PAYASITA
By: Gretta Marston
WHAT IS PAYASITA?
PAYASITA SE ENAMORA is a bilingual musical clown piece about heartbreak, self-reconstruction, and the search for belonging. Payasita arrives onstage with only a suitcase and a fragmented sense of who she is. With the audience’s help, she retraces her past—where she came from, what she’s lost, and what it might mean to begin again.
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This piece runs 75-80 minutes.
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MBC theatrical R&D Residency (Summer 2026).
A Ten-minute fragment of the piece will be showcased at the Miranda Family Fellowship Summit, NYC (June 2026).
A Fifteen-minute fragment was showcased for Yale’s ‘You Are The Creator’ course, New Haven, CT (January 2026).
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There are no subtitles or projections needed in this piece. The lighting and sound needs can be shaped towards the venue.
This is a 2 person actor-musician musical. The instrumentation is guitar and drum box. Pending the size of the venue, the instruments and actors may need to be mic’ed. Regardless of music, the character PAYASITA has a magical microphone which translates her Spanish into English, so we would need 1 wireless microphone either way. Otherwise, this show weighs on the two performers.
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PAYASITA SE ENAMORA, a bilingual piece that explores complex cultural narratives through humor and audience participation. It is currently in the first draft stage. Fragments of this draft have been showcased to live audiences, and the script has been part of two development processes (one at Yale School of Drama and another with the Miranda Fellowship). We are engaged in a phase of experimentation, writing, rewriting, and rearranging. This project is looking for developmental support, rehearsal space and professional guidance. We are looking to organize rehearsals with mock audience members and staged readings, which will be vital for assessing audience engagement and refining the script.
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If you’re interested in learning more about PAYASITA please email Gretta Marston:
OUR TEAM
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Gretta Marston attends the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, where she is completing an M.F.A. in Acting. She has a B.A. in Theater & Dance and Latin American Studies from Macalester College (Minnesota), studied playwriting at the National Theater Institute (Connecticut), and trained in acting at El Taller Formación Actoral de Roberto Ángeles in Lima, Perú. Gretta Marston-Lari is an alumna of the Miranda Family Fellowship and has worked as a National Theater Institute Apprentice and as the Literary Associate at the Latiné Musical Theatre Lab. As a performer, she has appeared in productions across Minnesota, Florida, New York, and Lima. Their work explores what self-actualization can look like for Latinx women today.
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Born in Bogotá, then adopted, Matthew is a theatre director and creative producer now based in East Harlem. They are building a set of artistic, business, and management skills so that they may one day be a co-artistic director of a theatre company that develops new works at all stages. The goal is to cultivate a community of administrators, artists, and audiences alike around a process focused practice. Broadway: Buena Vista Social Club. Off Broadway: Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theatre, En Garde Arts, Repertorio Español, 59e59. Other credits include Theater J, the Apollo, Musical Theatre Factory, New Dramatists, the Tank, 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, Downtown Urban Arts Festival, Chautauqua Theater Company, Golden Thread, the Kennedy Center’s Directing Intensive, Wingspace Theatrical Design’s Mentorship program, and the Lin-Manuel Miranda Family Fellowship. Matthew is an associate member with SDC and the Executive Producer of MBC Theatrical R&D. matthewbcullen.com.
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A cross-disciplinary artist who believes the best work happens at the intersection of different worlds. A graduate of Albright College and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, she currently balances her passion for theatre with a dedicated career in Applied Behavior Analysis. Every creative opportunity is a chance to learn something new. She is deeply grateful to the Miranda Fellowship and feels lucky to be part of such a vibrant community of storytellers.
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nicHi douglas is an OBIE Award-winning Brooklyn-based experimental theater and dance maker who is interested in leading community care-centered creative processes. nicHi is currently in residence at HERE Arts Center and in the Petri Artist Residency with The TEAM. their work has been developed and/or produced at MacDowell, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, The Shed, and The National Black Theater, among others. they are an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU/Tisch where they teach dance and movement methodologies.
Additional awards include Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Director and Best Musical, the Callaway Award for Choreography, an AUDELCO Award for Choreography, and a Princess Grace Award for theater making.
Upcoming: (pray) at Baltimore Center Stage
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Matthew Nelson is an interdisciplinary artist shaping immersive worlds at the intersection of engineering and storytelling. Trained in Mechanical Engineering and Theater Performance, he serves as Associate Technical Director for Disney Live Entertainment at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he collaborates with creative leaders to bring parades, stage productions, and nighttime spectaculars to life. His work spans animatronic choreography, musical development, visual design, and mechatronic innovation—blending art and technology into experiences that linger in memory.
A three-time Telly Award–winning host of We Call It Imagineering on Disney+, Matthew also creates for stage and screen as a director, playwright, actor, and musician. His storytelling—rooted in themes of family, identity, and spiritual awakening—explores the fragile beauty of coming of age. Across mediums, he crafts resonant narratives that invite audiences not just to witness wonder, but to feel transformed by it.
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Lula Britos is a theatre director, producer, educator, and writer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Most recently, she directed as part of MOXIE Theatre’s Lamoise New Works Festival and developed Goldilocks Screentime for La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival. She has assisted on productions at La Jolla Playhouse and UC San Diego, including Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Vinegar Tom, and blu. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts with a minor in Dance from UC San Diego and has trained at the National Theater Institute and the Kennedy Center. Lula is passionate about devised theatre and new works, and she aims to tell stories that uplift the experiences of immigrants and women.
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Darren Jackson-Wilkins is an actor, director, and arts administrator currently based in Santa Cruz, California. Darren graduated from Skidmore College summa cum laude with a B.S. in Theater with double minors in Music and Arts Administration. His performance credits include Eurydice (Orpheus), The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs (Fernando), and Black Superhero Magic Mama (Tramarion). He is currently an MA candidate in the Theater Arts program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he concentrates in arts management and outreach. At UCSC, he recently directed Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and a new play, Who Can I Run To? by Alyssa Windom. He also studied abroad with the British American Drama Academy. In addition to MFF, Darren is a UCSC Arts Research Institute Graduate Fellow. He is also the Managing Director of the Barnstorm Theater Company at UC Santa Cruz, Public Relations and Ad Sales Rep for Cabrillo Stage.
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Porchó, known also as Jahdiel Gómez Marín, is a guitarist, composer and producer that weaves Afro-caribbean music with Jazz Fusion, Technical Deathmetal, and Progressive Rock. His combination of miscellaneous influences merge to create bellicose pieces, as well as melancholy ones. He— born in Gurabo, Puerto Rico— is part of the first Puerto Rican cohort chosen by the Posse Foundation. As a student in Bard College’s Edith C. Blum Institute, he stands out for performing classics straight from the Boricua pantheon in the Hudson Jazz Festival. Beyond his work as performer, Porchó has worked alongside with initiatives such as Ruta Crítica y El Foro Permanente de Performance, creating music for their audiovisual projects. At the moment, he is coordinating Errante, a project that brings improvised music to public spaces in Puerto Rico.
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Daniel Cano is a Peruvian actor, director, educator, and communicator. He is 34 years old and holds a Bachelor's degree in Performing Arts from the Faculty of Communication Sciences and Arts at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). He is a graduate of the Roberto Ángeles Actor Training School as well as the Advanced Workshop for Contemporary Stage Actors led by Alberto Ísola. Furthermore, he has worked with the cultural group Yuyachkani since 2015 and has completed various acting workshops with internationally renowned instructors such as Claudio Tolcachir, Francisco Lummerman, Roberto Matus, and Laura Silva, among others. He has performed in over twenty professional theater productions, including Peter Pan (2016); Yuyachkani's Discurso de promoción (2017); Casa de perros (2017); Una versión clown de Romeo y Julieta (2018); Música (2018); Lapel Duvide; Muerte en el Pentagonito (2019); Monstruo de Armendariz (2022 and 2023); and Tito Andrónico (2024), among others. His TV appearances include La Otra Orilla, Luz de Luna, and Tu Nombre y el Mío (produced by Del Barrio Producciones); Los Otros Libertadores (Latina TV); and El Último Bastión (TV Perú), which was subsequently released on Netflix. He starred in the film Compartespacios, which premiered at various international festivals, including the Lima Film Festival. Additionally, he directed Electra: La Jaula de las Leonas at the Teatro Ensamble and the CCPUCP (2015), as well as El Efecto Proust—a production that also marked his professional debut as a playwright.
