Elizabeth Barkan: Creator/ Book Writer/ additional Music & lyrics.
Liz began writing the show as a love letter to bicycles as a one person piece. The original 2009, one woman show, was a developmental reading followed by a Workshop Production, presented at Theater For The New City in 2015, also a one person show. Through the constant support of Crystal Field & TNC, BIKE SHOP has now been expanded into a full four person musical.Liz is the prior owner of a Bicycle store in Fort Greene Brooklyn (Fort Green Cycles) A former NY Bike Messenger at Elite Couriers, a retired USCF Bicycle racer-Criterion/Road, and Track racing. Currently Certified Schwinn Cycling Instructor, and Group Fitness MELT Instructor, at The JCC in Manhattan.
Gretchen Cryer: Director/Lyrics/ Dramaturge, 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 the 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), and “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 theIndiana 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.
Youn-Young Park Music/Arranging and Scoring: Is a composer and writer and her works have been produced in UK, USA and South Korea. Her composing/writing credits include: Li -Tsin (Music, Book and Lyrics. Directed by Soon-Tek Oh) The Emperor’s Quest (Music & Co-book. Lyrics and Co-book by Susannah Pearse, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, UK) Transgression of a Monk (Written and Directed by Soon-Tek Oh), Othello and Iago (Globe Theatre Institute, National Theater of Korea), Once Upon a Time in Narcissia (Co-wrote with Susannah Pearse, The 1st Annual Goodspeed Festival of New Artists, Perfect Pitch:UK, Daegu International Musical Festival etc). A Portrait of a Blind Girl (co-wrote with Daniel Larsen, Seoul Factory for the Performing Arts by Korea Cultural and Art Centers Association), How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun (co-wrote with Susannah Pearse, commissioned and published by Mondo Publishing Company, NY) etc. Ms. Park holds a MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and also studied psychology from Ewha Womans University and music composition from Seoul Institute of the Arts in South Korea.
Prizes include: MTM:UK Musical Theatre Awards 2010-Judges’ Discretionary Award, CJ Musical Showcase Award (Best Musical Writing), Daegu International Musical Festival Award (Co-writer, Director, Music Director), Stiles And Drewe Best New Song Of 2009 Competition-Honorable Mention, Toyota scholarship TSOA-CJ Entertainment Scholarship. She is Artistic Director of EnoB and adjunct professor at Seoul Institute of the Arts.
Gerry Dieffenbach Musical Director//Additional Music, is a singer, songwriter, pianist, and musical director. He has twice received the Songwriters Guild of America President’s Award (from George David Weiss), the Back Stage Bistro Award for Outstanding Musical Director, The CAB Magazine Award for Sustained Achievement, the Critics Choice Award for Outstanding Album of the Year for his CD of original songs, Well Informed, and The Manhattan Association of Cabaret MAC Award for Piano Bar Instrumentalist. He performs his original music and pop standards in his inimitable style in the New York clubs weekly and has also appeared at venues including Town Hall (NYC), Westbury Music Fair, Atlantic City and London’s Wembley Arena. 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 served as a Songwriter’s 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 performed television segments for the Today Show, LIVE, Attitudes, Fox After Breakfast, and the Joan Rivers Show, and has musical directed and accompanied numerous performers on stage and TV including Deborah Gibson, Steve Harley, Lisa Brescia, Rita Harvey, Aasif Mandvi, Terri White, Christine Pedi, Darius de Haas, Karen Mason, Donny Osmond, Georga Osborne, Shauna Hicks, Amy Engelberg, Jana Robbins, Clint Holmes, Nelson Aspen, Anita Gilette, 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, he performed in and musical directed the Broadway in Bryant Park Series saluting the songs of Alan Jay Lerner, and the musical BIKESHOP with Liz Barkan, directed by Gretchen Cryer.
As her associate, Gerry is a vocal coach who studies voice with and teaches the technique of Joan Lader.
Caroline Murphy Lyrics/Additional book:: Received 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, have been produced in Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and NYC.
In 2008 she was commissioned to write a new musical, (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.