ROBERT HORN (Book) Winner of the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, his theater credits include Tootsie, 13 The Musical, Shucked, Moonshine The Musical, Hercules, Lone Star Love; and Dame Edna: Back With A Vengeance. He’s written, created, and/or produced such iconic series as Designing Women, Living Single, High Society, Partners, and has contributed to large scale events such as Bette Midler’s Divine Intervention tour and The BBC RuPaul Christmas Special. He’s had production deals at Warner Brothers, Sony and ABC Studios, and other films include 13 The Musical on Netflix, Teen Beach Movie; Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure; Disney’s Wildlife; and Good Advice. Dedicated to my Mom, husband John, and twin sister Nancy, who I know is guiding my pen.

BRANDY CLARK (Music & Lyrics) A ten-time GRAMMY nominee and CMA Awards “Song of the Year” recipient, Clark is one of her generation’s most respected and celebrated songwriters and musicians. Her songs include Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow,” Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart,” The Band Perry’s “Better Dig Two” and Hailey Whitter’s “Ten Year Town.” She has most recently penned songs with and is a featured artist on Ashley McBryde’s critically-acclaimed “Lindeville” project. Her past three solo albums—2020’s Your Life is a Record, 2016’s Big Day in a Small Town, and 2013’s 12 Stories—each garnered immense critical acclaim landing on “Best of the Year” lists at New York Magazine, Billboard, NPR Music, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, etc. NPR Music calls her, “a storyteller of the highest caliber,” Rolling Stone asserts, “a country visionary…the consolation of a beautiful voice delivering a well-built song, cold truth rising from it like fog off dry ice,” while Slate declares, “one of the greatest living short-story-songwriters in country (which really means in any genre)” and The New Yorker praises, “No one is writing better country songs than Brandy Clark is.”

SHANE MCANALLY (Music & Lyrics) has written 48 number one songs, won 3 Grammy awards, and been named the Academy of Country Music’s Songwriter
of the year twice. In 2022, Shane became the most nominated songwriter in CMA history. He has written songs for John Legend, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, George Strait, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Halsey, Gwen Stefani, The Jonas Brothers, Reba, and countless others. As a producer, Shane has worked with superstars like Kacey Musgraves, Dolly Parton, Kelly Clarkson, Willie Nelson, Sam Hunt, Walker Hayes, Kelsea Ballerini and Carly Pearce. In 2012, McAnally founded SMACKsongs publishing, whose songwriters and artists have collectively written over 70 number 1 songs, and SMACK management which was responsible for the meteoric rise of Walker Hayes in 2021 and the record-breaking single“FancyLike”. In addition, Shane is the co-president and co-owner of Monument records (a partnership with Sony records), and also starred for 2 seasons on NBC’s Songland alongside Ryan Tedder and Ester Dean. Shane and his husband, Michael McAnally Baum, live in Nashville with their 9 year old twins, Dash and Dylan.

JACK O’BRIEN (Director) has won three Tony Awards for his direction of Hairspray, Henry IV, and The Coast of Utopia. His other recent Broadway credits include Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, Carousel, The Front Page, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, It’s Only a Play, Macbeth, The Nance, Dead Accounts, Catch Me If You Can, Impressionism, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony nom.), Imaginary Friends, The Invention of Love (Tony nomination and Drama Desk winner), The Full Monty (Tony nom.), More to Love, Getting Away with Murder, The Little Foxes, Damn Yankees, Two Shakespearean Actors (Tony nom.) and Porgy and Bess (Tony nom.). Off-Broadway credits include Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem, Pride’s Crossing, and Hapgood (Lucille Lortel Award). Other productions include Il Trittico at the Metropolitan Opera, Guys and Dolls at Carnegie Hall, Much Ado About Nothing for The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park, Love Never Dies, and Hairspray (Olivier nom.) in London, which saw a revival at the Coliseum in London last summer. Mr. O’Brien was the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre from 1981 till 2007. He has directed six programs for PBS’s American Playhouse. His book, Jack Be Nimble, is published by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux and his next volume, Jack in the Box: or, How to Goddamn Direct, will also be published by FSG.

SARAH O’GLEBY (Choreographer) credits include: Almost Famous (Broadway), Tony’s Opening Numbers 2022 (Radio City), The Wanderer (Paper Mill Playhouse), Mythic (Charing Cross, London), High Button Shoes (City Center Encores). Sarah is Resident Choreographer for SNL and The Tonight Show (NBC). Sarah also creates unique one off events for Hermes, Robin Hood Foundation, Target, Rose Bowl (NBC), Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC), The Kelly Clarkson Show (NBC), The View (NBC) and The Kennedy Center Honors (CBS).