Cocaine: The Band - The Musical (2010)

Celina Carvajal started her career singing for Pope John Paul II at Candlestick Stadium for over 50,000 people at the tender age of 7.  Appeared in the films Sex And The City, The Big Gay Musical, and The Graduates as well as the television shows All My Children and Legally Blonde, The Search for Elle Woods on MTV. Broadway credits include Tarzan, Dracula, 42nd Street, and CATS. Off-Broadway credits include starring roles in The Toxic Avenger, Radiant Baby and BEDBUGS!!! at NYMF. Check out her rock band TheDeafening.com, her website CelinaCarvajal.com and her weekly podcast on iTunes called The Broken Leg

Colin Doyle is a member of the new york state correctional facilities program for inmate arts and performance.  He is currently working toward a general equivalence degree, and hopes to get paroled in the fall of 2011. Is currently the guitarist for The Deafening www.thedeafening.com

In a word.  Awesome. Is currently the bassist for The Deafening www.thedeafening.com

Is currently the drummer for The Deafening www.thedeafening.com

Brooklyn-based pianist and composer Paul Leschen was nominated for a Drama Desk for Outstanding Music for his first musical, Twist: Please Sir, May I Have Some More. He is a frequent collaborator and pianist for the international superstars Scissor Sisters-- his co-arrangement of Comfortably Numb still receives copious airplay at gay bars from to Greensboro to Gdansk. Paul is also the pianist and house composer for drag queen Hedda Lettuce, and has done similar work in the past for Murray Hill and other drag superstars whose names are too filthy (or forgotten) to mention. 

Sean Patton is a New York based actor and comedian. He was born and raised in New Orleans and cut his teeth doing stand-up in the comedy scene there. Since moving to New York, he has performed at established comedy clubs such as Comix, Gotham and the Comedy Cellar. His comedy focuses more on originality, personal perspective and tales glorifying the beauty of human flaw rather than the classic set-up punchline joke-telling.

Sean was featured as one of the "New Faces" at the 2008 Montreal Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. He can also be seen as a comedic regular on many of VH1's "talking head" shows.

Sean's big plans for the future are to continue sharing his comedy with the masses, and to one day fall in love with you, the reader of this bio, whoever you are. Don't feel bad if you break his heart because he plans on turning the experience into material.

Tracey is thrilled to be working on her third NYMF production, and her second collaboration with Celina Carvajal and David Alpert.  Prior to Cocaine The Band - The Musical, Tracey was seen in the NYMF productions of Bedbugs!!! and The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun.  She was last seen in the Playwrights Horizons workshop of Dillingham City by Lucy Thurber.  She is a member of Blue Coyote Theater Group, Circle East and Red Light Productions and has numerous Off and Off-Off Broadway productions to her credit, in addition to her stint as the very, very stupid Maid (Wendy) on As The World Turns.

Amy Frick, a volunteer scientist, has recently been awarded a highly coveted Bachelor of Science degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from SUNY Empire State College. She is a recent inductee to the New York Choral Society, where she will be singing soprano for the 2010-2011 concert season.  Theater credits include the 1992 Kids Connect! production of Peter Pan (Peter) and the East Hampton High School's 1997 production of West Side Story (Maria.)

Tara is a New York native who was most recently seen as T-Rex 1 in Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical (FringeNYC).  Regional: Rent, John Engeman Theater (Mimi u/s), Les Miserables, Weston Playhouse (Factory Girl), Weathervane Repertory Theatre.  Other credits: Isabelle in Isabelle and the Pretty-Ugly Spell (Bleecker Street Theatre)  Princess Kyra in Mr. President (Actors Fund Benefit), Lippa's The Wild Party (Kate), Company (Marta).  BFA Musical Theater, Pace University; LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts.  Love to my mother, my queen of Rock N' Roll.

Kaitlin Doughty is originally from the small town of Farmington, Missouri, outside of St.Louis. She recently finished the national tour of The Wedding Singer where she belted and "flashdanced" the role of Holly. Favorite credits include Rent (Maureen), All Shook Up (Lorraine), Nunsense (Sister Mary Leo), and Junie B. Jones (Junie B. Jones). Thanks and love to my family, who didn't mind when I belted at the dinner table.

David Alpert recently served as the assistant director for the world premiere play by Tony Kushner, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…, at the Guthrie Theater, as well as at the Public Theatre, both directed by Michael Greif. Prior to that he assisted Des McAnuff on the Broadway revival of Guys & Dolls.  SELECTED NY:  White Noise (Assistant Director; Sergio Trujillo, dir.), Joseph....Dreamcoat, Everything is Fine (ASCAP/Stephen Schwartz), Here Today (Theatre Row), Caty Bridgewater (Alvin Ailey Studios), American Family (Bridge Theater), Six O’Clock (Players’ Theatre, Festival Winner), The Craig Stevens’ Guide...Broadway, concerts at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Room, Sweet Caroline’s, the Duplex, and the Laurie Beechman Theater. SELECTED REGIONAL: Urinetown, Little Shop of Horrors, 1776 (Guthrie Theater, directing intern), Cherry County Playhouse, Mason Street Warehouse. In 2006 David was selected to direct a new play at the American College Theater Festival. David is an associate member of SDC, and graduated summa cum laude from Western Michigan University with a BA in Directing.  Always for my family.  www.david-alpert.com

Danielle Hannah Bensky is a Manhattan born Libra who often dreams of flying.  She has trained as a baby ballerina at The Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey and New Jersey Ballet until she decided that hanging upside down, rocking out and climbing on furniture were more her speed.  Her favorite performance credits  include 5 seasons at the Papermill Playhouse with New Jersey Ballet,  The 25th Anniversary Joffrey  Ballet Gala in San Antonio TX, and  touring and performing  with recording artist MIKA at Terminal 5,  The Nokia Theater ,  Good Morning America etc.  Choreographic credits include Grease, NunSense, Spring Awakening, Mama Mia and Cabaret at the Neighborhood Playhouse and Hairspray at the Bridge Theater . She is a 2010 Princess Grace Award Nominee.

Michael Cassara, CSA (Casting Director) has cast over 40 new musicals in NYMF since the festival’s inception in 2004, and has served as the Resident Casting Director for the festival since 2007.  Recent regional theatre: Old Globe, Olney, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Gulfshore Playhouse and more.  Other recent credits include Fat Camp, the off-Broadway run of Falling For Eve at the York Theatre, Lillian Hellman's rarely-seen Another Part of the Forest for the Peccadillo Theatre company, the films Clear Blue Tuesday and Alienated, and 6 other shows in this year’s NYMF.  Michael is a native Clevelander and a member of the Casting Society of America.  Please visit http://www.michaelcassara.net.  

NY: Hot Cripple & When We Have Gone Astray (Seeing Place Theatre), The New Hopeville Comics (Commander Squish Productions), Capture the Flag: Festival of New American Plays (New York Theatre Experiment), Skin Deep & Funny As A Crutch (Foolish Theatre Company), Lucky Stiff (Company 1B), Who Do You Love? (Richmond Shepherd Theatre), Atlantic Theatre Company, Roundabout Underground, Lincoln Center Institute, Sacred Heart Schools and Horrace Greely High School. Regional:  House of Home (Williamstown Theatre Festival Workshop), Cinderella (Berkeley Ballet Theatre), Ethiopian Tattoo Shop (Prometheus Theatre Company, SF).  BFA, North Carolina School of the Arts.