Cheryl King directs and Highbrow Entertainment presents "the high-wire life story of Beth Bongar, who left her family’s Park Avenue luxury to travel with the circus. Filled with tour de force portrayals of three generations of emotion-juggling women, it's a wild ride of a solo show."
Expect such characters as Kitty, Beth's ex-runway model grandmother, fueled by industrial measures of booze and prescription drugs; her materialistic, whistle-blowing daughter, Lila, and the unquenchable clown Beth (herself) "in scenes that explore the need to rebel, and the need to connect."
A native New Yorker, Beth Kaplan Bongar studied theatre at California Institute of the Arts with Stella Adler, and most recently at The Elizabeth Browning School of Acting. Her extensive clown training includes work with Marcel Marceau. She started her career as a member of Theatre For The New City Company. She performed for a number of years with Rudy Brothers Circus, then performing in a two-person juggling, magic and theatre show, Le Cirque. Her career as a stand-up comic took her all over the world. In New York, she has performed as a standup comedian at Caroline's, Town Hall, The Lincoln Center Performing Festival, as well as an hour comedy show at Don't Tell Mama. She toured Juggling Life, her one-woman show written and directed by Beth Bongar in colleges and theatres across the country, and then wrote, performed and toured her show, Clown From Hell.
Jews Don't Join The Circus was developed at the New York Solo Play Lab and subsequently performed at Stage Left Studio in New York City. She recently returned from performing at The Colony in Woodstock, New York where she played to sold-out houses.
Director Cheryl King recently created her own theatre, Stage Left Studio, which is the only solo-show repertory space in New York City. She is artistic director of Sola Voce: Estrogenius at ManhattanTheatreSource, and co-artistic director of the Midtown International Theatre Festival. Her solo show, not a nice girl, has had runs Off-Broadway, in Los Angeles and Ft. Collins, CO. Visit www.cherylkingproductions.com. Highbrow Entertainment produced Dario Fo's A Tale of a Tiger at 59E59 Theaters, Christine Jorgensen Reveals Off-Broadway and internationally, and participated in Rope at the Zipper Theatre, in a co-production with the Drama Dept. Next will be a production of Vernissage, a farce by Simon Fortin. Highbrow's production of Christine Jorgensen Reveals won the 2005-2006 Drama Desk Award for Best Unique Theatrical Experience.
Jews Don't Join the Circus will play the Where Eagles Dare Theatre, 347 W. 36th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.
The schedule is July 26 at 8:30 PM, July 30 at 4:15 PM and Aug. 6 at 11:15 AM.
Tickets are $18 ($15 for students and seniors). For reservations, (212) 868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com.
