GRACE has just completed A PRAYER FOR REVENGE, a thriller novel to be published in 2018 and has recently developed RUNNER-UP. The new musical opening is opening in London’s Off-West End this fall. RUNNER-UP is about a reality TV show in 2008 called FINAL ICON. Nine young singers compete to be America’s next greatest pop sensation. The winner will have his or her own reality show – the ultimate awa
rd – in this story of veracity. RUNNER-UP might be branded the “The Fall of Western Civilization” as seen through reality television nightmares, of taletneted contested used by the "Elits" running corporate Americ, peaked by "The Apprentice." He collaborated with composer-lyricist Tom Lowe. He is part of the award-winning team that created the internationally performed award winning musical SNOOPY, based on PEANUTS by Charles M. He co-produced SNOOPY and co-wrote the book. SNOOPY continues to be one of the most produced shows (amateur; stock) in America/Worldwide and has had long running productions in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and in London’s West End. The show has been licensed to J*pan along with other areas internationally. There are over 100 individual productions every year. SNOOPY has recently been rebranded as THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SNOOPY premiering this Spring, headed to Broadway with a national tour for 2018. Out of college, Grace started in the theatre, besides SNOOPY, he went on to produce P.S. YOUR CAT IS DEAD by Pulitzer prize winning author James Kirkwood, co-produced the touring productions of THE BOY FRIEND and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, along with revival productions of PETER PAN in Australia and Canada. He wrote the stage thriller FINAL CUT which has had productions in the America and Canada. His one-man play, KENNEDY – THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH, was developed for HBO and produced theatrically. After working in media and public relations, Michael started working in development and as a writer. He was involved in developing horror films and wrote a cult film THE UNSEEN. He then started working in television as a continuing writer on such series as LOVE BOAT, PAPER DOLLS, and KNOTS LANDING. He developed screenplays for such major award winning directors as Nicolas Meyers, Tony Richardson and J. He has written for all the major networks and studios. He has been hired numerous times as a script doctor, doing many un-credited rewrites on TV movies and features. He has written movies for TV, including the thriller LADY KILLER starring Judith Light (which has set a record on Lifetime for the number of times its been shown), various pilots and developed screenplays for Kevin Costner and John Travolta. He has recently been involved in European productions with CLT-UFA, Europe’s leading commercial television and radio broadcaster. He wrote MOWs THE DOLL COLLECTION, THE BOTTOM LINE and LAST WITNESS for German television. He attended USC, the Pasadena Playhouse, and San Francisco State University. He also apprenticed at ACT – The American Conservatory Theatre and with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. He did graduate work at the American University of Beirut and the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii. He has guest lectured at USC, UC San Diego, and McGill University on writing spec screenplays – in a way to avoid development hell in Hollywood. After graduate school Grace worked as a foreign correspondent for COMBAT, the famous left-wing Paris daily, and as a travel writer. He visited more than 50 countries. He is a member of the American Operetta Guild and has written extensively on operettas. Focusing on musical theater light organ heritage that began in the early 19th century and continues into the mid-20th century – from the Red Mill to Rose Marie to the Desert Song. He is a continuing contributor to New York Social Diary and, through a life long passion for travel and social history, has an award winning website: Cruising The Past. He is an expert on steamships and ocean travel from the 1930s until the 1950s. He has one of the largest private collections of ocean liner memorabilia in the USA. He is currently working on IT’S THE LOVE BOAT… AND HOW IT CHANGED CRUISING BY SHIP a non-fiction book dealing with how the hit TV series as a major cultural phenomenon and altered the style of cruising by ship. The ten year running show created today’s cruise industry. It will be published in 2017... celebrating the 40th anniversary of the famed TV show. Grace has been very active in freedom of speech issues and in Democratic politics. He created and produced a major satirical political blog for three years and was a political consultant. He was sued by a GOP congresswoman Mary Bono (Sonny Bono’s widow) Mack through the Federal Election Commission. She lost. Along with the DAILYKOS, Grace won a landmark 2008 decision for bloggers when the Federal Election Commission ruled against Ms Bono. Grace is a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America and Dramatist Guild. By appointment of Queen Elizabeth, he is a member and officer in the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. A major international charity, the Order traces its origins back 900 years to the Knights Hospitaller from whom St John today derives its inspiration and maxims – Pro Fide Pro Utilitate Hominum, ‘For the Faith and in the Service of Humanity. He is former AIDS chair for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, board member of the San Francisco State University Foundation and founding member of the Children’s Theatre Association – Kids Go Broadway. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
