Company Bios

Carol Lee Sirugo — Artistic Director

A native New Yorker, Carol is a writer, director, teacher, actor, theatrical clown and physical comedienne, . Her directing credits include: The Voice of Authority (Frigid Fringe Festival, the upcoming East to Edinburgh Festival at 59E59 and Edinburgh Fringe); How to Suffer Better (Edinburgh Fringe, Edmonton Fringe, FringeNYC, SOLOCOM at the PIT); My Little Friend (Eclectic Evening of Shorts at Artistic New Directions); Killing it! (Amazon Prime); Take Away with Max Roche (upcoming web series).

Off and Off-Off Broadway acting credits include: High Priest of California (29th St. Rep.); Pip’s Island (original workshop production @ 3-Legged Dog); Clown Play (FringeNYC); Dick Whittington (Dixon Place); Rat Bastards (Dixon Place); Metro (Bushwick Starr). She has toured the Canadian International Fringe Festival Circuit many times with her new work, including: This Town (MEDIA CHOICE AWARD, Saskatoon Fringe); The Hysteric (BEST OF FEST Winner, Winnipeg Fringe), Carry’s Nation, Girls on Top, Nice Guy! As a theatrical clown, she has performed duo and solo work at various festivals and venues across NYC including: SOLOCOM at the PIT, Comedy in Dance Festival at Triskelion Arts, Bindlestiff Open Stage Variety Night at Dixon Place, Move It Festival at HERE Arts Center, The Int’l Clown Festival at The Brick Theater, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Festival at Emerging Artists Theatre and The NY Downtown Clown Revue at the Kraine Theater. Film and Web Series acting credits include: Creating Karma (co-writer, Best Feature Comedy Winner, Broad Humor Film Festival), The Ridiculous Romantic (Best Silent Film, Coney Island Film Festival), Fairy Tales Investigated and We Don’t Have Gays in Ghana.

Carol is the founding member of Found in New York Productions. A native New Yorker and graduate of LaGuardia High School of the Arts, she received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. She attended the National Theater Institute Program at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center as well as their overseas program at the Guildhall School in London and Trinity College in Dublin.

Carol teaching theatrical clown at Comic Gold NYC. She has recently been interviewed for Behind the Nose, an upcoming book on clown teachers from around the world.

Sarah Daigle — Ensemble Member

A graduate of the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts in 2016, Sarah has performed The Sound of Music, Annie (Prather Entertainment Co.), Bye Bye Birdie (Foulds Theatre) and with the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre in Fort Meyers, FL. She’s starred in short films Urp! and Locked Up, and the web-series Guest Check. Her face will also soon to be seen in commercials for the review site Trustpilot. She has studied theatrical clown with Comic Gold NYC.

Jonathan Kaplan — Associate Director

A native New Yorker, Jonathan is a clown/physical comedian, stand-up comedian, improviser, visual artist and musician. He performs stand-up at comedy clubs all over NYC and recently released his web series Killing it! (Amazon Prime) co-written and performed with Marianne Bayard. 

He has toured the Canadian Fringe Festival Circuit with Carol Lee Sirugo in This Town (2012) and The Hysteric (2011).  He also performed the comedy-dance piece Misery in B Flat with Carol at the MOVE IT! Festival (HERE Arts Center ) and the Comedy in Dance Festival (Triskelion Arts).  He has performed his solo clown piece Le Fleur and his clown duo Two Hander at the New York Downtown Clown Revue (Dixon Place) and the New York International Clown Festival (Brick Theater). He co-created and performed in Icetacles: The Last Chance of A Lifetime (Ten Directions), Deck the Hallmans (Ten Directions) as well as various plays, improv shows and events throughout NYC.  He has studied clown with Eric Davis, John Towsen, Aitor Basauri (Spymonkey), Comic Gold NYC, mime with Gregg Goldston and improv at The People’s Improv Theater (PIT) and The Magnet Theater.

He is a former company member of the improv group Face Off Unlimited and was an extended cast member of the interactive improv group Playing With Reality. Jonathan is a founding member of the indie rock bands Bookstore and Destructasaurus Rex (Rok Lok Records). He created projected animation for Deanna Fleisher’s Kill Me Loudly (Fools on Fire), ...And the Fear Cracked Open (Ten Directions). His digital art has appeared in Applied Arts Magazine and Communication Arts. He designed the logo and posters for the Boffoun clown show Red Bastard as well as the graphic design for Found in New York Productions.

He created the instagram web series ‘Grading Animals with JKAPS’, founded and produces the comedy podcast Low End Gigolos

Beth Leonard — Ensemble Member

Beth began performing in the '70's as an ensemble member of the improvisational Dream Theater, a resident company at the seminal Body Politic theater complex in Chicago. She later joined the Chicago Contemporary Dance Theater, and since 1980 has been performing, creating and choreographing work in New York. Leonard worked for many years as an arts administrator at Spoke the Hub Dancing, a Brooklyn community center for the performing arts, and most recently was finance manager at Gibney Dance. Last June she choreographed Melissa Shiflett's chamber opera An Amusement at Arts at University Settlement. She is currently exploring the world of clown, having studied with Comic Gold NYC and at the Celebration Barn in ME. She and her dance partner, Sarah Pope, have presented collaborative dance/clown projects at various venues including the Brick Theater's NY Clown Festival, the Construction Company, the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook, and Spoke the Hub. 

Kevin Mejia

A Colombian born New York based actor, Kevin recently performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Floor Five Theatre Company’s production of Zounds! by Veronika Gribanova. Other stage credits include Beach Trip by Perry Guzzy; Panic by Jason Jeung; Antigone with the LES Shakespeare Company, and Lady by the Sea adapted and directed by the late Stuart Vaughan. He starred in the short film Two’s Company, Winner of Best International Short at the Berlin Perfect Light Film Festival. Kevin is a graduate of the Atlantic Acting School’s conservatory program and studied an HB studio. He has studied theatrical clown with Comic Gold NYC.

Shreyans Shah

An actor and dancer, Shreyans was born in Mumbai, raised in Dallas TX, and recently graduated from Atlantic Acting School’s conservatory program. Stage credits include: Pillowman (BlueBird Company); As You Like It, Super Death (Atlantic Acting School Stage). Film credits include: Two Boys Can Cry (Penikam Films); Missing Fish (YAS Productions), Doggy Style (Web Series). Dance credits include: Michael Jackson impersonator (Platinum Dance Competition, Bollywood Solo remix, Starpower Dance Competition, TV Asia). Shrey is also a martial artist: Xtreme Weapon TX State, Second Degree Black Belt. He has studied theatrical clown with Comic Gold NYC.