Café La MaMa Live: Take 2

Clayton Daniel Briggs is a musical theater writer based in Brooklyn, New York. He has been featured Off-Broadway and internationally as both a writer and performer. Along with collaborator Molly Reisman, Clayton is a recipient of the New Voices Project award from New Musicals, Inc. and Walt Disney Imagineering, which will feature excerpts from their most recent full length musical Electric Circus at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Clayton also works as a copyist and orchestrator specializing in music for the stage, working with MTI (Music Theater International), Disney Theatrical Group, as well as independent productions of new musicals. Originally from Fresno, California, Clayton was born into a family of musicians and actors, and he has been performing in musicals for over a decade as both an actor and an instrumentalist. Clayton received his MFA from NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program, his BA in Music Theory and Composition from Pepperdine University, where he also studied vocal performance, and is an alumni of the Academy of New Musical Theater at NMI. www.claytonbriggs.com. Molly and Clayton’s website is  www.electriccircusmusical.com

Gilberto Gabriel and Diana Pou are two artists from Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, respectively. They formed the Duo “Gilberto&Diana” in 2018 and released their first single “Pancakes De Avena” in December on that same year which you can listen to here. The Duo was part of Maluma’s band at the 2018 MTV VMA’s and in 2019 co-produced and performed “Luna Llena”, an acoustic concert at Teatro Repertorio Español. Also in 2019, they worked together in The New York Times Critic’s Pick “¡Guaracha!” a musical at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. Their new single “Manos sin pena” will be released on May 4th, 2020. Follow them on Instagram: @gilbertoydiana

Nicky Paraiso  is an actor, singer, musician, writer, curator, solo performance artist. He has been a fixture of the NY downtown performance scene for the last four decades. He is Director of Programming for The Club at La MaMa, and Curator for the annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, celebrating its fifteenth year in May 2020. He has worked as a performer with vanguard artists Jeff Weiss & Richard C. Martinez, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, Yoshiko Chuma & The School of Hard Knocks, among many others. Nicky is the recipient of a 1987 Bessie Award for Performance, a 2012 BAX Arts & Artists in Progress Arts Management Award, a 2018 TCG Fox Fellowship for Resident Actors/Round 12, and the 2019 (NY Innovative Theatre) Ellen Stewart Award for Stewardship. Nicky’s most recent full-length performance, now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories, directed by John Jesurun, was presented at La MaMa in March 2019. Photo: Jackie Rudin

Molly Reisman is a Canadian lyricist and librettist who is endlessly curious about how humans connect, empathize and interact with the world around them. She holds a B.F.A in acting from Ryerson University and an M.F.A from NYU Tisch’s  Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program. Molly was recently awarded the New Voices Project Award from New Musicals Inc. and  Walt Disney Imagineering, as well as the inaugural Eric H. Weinberger award for Emerging Librettist for her piece “Keaton and The Whale” from New York’s Amas Musical Theater, and she has served as an artist in residence at the Fingerlakes Musical Theater PiTCH Festival. www.mollyreisman.com. Molly and Clayton’s website is  www.electriccircusmusical.com

Jane Catherine Shaw is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and graduated on the Dean’s List with an MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College. She is curator of La MaMa’s annual Puppet Slam. Ms. Shaw was puppetry co-director and master puppeteer for Mabou Mines’ Peter and Wendy, and built and directed the puppetry sequence for Lee Breuers’ Dollhouse. Ms. Shaw was nominated for a 2014 New York Innovative Theatre Award for her work with Theodora Skipitares on The Chairs. She creates and directs her own work for puppet theatre: The Three Dolls, Framed; The Mother Goose Chronicles, Calpurnia Coyote Comes To The Big City, The Blue Marble, Following the Wind, Folktales of Asia and Africa, Pelandok the Mousedeer, as well as adult works: Thirst: Memory of Water, The Lone Runner, Bed of Light, and Universe Expanding. She recently presented her paper The Puppet Body As Archive of Performance at the 2019 ASTR Conference.

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