BIOGRAPHIES
ELIZABETH BARKAN (Book/Lyrics/additional music) began writing Bike Shop 15 years ago, with developmental workshops and readings presented at Theater For The New City in 2009. Liz is a native New Yorker and prior owner of a Bicycle store in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY, a former Bike Messenger with Elite Couriers, a retired USCF Bicycleracer-Criterion/Road, and Track racing, Certified Group Fitness and Spinning Instructor at The JCC in Manhattan. Theater acting credits include: Theatre For The New City’s: Kryptonite Hearts, The Golden Bear, Award winning Street Theatre. Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre, The Blacksmiths Folly Musical director: Zalmen Mlotek. The Wallenberg Mission, at The Harold Clurman Theatre, Godspell at The Oasis Theatre, Regional theater includes: Michael Rapp’s Rasputin, with Ted Neeley at The Wilmington Grand Opera, as well as Pirates Of Penzance, with The Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Liz studies voice Victoria Clark.
GRETCHEN CRYER (Director) is most well known for writing the book and lyrics and starring in I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road (with music by Nancy Ford). The show was originally produced in New York City by Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, followed by a 3-year run at the Circle in the Square. The show subsequently ran a year in Chicago, a year in Los Angeles, had numerous productions around the country, and over 100 foreign productions. In Chicago, the show won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Musical, and Gretchen won the Best Actress Award. The cast album won a Grammy nomination. Gretchen has written numerous other shows with Nancy Ford - Now Is the Time for All Good Men (off-Broadway), The Last Sweet Days of Isaac (Obie Award - Best Musical, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Shelter (Broadway - Golden Theater), Hang On to the Good Times (Manhattan Theater Club), The Fabulous Party (Williamstown Theater Festival), The American Girls Revue - (American Girl Place - Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles), Circle of Friends (American Girl Place - Chicago and New York) and Anne of Green Gables (Theatreworks, Lortel Theater.) Cryer and Ford have just finished a new show - Still Getting My Act Together. Gretchen has recorded two albums with Nancy Ford for RCA and has starred on Broadway in her own cabaret act. She has performed on and off Broadway and on film. In 1999 Gretchen was the first recipient of the Ed Kleban Award, a grant awarded each year to one librettist and one lyricist considered to be the most promising in their fields. Gretchen is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council and is President of the Dramatists Guild Fund. Gretchen was a Phi Beta Kappa from DePauw University, and she holds a MAT degree from Harvard and an honorary Doctor of Arts from Eastern Michigan University and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Colorado College. She is also the recipient of the Indiana Arts Award from the Governor. She presently teaches a course in creating your own Solo Performance in New York City. Born and raised in Indiana, Gretchen presently lives in New York City and has three children - Jon, Robin, and Shelly - and five grandchildren.
GERRY DIEFFENBACH (Additional music/Arrangements) is a singer, songwriter, pianist and musical director. He has twice received the Songwriters Guild of America President's Award, the Back Stage Bistro Award for Outstanding Musical Director, the CAB Magazine Award for Sustained Achievement, the OOBR Award for a review of his original music, and the Critics Choice Award for Outstanding Album of the Year for his CD of original songs, Well Informed. He performs his own music and pop standards in his inimitable style in the New York clubs weekly. A Songbook showcase of Gerry's music has been produced by Arts and Artists at St. Paul's at The Donnell Library Theater, NYC, and he is a Songwriters Guild of America board member and a voting member of The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). His original songs have been recorded and performed on concert and cabaret stages by many artists. Trained in piano and voice at Carnegie Mellon University and Manhattan School of Music, Gerry was resident musical director for the Hempstead Repertory Theatre. He has musical directed and accompanied numerous performers including, Shauna Hicks, Georga Osborne, Christine Pedi, Darius de Haas, Karen Mason, Donny Osmond, Joely Fisher, Vickie Phillips, Margaret Whiting, Petula Clark, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and Joan Rivers. He was on the development team as musical director, pianist and singer for the Broadway musical Dream, and he performed in and musical directed the Broadway in Bryant Park Series saluting the songs of Alan Jay Lerner. Gerry is presently writing and developing several new original musical projects. As her associate, he is a vocal coach who studies voice with and teaches the technique of Joan Lader.
CAROLINE MURPHY (Book/lyrics/additional music) got her Master’s Degree from NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, where she was the recipient of the Max Dreyfus ASCAP Scholarship. While there, she wrote the book and lyrics for three musicals: Fishing The Moon (with Brett Macias), Branded and Graced (with Darius Smith), and Bomb (with Brett Macias), most recently performed in concert at Cap21 (NYC). Her plays, Last Say, Shifts of Focus, and Straight Ahead have been produced in Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and NYC. In 2008 she was commissioned to write a new musical, Beneath The Surface, (with composer Brett Macias, and director Terry Berliner) for the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her collaboration with composer, Brett Macias, was featured in American Theater Magazine, and the two recently finished their second writer’s residency with director, Terry Berliner, at Cap 21. She recently co-wrote the musical Jesus Christ Spectacular for the feature film Mangus! with award-winning composer-lyricist Scott Murphy. You can see her perform as a singer-songwriter all around NYC.
YOUN-YOUNG PARK (Music/Arranging and Scoring) is a composer, writer, and lyricist working internationally across the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, and South Korea. She co-created Once Upon a Time in Narcissia (co-book and music with Susannah Pearse), recipient of the CJ Musical Showcase Award and Honorable Mention at the Stiles & Drewe Best New Song Competition. The work was featured at the Goodspeed Festival of New Artists (USA) and Perfect Pitch (UK), among other international festival presentations. \u200b Her works also include Li-Tsin (book, music, and lyrics; commissioned by CJ Culture Foundation and staged at CJ Azit Theater), Rapunzel (music and co-book; commissioned by Singapore Repertory Theatre, with a record-breaking sold-out run and multiple extensions), and Friends (composer; stage adaptation of the hit Korean film, produced at Busan Cinema Center). She composed The Emperor’s Quest (music and co-book; Judges’ Discretionary Award, MTM:UK Musical Theatre Awards; Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and wrote the lyrics for the animated feature musical Princess Aya, distributed by CJ CGV and officially invited to the Busan International Film Festival and the Bucheon International Animation Festival.
Her music, lyrics, arrangements, and musical direction for Othello and Iago, commissioned by the Globe Theatre Institute and presented at the National Theater of Korea, reflect her engagement with classical texts in contemporary musical form. Additional credits include Shooting Star (book, lyrics, and music; commissioned by Seoul City and presented at Sejong Center M Theater and multiple venues across Seoul) and How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun (music and co-book; commissioned and published in the United States by Mondo Publishing, with performances in the U.S., U.K., and South Korea).
She holds an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and serves as Artistic Director of EnoB.
THE COMPANY, founded by Taylor Banks, is a business strategy and creative production consulting firm that supports artists with executive-level leadership across operations, development, and execution. At its core is a belief that business strategy without creativity stifles innovation, and creativity without structure slows progress. By placing the “A” for Arts within STEM, The Company bridges artistic vision with strategic rigor, helping bring ambitious ideas to life with clarity, scalability, and sustainable impact.
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