Penny Arcade

Penny Arcade (aka Susana Ventura) is an internationally acclaimed and respected writer, performance artist, and cultural icon of the New York Underground, known for her authenticity, her take no prisoners humor and magnetic stage presence as much as she is for her influential writing and design and staging (with collaborator Steve Zehentner with whom she has worked for 20 years) which creates space for the audience in expansive ways.

Her work has been presented at Sydney Opera House, Royal Festival Hall, The Warhol Museum, Performance Space 122, Mousonturm, Frankfurt, HAU, Berlin, Edinburgh Festival, Casa de Rui Barbosa, Rio De Janerio, RED CAT, LA, NEW MUSEUM, NY, ICA London, CCA Glasgow, Performance Rodeo, Calgary, Voice Amerique , Montreal, The Adelaide Festival, The Vienna Festival, TeaterSpecktacle, Zurich, Galway Festival, Ireland, Impulstanz Festival,Vienna, Queer Zagreb, Museo De La Ciudad , Mexico City DF,  Dixon Place, La Mama, Theatre For The New City,The Poetry Project, Joe’s Pub among many other places.

Her work has always focused on the other and the outsider and comments on class, race, identity and culture. She is the author of ten full length performance plays, including Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore!, her 1992 sex and censorship show, a blend of political humanism and erotic dancing, whose influence is incalculable as a mainstream commercial hit in 23 cities around the world and spearheaded the current neo-burlesque performance movement. She is also the author/autuer of numerous solo and site specific performance works, poetry, video documentaries and critical essays.

She was an original member of The Playhouse of The Ridiculous, the late 1960’s famed NY/queer/glitter/glam/rock and roll/political theatre and a teenage Superstar for Andy Warhol’s Factory, featured in the film Women In Revolt.

A hardcover book on her work, BAD REPUTATION, published in hardcover by Semiotext(e) MIT PRESS January 2010. She was named Provocateur in Out Magazine’s 100 most influential culture makers and Women We Love issue as Iconclast. Cynthia Nixon, star of Sex and The City portrays Penny Arcade in the film An Englishman In New York about Arcade’s role as Quentin Crisp’s soul mate. www.pennyarcade.tv

Jay Brannan

Jay Brannan is a NYC-based singer/songwriter, who also appeared as an actor in John Cameron Mitchell’s indie film sensation Shortbus.

After his song “Soda Shop” from the film became the highest selling song on the soundtrack album (released by Bright Eyes’ Team Love Records), Brannan went on to release his own full-length album, entitled goddamned, which made its debut as the No. 25 overall Top Album on iTunes.

Brannan has since toured multiple times around the world, including the USA, Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Brazil, South Africa, Israel, and Australia.

In 2009, Brannan released In Living Cover, a collection of 2 original songs & 7 covers, recorded from a bedroom in a Brooklyn apartment.  The album climbed to the No. 1 spot on iTunes’ Top Singer/Songwriter album charts, and blasted in to the No. 10 spot on Billboard‘s Heatseekers chart.

Brannan continues to play live shows across the globe, and is currently recording his third studio album with renowned producer David Kahne (Regina Spektor, The Bangles, Sublime, Sugar Ray, Kelly Clarkson, Shawn Colvin, Imogen Heap, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, The Strokes), with an expected release in late 2011.

Michael Cavadias

Actor/performer and writer MICHAEL CAVADIAS graduated from the Experimental Theatre Wing at the Tish School of the Arts where he studied with the likes of Andre Gregory and went on to perform with Mabou Mines E.T.C., Blacklips Performance Cult (founded by Antony of Antony and the Johnsons). He developed the character, Claywoman, at Blacklips and then with Mabou Mines as a part of their resident artist program. He has acted in many films, including Wonder Boys (alongside Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr.), Seeing You In Circles, and Gypsy 83. Television appearances include New York Undercover, Third Watch and All I Want a documentary about Rufus Wainwright. Michael fronted the rock band Bullet who’s songs were featured in the film The Safety of Objects and he is currently a featured performer with the acclaimed political cabaret The Citizens Band. He recently wrote and performed as Claywoman in The Mystery of Claywoman (Directed by Rob Roth) at Deitch Projects, The New Museum for Contemporary Art, The Wild Project and opened for Antony and the Johnsons at Town Hall. In this piece, Michael utilized Butoh dance movement techniques with the aid of Vangeline France as well as extensive character work to bring this 500 million year old enigma to life.

Drew Droege

Drew Droege is known on the internet as the guy who plays Chloe Sevigny, Tanya Roberts, the voice of Feathers on “Planet Unicorn”, and the host of “Glitter in the Garbage”, his weekly podcast on earwolf.com. He’s been featured in The New York Times, Perez Hilton, Huffington Post, EW.com, New York Magazine (Approval Matrix), NY Post, and has been called “compulsively watchable” by The Advocate.  His TV credits include NICK SWARDSON’S PRETEND TIME, JON BENJAMIN HAS A VAN, GLORY DAZE, THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM, RENO 911!, HALFWAY HOME, and CAMPUS LADIES.  He can be seen in the soon-to-be-released films EATING OUT: DRAMA CAMP, SASSY PANTS, THE GILLIAM EFFECT, FREAK DANCE, and BRIGHT DAY!. He’s an alum of The Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles, recipient of Outfest’s 2010 Special Programming Award for Emerging Talent, and was just listed as one of Out Magazine’s 2011 OUT 100.

Enid Ellen

Giving a voice to Mother Nature, David Mramor is Enid Ellen; a dreaded, poet in hooker boots. Duetting with singer/songwriter Greg Potter on, piano, they have enchanted audiences with their stimulating lyrics and, soaring melodies at many of New York City’s finest venues including, Joe’s Pub, Don Hill’s and Dixon Place. Recently featured as one of, Next Magazine’s “What’s Next Now” artists, their sound has been, described as “Marilyn Manson singing Tori Amos,” and both “eclectic”, and “intense.” Making their mark on the New York City alternative, music scene, Enid Ellen has been a headlining artist at Earl Dax’s, “Pussy Faggot,” was featured in the debut issue of the UK based, magazine “Out There,” and also performed and had original music, featured in Justin Bond’s Re:Galli Blond show at the Kitchen.  They, released their debut album “Cannibal Disease” in December 2010, (available on iTunes) and released their first music video in April, 2011 for the song “White Snake” directed by artist Giselle Zatonyl.

Cole Escola

Cole Escola is best known for his anti-legendary TV show Jeffery & Cole Casserole on the Logo Network, which came about after a series of YouTube videos he created with friend and co-writer Jeffery Self became popular. He has appeared on Law & Order as a special needs teenager, and he regularly performs all over NYC—as various older women, Taylor Swift, himself, or some combination of the three—most notably, in his one-man nightclub act at Joe’s Pub. His proudest achievement is his Twitter profile (follow him @ColeEscola).

Bridget Everett

Bridget Everett is a singing tour de force known for her funny yet gut-wrenching, outrageous and unpredictable performance work. She’s been dubbed “Wynona Judd meets Melissa Etheridge, via the local bar floozy, on a rocket ship out of Twin Peaks” by Michael Musto from the Village Voice. just named Time Out New York’s number one cabaret performer of 2010 on a list which included Alan Cumming and Elaine Stritch. She co-hosts Our Hit Parade, a sold-out monthly revue of current pop hits, with Kenny Mellman (Kiki and Herb) and Neal Medlyn at Joe’s Pub. She starred in the original musical At Least It’s Pink based on her life which she co-wrote with director Michael Patrick King (writer/director of hit tv series Sex and the City) and Mellman. At Least It’s Pink ran for 12 weeks at Ars Nova, and played Joe’s Pub, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Montreal’s Just for Laughs, New York Comedy Festival and HBO’s Aspen United States Comedy Arts Festival. She’s played Lynn Chenney in Taylor Mac’s Red Tide Blooming at P.S.122 and is a regular on Logo’s Jeffrey Cole Casserole. She can be seen as Cathy in the Sex and the City movie. Bridget recently co-wrote and performed an evening of original music called Bridget and Neal are F*cking and Adam is Watching with Medlyn and Adam Horovitz (Beastie Boys).

Sage Francis

Sage Francis first made a name for himself in the emcee battle circuit during the turn of the century. He quickly graduated from bootlegging his own music to becoming one of the top selling independent artists in hip-hop, all the while sitting at the helm of Strange Famous Records in his home city of Providence. Setting aside the more boastful side of rap, Francis was distinguished for his poetic leanings and scathing socio-political commentary. His debut album, Personal Journals, was heralded as both an artistic masterpiece and a genre game changer. Through the course of five commercial album releases, Sage stayed ahead of the game, utilizing online media to directly connect with his audience. Though a decade’s plus touring and DIY work ethic have proved highly successful, Sage Francis has announced that he’s putting the road behind him to focus on writing, recording, producing and journalizing. Sage will perform select shows only with his cat’s permission.

John Kelly

John Kelly is a performance and visual artist whose creative work runs the gamut from mixed media dance theatre works, to vocal concerts, to exhibitions. His work explores the character of creative genius as it occurs in the gradations between the ephemeral and the tangible. Specific works have pondered Egon Schiele, Caravaggio, Antonin Artaud, Joni Mitchell, Barbette, Jean Cocteau, Caravaggio, autobiography, the Berlin Wall, the Troubadours, the AIDS epidemic, and Expressionistic Film.

These works have been performed at The Kitchen, PS 1, the Warhol Museum, the Whitney Biennial, The Tate Modern, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. Paintings, drawings, photographs and video have been exhibited in galleries and museums, including Alexander Gray Associates (New York), the MIT List Visual Art Center (Cambridge), and the Institute for Contemporary Art (Philadelphia).

He has sung the music of John Cage at the San Francisco Symphony, and collaborated and recorded with Laurie Anderson, David Del Tredici, Natalie Merchant and Antony and the Johnsons. He recently completed a collection of original songs in collaboration with Carol Lipnik called ‘The Escape Artist’; the staging of this song cycle as a dramatic solo work will premiere at Performance Space in April of 2011.

Writings include an autobiography “JOHN KELLY”, published by the 2wice Arts Foundation, in association with Aperture, as well as numerous essays. Acting credits include the Broadway production of “James Joyce’s The Dead”, and the recent starring role in ‘The Clerk’s Tale’ by by James Franco.

Awards and Fellowships include 2 Bessie Awards, 2 Obie Awards, an Alpert Award, the 2010 Ethyl Eichelberger Award, a Visual Aids Vanguard Award, 2 NEA American Masterpieces Awards, and an Eliot Norton Award. Fellowships include NYFA, Art Matters, Inc., The Guggenheim Foundation, The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, The Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, and the Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome. He is currently a 2010 Armory Artist in Residence at New York’s Park Avenue Armory. Archive: www.johnkellyperformance.org

Lady Rizo

The ‘Cabaret Superstar’ (New York Magazine) exploded on to the New York stage with a powerful voice and stage charisma that has made audiences take note. As a chantuese and comedienne revives the cabaret genre by creating vintage arrangements of pop songs from the 80s, 90s and today. Lady Rizo (née Amelia Zirin-Brown) co-created the cult caburlesque spectacular Lady Rizo and the Assettes in 2005. In January 2010 she won her first Grammy on a duet with acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. She also sings and records with multi-platnum recording artist Moby and was nominated for an MVPA for the choreography the video for the single New York, New York featuring Debbie Harry.

She is the Mistress of Ceremonies for the hotspot The Darby which is in the same location as the legendary nightclub Nell’s.  She brings her arrangements there nightly to entertain music luminaries like Prince, Ashford and Simpson, Beyonce & Jay-Z.

A proud recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship last year, she has performed her sold out show monthly at Joe’s Pub for coming on two years and was just commissioned for a full length piece by the Public Theater this year that will premiere later in the year.

Taylor Mac

A playwright, actor, and singer-songwriter hailed by TimeOut as “one of the most exciting theater artists of our time,” Taylor has performed his work around the world from Here Arts Center and the Public Theater in New York to The Sydney Opera House to London’s Soho Theater. Taylor’s plays include The Lily’s Revenge, a 5-hour, 36 cast-member theatric which he wrote, starred in, and co-produced, and was rated the best play in 2009 by TimeOutNY and Paper Magazine and was put on the top ten lists of The New Yorker and The New York Post. Other recent plays he’s written and performed in include The Walk Across America For Mother Earth, The Young Ladies Of, Red Tide Blooming and The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac.

Vintage Press, Playscripts, New York Theatre Review, New York Theatre Experience have published his plays and he is the recipient many awards and honors, such as a Sundance Theater Lab Residency, a Rockefeller Map Grant, The Creative Capital Grant, The James Hammerstein Award for playwriting, The Edinburgh Festival’s Herald Angel Award, a Jeff Award nomination, three GLAAD Media Award Nominations, PS 122′s Ethyl Eichelberger award, a New York State Council of The Arts Grant, A Mabou Mines Suite (with collaborator Elizabeth Swados), he was a HERE Arts Center resident artists, and is currently a member of New Dramatists. Taylor’s upcoming projects include performing The Lily’s Revenge in several venues across the US and UK, the creation of a two-man theatrical concert with Mandy Patinkin, and a festival of full-length plays inspired by four Greek plays (first up, The Bacchae).

Amber Martin

In the footsteps of comic character monologists such as Lily Tomlin, John Leguizamo, and Whoopi Goldberg, acclaimed vocalist and comedic performance artist, Amber Martin brings her award winning chops to Provincetown. Martin’s recent, sold out performance series, Amber Alert! is an ongoing, mind-altering hour of meticulously chosen musical and comedic vignettes from Amber’s strange and fascinating toy box of characters. Blending music, live-video, monologues, movement, and acid-capped comedy with a pristine, multi-octave range singing voice, Amber Alert! is Amber Martin’s own serio-comic multiple-personality trip. Amber has seasoned each performance with rotating celebrity guests: Justin Bond, Casey Spooner, John Cameron Mitchell, Jake Shears, Lady Rizo, Bridget Everett and Karen Black, among others.

Noted as a performer of many faces and voices with boundless energy to burn, performer Amber Martin was acknowledged by The New Yorker in Hilton Als’ Top Performers of 2010.

Her performances have left such celebrity audience members as Joan Rivers (Ms. Rivers personally invited Amber to open her solo show run), William Hurt, Sandra Bernhard, Joyce Dewitt, Michael Stipe, Chuck Palanhuik and Todd Haynes howling with delirium. So put on your thinking caps for an old school downtown-style cocktail performance by one of the next sensations of thought-provoking musical comedy… Miss Amber Martin.

To see video of Amber Martin: http://www.youtube.com/user/ambymartin?feature=mhum

John Cameron Mitchell

John directed, wrote and starred in the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), for which he received the Best Director and Audience Awards at the Sundance Film Festival. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor. He was executive producer of Jonathan Caouette’s award winning documentary Tarnation (2004). His film Shortbus was released in 2006. He directed Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman, whose performance was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress, was released in 2011.

The Mystery Claywoman

“THE MYSTERY OF CLAYWOMAN” is a performance piece that debuted in 2008 and played at a variety of venues in New York City including Deitch Gallery, The New Museum for Contemporary Art, and Le Petit Versailles Garden.

The Mystery of Claywoman, performed by Michael Cavadias and Rob Roth, combines the forms of a documentary screening and lecture to actualize the story of Claywoman, a 500-million-year-old enigma who, legend has it, can cure anyone of their deepest pain. She, along with her canine musical traveling companion ‘Craig’ has traveled the universe searching for souls to heal and planets to save. The mockumentary presents itself as a ‘found, unfinished, severely damaged and restored film’. This false document raises questions concerning our need for faith, ritual and validation. These ideas are explored through interviews with characters played by such performers as Alan Cumming, Amy Poehler, Deborah Harry, Edgar Oliver and Ruth Maleczech. With irony and wit, the film comments on the theories and mythology surrounding the Claywoman character and sets the stage for the live lecture. The performance and film are directed by Rob Roth and written by Cavadias. Commenting on our topics such as the environment, religion and our constant need for answers, the piece explores the scientific and historical evolution of humanity from the perspective of a 500,000,000-year-old extra terrestrial. Through absurd humor and pathos the entire piece articulates a type of spiritual humanism, challenging the audience to face its mortality as well as it’s collective morality.

Matt Ray

Pianist Matt Ray is known in New York as a versatile artist, having worked for many years as a jazz pianist, recording artist and producer, music director for theater and cabaret shows, a sideman for singer-songwriters, as well as an accompanist for some of the city’s best vocalists.

His work as a bandleader includes two albums, and a number of tours and New York featured performances.  His album We Got It! climbed as high as #12 on the Jazz radio airplay charts, and was the one of the most played jazz CDs in America in 2002.  His most recent CD Lost In New York was also released to wide critical acclaim.  In addition, the Matt Ray Trio has performed all over the world, including the Caribbean and Central America for the U.S. State Department as part of the Kennedy Center’s Jazz Ambassadors program. 

In his years as a professional musician Matt has worked with a diverse group of musicians including jazz artists Joe Lovano, Jeremy Pelt, Anita O’Day, Queen Esther, Bobby Hutcherson, and Marcus Belgrave; rock and pop artists Paul Brill, The Flying Change, and Danielia Cotton; and theater artists like Taylor Mac and the cabaret troupe The Citizens Band.  In 2009 Matt played piano in, and music directed Taylor Mac’s Obie Award winning theater production The Lily’s Revenge, and can be seen touring with Mac’s hit show Comparison Is Violence: Or the Ziggy Stardust Meets Tiny Tim Songbook.

Matt’s has played on a number of film scores, including What’s On Your Pate (2009), Give Up Tomorrow (2011), and Paper Man (2009).  His piano playing is heavily featured in the score of the documentary film Charlotte (2011), on which he collaborated with composer Paul Brill. Ray and Brill have had a long working relationship, with Ray having played on three of Brill’s albums, and two Brill film scores – Pindemonium (2008) and the soon to be released Better This World.  Currently Matt is in the studio lending his piano playing to composer Pat Irwin’s score for the third season of HBO’s Bored to Death series.

Current New York performances include Joe’s Pub with Bridget Everett and the Tender Moments, as well as weekly shows with his own trio at Pinkerton in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Matt holds a Bachelors of Music from Oberlin Conservatory, is a member of the National Music Honor Society Pi Kappa Lambda, and in 1999 was honored as a semi-finalist in the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition.  

A committed educator, Matt is currently leading seminars teaching jazz to New York schoolchildren through the Jazz Discovery Program.

Matt is a board member and Vice-President of Consilience Productions, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to using live music performances to increase civic engagement and activism.

Rob Roth

New York City-born director, performer and visual artist Rob Roth’s work draws from photography, video, painting and dramaturgy to create experiences that blend media and performance into a lyrical spectacle.  Rob was a founding member of Click + Drag, the infamous Saturday night at renowned NYC club Mother. He has created works for such artists as Debbie Harry (Blondie), Justin Bond, Theo Kogan, Julie Tolentino and Big Art Group. His work has been exhibited at a variety of venues including the New Museum for Contemporary Art, Performance Space122, Abrons Art Center, Galapagos Art Space, Museum of Arts and Design and Deitch Projects as well as the Whitney Museum of American Art. Roth’s recent work includes NIGHTVISON, a performance piece with Marti Domination , the live durational installation, Synaptic Efficacy Refreshment, and Degrees of Freedom, for The London Biennale NYC Satellite Event at Christopher Henry Gallery , NYC  as well as working on the reinterpretation/video installation of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars’ Video with director Barney Clay and photographer Mick Rock for Creators Project premiering at La Gaîté lyrique, Paris in June.

Starsky + Cox

Stella Starsky and Quinn Cox are internationally renowned writers, columnists for the Daily Beast and artists of astrology who, by day, seriously consult clients in private practice, and, by night, are musical cosmic comics who channel their universal musings into entertaining enlightenment. They have performed in New York City at Joe’s Pub, The Zipper Factory and Ars Nova. They are the best-selling authors of Sextrology and Cosmic Coupling.