OUTSpoken Birthday show with Wel-Strung and Miss Coco Peru

Well-Strung, a New York City based string quartet, derives their unique blend of vocals and strings by fusing classical music with the pop music of today. Members Edmund Bagnell (1st violin), Chris Marchant (2nd violin), Daniel Shevlin (cello), and Trevor Wadleigh (viola) spend their time making new music and touring internationally. The group was conceived by producer Mark Cortale and Chris Marchant.

Daniel Shevlin is originally from South Jersey and has been playing cello since he was ten years old and continued to use this skill when he moved to NYC at 18 to pursue a career in musical theatre. Since then he has appeared off-Broadway in The Sandbox (written and directed by Edward Albee), has toured the U.S. and Asia in productions of Rent and Cabaret, and has worked regionally as both an actor and cellist in many theaters including the Arvada Center, The Maltz-Jupiter Theatre, Riverside Theatre, and Mason Street Warehouse to name a few. He studied musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and has been a member of Actors Equity since 2006.

Edmund Bagnell comes from South Carolina where he attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and  went on to attend New York University as music major. His senior year, he was cast as Tobias in the first national tour of Sweeney Todd directed by John Doyle. He has performed as a violinist, actor, and singer in New York and around the country. Credits include Rich in The Last Cyclist and Toby in Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium (both Off-Broadway), Charlie Brown in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Tom Sawyer in Big River (Summer Theater of New Canaan), Charlie in Joanna Gleason’s The Big Holiday Broadcast of 1959 (Fairfield Theater Company), Oramel Howland in The Great Unknown (NYMF), Enoch Snow Jr. in Carousel (Barrington Stage Company), Stewart Smalls in Band Geeks (Ars Nova), Huck Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Dennis in Smoke on the Mountain (Cotton Hall Theater).

Chris Marchant grew up in Akron, OH where he began playing violin thanks to his mother’s urging. Throughout high school Chris was involved in school and regional orchestras and choirs. He  received a B.A. in Music Ministry from Malone College, where he discovered a love of musical theatre.  Credits include Tobias in Sweeney Todd and Spring Awakening (both national tours).  Follow on Instagram and Twitter @chrisjmarchant.

Trevor Wadleigh is a native of Kent, WA and began studying the viola at age 17 under the tutelage of Joyce Ramée.  He earned a Bachelor of Art from the University of Puget Sound with major concentrations in Business and Music Performance as well as a minor in Comparative Sociology. While completing undergraduate coursework, Mr. Wadleigh studied concurrently with Burton Kaplan of NYC under whose direction he completed an Artist’s Certificate program at the Aaron Copland School of Music. He has served as principal and section violist of the Lake Union Civic Orchestra, Yakima Symphony, Brevard Music Center Orchestra, and the Nova Philharmonic.

Storyteller/monologist Miss Coco Peru aka Clinton Leupp got his/her start as a downtown favorite in the cabaret world of NY after he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his first show “Miss Coco Peru in My Goddamn Cabaret” over 20 years ago.

On screen, Miss Coco is best known for her roles in Jim Fall’s feature film, trick (Sundance 1999) and Richard Day’s Girls Will Be Girls. (Sundance 2002) For this film Coco shared the Best Actress Award with his two co-stars at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen as well as the Best Actor Award at LA’s Outfest Film Festival. Other film appearances include To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, Nick and Jane, and Straight-Jacket. Coco can be heard in the Disney animated feature, The Wild as Mamma Hippo! She also appears in the highly-ish anticipated sequel of Girls Will Be Girls which will be released some day, hopefully.

Coco has appeared on TV in two stand-up comedy specials on LOGO: Wisecrack and Dragtastic, How I Met Your Mother, Arrested Development, Twins, Will and Grace, New York Undercover, Detroit 187, several Bravo reality and clip shows, and in an Orbitz commercial that was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.

Coco’s live one-person shows include: “Miss Coco Peru in My Goddamn Cabaret”, “Miss Coco Peru: A Legend in Progress” (’92 MAC and Bistro Award), “Miss Coco Peru at the Westbeth Theatre” (’95 MAC Nomination), “Miss Coco Peru’s Liquid Universe”(‘98 GLAAD Nomination), “Miss Coco Peru’s Universe” (’99 LA GLAAD Nomination), “Miss Coco Peru’s Glorious Wounds…She’s Damaged” (’01 LA GLAAD Nomination) “Miss Coco Peru is Undaunted” (’04 GLAAD Award Winner, Ovation Nomination), and the hugely successful “UGLY COCO” and “THERE COMES A TIME” and most recently “SHE’S GOT BALLS”. These shows have been performed to sold out audiences in Theatres, Clubs, Restaurants, Ballrooms and Cabarets throughout the US and abroad. She currently has dates scheduled nationwide through 2014.

Coco hosts an on-going live series of shows at the Renberg Theater in Los Angeles called Conversations With Coco in which Coco interviews and celebrates the lives and careers of the GLBT community’s favorite icons. Miss Peru’s guests include Liza Minnelli, Jane Fonda, Bea Arthur, Lily Tomlin, Karen Black, Lainie Kazan, Lesley Ann Warren, and drag legend Mr. Charles Busch.

Coco’s recent online Youtube videos have been seen by over 2 million viewers. Her video “Coco Goes to KMART,” in which she searches for Celestial Seasoning Tension Tamer tea, has more than over 700,000 views. For this reason, Coco has had to ask her fans to stop sending her the tea. She has received close to 100 boxes!

Considered The Hostess with that something extra… Coco has hosted dozens of events including: The GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles, Night of a Thousand Gowns in NYC, Chicago Takes Off, Hot and Dry in Palm Springs, Gay Days Anaheim, The Black and White Ball in Reno, LA’s OUTFEST Legacy Awards, the BALIF (Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom) Dinner in San Francisco, Project Inform’s 25th Annual Fundraiser (SF) and Charity Bingo at Harrah’s Atlantic City. She has been honored to be involved with countless Gay and AIDS related charities over the years including The Trevor Project, Aids for Aids, and Lifeworks Mentoring. In fact, the list is so long, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center honored Coco with the Board of Director’s Award. The award was presented to Coco by Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, Heroes, So NoTorious).

She is also available for children’s parties.

Photo Credits: Steven C De La Cruz

COCO QUOTES

One of the last great storytellers.
Lily Tomlin

Miss Coco is a heavenly hoot… Wry and uncensored, the show is a hilarious exorcism, with music, no less. Hey, that’s entertainment.
Los Angeles Times

Coco, a self-described “effeminate, damaged boy from the Bronx,” was the real goods, a dragster with real talent and heart.
San Francisco Bay Area Reporter

Hilarious, inebriating and elegant all at the same time… If there were an award for most girlish and glamorous, funniest, mouthiest diva/icon/trannie/comedian, the inimitable Miss Coco Peru would win hands down.
L.A. Weekly

It’s not often a drag queen scares you with her intellect, but Miss Coco Peru isn’t just any drag queen. Hers is a deep, dark drag performance designed for people who are sick of drag. Don’t miss it.
The Stranger, Seattle

COCO AWARDS

Not that I’m bragging…

2004 Los Angeles GLAAD Media Award Winner, Miss Coco Peru is Undaunted

2004 Los Angeles Ovation Award nomination for Best Solo Performance, Miss Coco Peru is Undaunted

2003 Outfest Award for Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film, Girls Will Be Girls

2003 US Comedy Arts Festival Best Actress Award, Girls Will Be Girls

2001 Los Angeles GLAAD Media Award nomination, Miss Coco Peru’s Glorious Wounds… She’s Damaged

1999 Los Angeles GLAAD Media Award nomination, Miss Coco Peru’s Universe

1998 New York GLAAD Media Award nomination, Miss Coco Peru’s Universe

1997 Los Angeles Backstage Bistro Award Winner, Miss Coco Peru’s Universe

1993 New York Backstage Bistro Award Winner, A Legend in Progress.

1992 Manhattan Legend in Progress.