Cheryl King
Director
Cheryl King
Writer, Director, Acting Coach, Producer
Multi-hyphenate theatrical entrepreneur and dedicated acting coach
Winner of Lower Manhattan Cultural Counsel grants in NYC, for her Gender Project in 2015, Cheryl was recognized in the NY Times as “the matriarch of Off-Off B’way Solo Theater.”
Cheryl was named a “Person of the Year” by nytheatre.com
Cheryl is “a matriarch of the Off Off Broadway solo scene” says Craig Bridger, in a Mar 2010 article on solo shows in the New York Times
Read the new article about Cheryl and Solo Shows in Examiner.com
All Alone, By Cheryl King (in which Actor-writer-director-producer Cheryl King discusses the acting challenges of one-person shows.)
Cheryl served for ten years as artistic director/curator for Sola Voce – the Solo Show portion of the Estrogenius Festival, produced by Manhattan Theatre Source. In 2010, she was honored by Manhattan Theatre Source for Extraordinary Volunteer Service, 2000-2010 for her work as the curator.
Director Credits
Cyndi Freeman – Inside Cherry Pitz
Beth Bongar – Jews Don’t Join the Circus
Anne Wally – Blue Car
River Huston – Sex, Cellulite and Large Farm Equipment
Cheryl Smallman – Dreamless
Susan Rankus – Renaissance
Theresa Gambacorta – Breaking the Glass, The Vegas Project
Marlene Nichols – No Change Given
Joe Hutcheson – Miss Magnolia Beaumont Goes to Provincetown, Geography of a Nervous Breakdown, Son of a Hutch
Frank Blocker – Southern Gothic Novel, Stabilized Not Controlled
Taren Sterry – 180 Days
Karen Thibodeau – I Do, I Do, in Delhi
Margaret Morrison – Home in Her Heart, The Loves of Miss Jimmie LeRoy
Elizabeth Claire Taylor – Finding Elizabeth Taylor
Karen Sklaire – Drama at the Point
Erica Herd – Alzheimer’s Blues
William LoCasto plays – 4:01, TEST
TEST
Podcasters
The Adventures of Naughty Nurse Elza
Expiration Date, by Rose-Marie Brandwein
Human Earrings, a play by Cheryl King
Dead Weight, by Christine Rosensteel
JayZ&Me: A (Fast) Talking Memoir, by Brenda Cullerton
Good People, at Bas Bleu, Ft. Collins, CA
Boeing Boeing, at Bas Bleu, Ft. Collins, CA
The Real Machiavelli, 13th Street Repertory, NYC, Roadrunner Theatre, Tucson, AZ
Cheryl King, the driving force behind Cheryl King Productions, was the creator and producing director of Stage Left Studio, in NYC, resident acting coach at All My Children from 2007-2010, and is a playwright, director and actor.
She first began writing for herself as a mime, in 1979. In 1982 she wrote her first standup comedy routine, and within two months had embarked on her career as a touring comic. She worked in most of the US for the following 13 years – first as an opening act, moving quickly to middle act and for her last five years as a headliner. She moved to NYC in 1989, and wrote her first solo show, “not a nice girl” in 1996. “not a nice girl” was produced in LA, NYC, Chicago and Ft. Collins, CO. She studied acting with Carol Fox Prescott (NYC) and Rod Menzies (LA), playwriting with Jeffrey Sweet (NYC) and improvisation with Gary Austin (NYC) and Michael Gellman (Second City).
She began teaching writing workshops in 1999, both in NYC and in Los Angeles, traveling to LA from her NYC base every six weeks to teach multiple workshops. In NYC, she taught a weekly writing workshop, which generated several plays, including Michelle Ramoni’s June and Nancy, and Margaret Morrison’s Home in Her Heart, which Cheryl also directed.
Cheryl created the long-running series Forbidden Kiss LIVE which played monthly at Stage Left Studio, and for which she regularly wrote sketches for herself and other cast members. She has directed over 60 plays and solo shows, including those of award-winning playwright/performers Joe Hutcheson and Frank Blocker.
She closed her NYC theater in 2015, and embarked on her “Love and Work Tour”, traveling around the US for three years, visiting friends and directing shows, visiting national parks, designing websites, and gardening. In 2016, she directed Good People, at Bas Bleu Theatre in Ft. Collins, CO. In 2016, she directed and performed in The Real Machiavelli, by Monica Bauer, at the 13th Street Repertory Theater in NYC. In 2018, she performed in and directed Boeing Boeing, also at Bas Bleu, in Ft. Collins, and another production of The Real Machiavelli, this time in Tucson, AZ. She continued teaching her Writing Your Heart Out workshop online, and now also teaches acting and writing in Sonoma County.