About Grace
Originally hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, Grace is a director, writer and producer based in London.
Grace developed, directed and produced the five-star one woman EdFringe show, Bad Teacher, which sold out its runs in 2022 and 2023 at Underbelly and is transferring to the Pleasance London as part of their Best of Fringe season. She is also the director and creative producer of Lobster Frock’s Arts Council England funded Blueprints. She also is directing the London transfer of Sunsets at the Seven Dials Playhouse.
Her next show, which she is devising and performing, Summoning Sondheim, will premiere as a Work in Progress at a Pinch of Vault.
As Head of Community at Greenlit, Grace draws upon her experience as a creative and a former teacher, working to guide creatives through their crowdfunding journey. Grace also serves as the Head of Theatre at Greenlit, something near and dear to her heart.
After completing her second master’s degree, studying theatre directing under Katie Mitchell OBE, at RHUL, Grace co-founded The Queens of Cups, a production company focused on making women-led comedy and championing underrepresented and emerging voices.
Grace additionally holds an MA and a BA in English, and a BFA in Musical Theatre, her greatest passion. She is currently in the second year of Book Music Lyrics, a prestigious London based development programme for composers and lyricists.
Find me across social media at @grace_o_keefe
You can also check out my theatre company @thequeensofcups or head to our website: thequeensofcups.com
You can email me at egraceok@gmail.com
Download my CV: GraceOkeefeJulyCV
Theatre
The Queens of Cups
The Queens of Cups was founded by Grace O’Keefe and Erin Holland in 2020. Bonded by a passion for creating funny, entertaining, yet challenging work that champions woman voices, they first harnessed their Big Pussy Energy™ with their one woman show, Bad Teacher.
After two five star, sell-out runs at Underbelly for EdFringe, another sold out run at VAULTs, and a script for a TV-pilot adaption, Bad Teacher finished its journey this October at the Pleasance.
The Queens of Cups also curate and host a new writing night, New Moon Monologues, which began in online monthly instalments in 2020 and has evolved into an annual night of comedy, theatre and music with an emphasis on acts that are going to Edinburgh Fringe. They were commissioned by Theatre503 to write a feminist Pantomime. The Queens also perform as a musical comedy duo, with bangers including ‘Girls Don’t Poop’ and ‘Uranus is in Retrograde’.
Summoning Sondheim
Summoning Sondheim is a cabaret comedy séance that uses the power of musical theatre to summon us theatre kids’ Lord & Savior, Stephen Joshua Sondheim (the Joshua is important).
Musical theatre bitches and real life witches, Grace O’Keefe (co-creator of five-star EdFringe sell-out Bad Teacher) and Jordana Belaiche (West End Credits: Little Cosette in Les Misérables, Jane in Mary Poppins, yes, really) host this silly little spooky séance. Their goal? To summon Sondheim’s spirit in order to write the perfect musical.
This campy love letter to Sondheim is a testament to his legacy as both one of the world’s greatest artists and as a mentor to so many writers, exploring what it means to make art (after all, art isn’t easy!), the lack of a female musical theatre canon and how we “Summon Sondheim” everytime we’re in a theatre.
Summoning Sondheim will premiere as a Work in Progress on Feburary 14th and 16th at the Glitch as part of A Pinch of VAULT.
Bad Teacher
Bad Teacher had a five-star, sell-out run at Underbelly for EdFringe 2022 and 2023 and a sell-out run at VAULT Festival 2023. It was selected for Pleasance London’s Best of the Fringe Programme and will have a run at the end of October 2023 in their main house.
“The play is fast-paced, crude but also allows us to see the person behind the job, and the vulnerability of the students. Both performance and direction are perfectly executed, and you couldn’t ask any more from a performer.” ★★★★★ from North West End
“the best Marlon Brando impression I have ever seen”- ★★★★ from London Pub Theatre
“I want her to be my teacher and my best friend.”-★★★★★ from Lost in Theatreland
“The landscape of Bad Teacher is not so much “if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry,” so much as it is “you’re going to cry anyway, so you may as well laugh as much as possible in the meantime.” And with a piece as riotously funny as Queen of Cups’s play, the laughter is guaranteed.” ★★★★ from The Reviews Hub
“The show acts as a hilarious reminder that teachers are entirely human, which is an often-forgotten fact by parents, governments, and students themselves” ★★★★★ from Theatre Scotland
Written and performed by Erin Holland and directed by Grace O’Keefe, The Queens of Cups draw upon their years as 20-something teachers in Bad Teacher, a dark comedy about the trials and tribulations a 20-something female teacher faces in a London-based Sixth Form College.
Lobster Frock
Lobster Frock’s brand new, fictional museum adventure is based on their genre-defying digital theatre piece with the same name. Drawing on the extraordinary real-life experiences of South London women, it is a powerful, local story of hope, courage, and humanity – and a heartfelt tribute to mothers.
Tackling themes on aging, isolation and loneliness, Blueprints Museum has been created in collaboration with Lewisham and Southwark communities aged 65+ from The Albany and Age UK.
Through surrealist design and immersive theatre, Lobster Frock’s multicultural cast will catapult you into the dilapidated, remnants of a mystery woman’s life to try and answer the question, who is she?
Supported by and is in partnership with Age UK Lewisham-Southwark, MOCA London and Meet Me at The Albany
Writing
Grace has had a passion for music, particularly musical theatre, for her whole life. Her parents indoctrinated her into loving show tunes from a young age, and from singing Fiddler on the Roof during family dinner parties to earning her BFA in Musical Theatre, musicals have been her greatest passion in life.
While Grace dabbled in composing and arrangement throughout her life, starting with her time as President of her high school a capella group, she never considered herself a composer. That is until 2021, when she began dabbling in original composition, writing a number of singer-songwriter-style songs that she performed herself.
Since then, she has begun composing in earnest, writing the music for The Queens of Cups’ upcoming Christmas pantomime commissioned by Theatre 503 and her own original musical, Manic Pixie Dream Musical.
While her journey as a composer has just begun, it has quickly become one of her favourite things to do. After her longtime idol, Stephen Sondheim’s passing, she committed to write “a song a month for Sondheim” (yes, she did write a song about that as well). She quickly exceeded this benchmark, writing 10 songs for Manic Pixie Dream Musical in a month.
Check out some of her favourite songs!
Grace was a researcher on Stage Directors UK‘s Resilience Project, funded by Arts Council England, and is currently working on their workforce survey. You can check out SDUK Resilience here: https://sdukresilience.com/
My article on the future of sustainability was a particular favourite of mine to write for the Resilience Project. You can read that article here:
https://sdukresilience.com/introduction/sustainability/
Grace is also an author at The Escape Roomer, an online resource that documents and celebrates tabletop games, board games, video games, immersive theatre and more. You can check out her about page here.
Hire Me
Please.