Alex break-up story; my own sadness gets reflected, too.”
By 2021, they had a draft: a chamber piece scored for piano, percussion, strings — and one lead vocalist. The role demanded range. “We needed someone with the gravitas and technique of a Shakespearean actor,” said Bechtel. “And we needed a clown. And a cabaret singer who could work with an audience in real time. And who could be the lead singer for her own band. Grace was the magical person we were looking for.”
“It was an immediate ‘yes,’” said McLean, best known for her turn in Dave Malloy’s “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.” “But this is the first time that I have ever felt this empowered as an actor, beyond just interpretation. [With Bechtel and Steinmetz] I got to improvise, to suggest directions, to co-write. It has been freeing, it has been affirming, to contribute this way as a performer — to collaborate on the vision for the whole piece.”
McLean missed the 2023 premiere at Hudson Valley Shakespeare, but with her schedule clearing after “Suffs” on Broadway, she has returned to the role.
“Playing the role of Penelope is like my own personal Waiting for Godot; ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’ It’s absurd, it’s boring, it’s difficult,” McLean said. “But it can also be joyful to live in your imagination. And it’s what we do every single day: how do I get through this? She’s weaving (a shroud for Odysseus). She’s weaving together stories. It’s tasks, it’s joy; it’s tedium; it’s frustration. Sometimes the challenge is slaying the monster. Sometimes it’s you, yourself; it’s getting through your day. It is both epic and so relatable.”
The Ancram Center’s co-directors, Jeff Mousseau and Paul Ricciardi, had seen “Penelope” at Joe’s Pub and brought it north. Bechtel and Steinmetz have been in town for a week; McLean has stayed longer, enjoying her home in Wassaic. “I’ve lived in New York City for 22 years, but two years ago, I got a place in Wassaic,” she said. “Now, if I don’t have to be in the City for a job, I’m up here. I’m tending my garden, I’m mowing my lawn.”
The setting has also shaped the process. “It’s impossibly beautiful here,” said Bechtel. “It’s especially lovely to be here at the turn of the seasons. But now I am really excited to meet the audience that Jeff and Paul have built up over ten years of exciting, creative work.” Steinmetz added, “Coming to the Ancram Center is like a fellowship, a residency — especially as an artist who lives in a city. There is literal, physical, emotional, mental space. Then the second part is the audience, getting to share your work with an audience that is different from the one in Philly or Manhattan.”
For McLean, the exchange is central: “The audience teaches you so much! They also become a part of the story. Any time there is theater that blurs that line [between the stage and the audience], I am so ready for it.”
Next month, the Ancram cast will take “Penelope” back to Joe’s Pub to record the piece. Six more productions are already planned for the year ahead. For now, Penelope’s wait is over — at least onstage, where the act of waiting itself becomes the story.