Gallery Players to Open Season with BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS; 2015-16 Jewish Bookfair Announced

Gallery Players 2015-16 season opens October 17 at 8 pm with Brighton Beach Memoirs, the semiautobiographical play from Neil Simon, documenting his family's struggles and his own misadventures as a young boy in 1937 Brooklyn.

The play reunites several cast members with director Mark Mann (who most recently directed Gallery Players' Fiddler on the Roof and The Producers). Neil Kalef, a freshman at Columbus Torah Academy, leads the cast as protagonist Eugene, and joins former Fiddler on the Roof co-stars Susan Gellman and Rick Holt, who play his aunt and father, Blanche and Jack, respectively. Felise Chernoff as Eugene's mother, Kate, Phil Cunningham as Eugene's older brother, Stanley, Jenn Geiger as Eugene's cousin, Nora, and Jenna Rodier as Nora's sister, Laurie, round out the cast.

Brighton Beach Memoirs will run October 17-November 1. New for the 2015-16 season is a streamlined online ticket ordering process in which you can order tickets online to select your seats, and even print your tickets at home! For specific showtimes and to purchase tickets, visit www.jccgalleryplayers.org or call 614-231-2731.

The 2015 Columbus Jewish Bookfair, underwritten by the Lenore Schottenstein and Community Jewish Arts Fund of the Columbus Jewish Foundation, kicks off its year-long discussion, "Journeys to Jewish Identity," about Jewish Columbus as individuals and communities, on October 19 with author Linda Hirshman who will speak at the JCC College Avenue at 7 pm on her nonfiction work, Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World.

The kick-off event is sponsored by OSU Hillel, the National Council of Jewish Women, and the Charles and Betty Talis Endowment. Hirshman will recount the intertwined story of how two women from very different backgrounds and viewpoints worked together to make women equal before the law. The discussion will prove especially relevant given the modern climate of social justice issues and recent headlines involving the Supreme Court. Hirshman's talk will be followed by an open forum for discussion and questions by the audience.

Books will be for sale in the JCC College Avenue lobby through the December holidays. Unless otherwise noted, all JCC Columbus Jewish Bookfair events cost $8 for JCC member tickets, $10 for non-member tickets, and $5 for seniors. "Be a Mighty Girl" costs $5 and is free for children under 12. Schedule information and online tickets are available at www.columbusjcc.org or contact Bookfair Coordinator Cheryl Dritz at cdritz@columbusjcc.org or by calling 614-559-6238.

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