PENNY ARCADE (she/her) aka Susana Ventura is a poet, actress, writer theatre maker and videographer whose focus on community building as the goal of performance and performance as a transformational act have brought her recognition far outside American soil and mark her as a true original on the world stage where she is considered an international icon of artistic resistance. Penny debuted in John Vaccaro’s explosive Playhouse Of The Ridiculous in 1968. She was a teenage Superstar for Andy Warhol’s Factory featured in the film Women in Revolt. Since 1985 she has created her own text based work. She has written 16 full length plays and thousands of performance pieces. Since 1999, along with her long time collaborator of 33 years, Steve Zehentner, she has co-helmed The Lower East Side Biography Project “Stemming the Tide of Cultural Amnesia”, a video project preserving and celebrating the rich tapestry of downtown NY’s creative diversity. It streams and broadcasts every Monday at 11pm on NY cable stations and online. Complete access to Penny’s large body of work and social practice is available at www.patreon.com/penny_arcade
“In 1983 at age 32 I discovered Ruth performing Hajj. I had been a professional actress for 14 years and I was making the transition to creating my own work but I was traveling blind. I knew I had great power as a performer but I was without direction. The moment I experienced Ruth on that stage in Hajj I had an epiphany. “Oh”, I said to myself, “Ok. Now I understand. This is the standard I must strive for.” Ten years later in 1993 Ruth phoned me and said “My NYU class is doing Romeo and Juliet. They want to do the love scenes nude. I asked them “Have you ever taken off your clothes and kept talking? No? Well, then, you need to see Penny Arcade.”
Nicky Paraiso (he/him) is an actor, singer, musician, writer, curator, solo performance artist. He has been a fixture of the NY downtown performance scene for almost five decades. He is Director of Programming for The Club at La MaMa, and Curator for the annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, which will celebrate its twentieth year in April 2025. Nicky is a graduate of Oberlin College/Conservatory and holds an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Acting Program. He has worked as a performer with vanguard artists Jeff Weiss & Carlos Ricardo Martinez, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, Yoshiko Chuma & The School of Hard Knocks. Nicky has also performed in the works of Anne Bogart, Laurie Carlos, Jessica Hagedorn, Robbie McCauley, Richard Elovich, Dan Froot, Fred Holland, Dan Hurlin, Christopher Williams, among many others. He has also performed with Ma-Yi Theatre Company & National Asian-American Theatre Company (NAATCO). Nicky is the recipient of a 1987 Bessie Award for his Collective Performances, the Lilah Kan Red Socks Award, a 2012 BAX Arts & Artists in Progress Arts Management Award, a 2018 TCG Fox Fellowship as an Actor of Distinguished Achievement, and the 2019 (NY Innovative Theatre) Ellen Stewart Award for Stewardship. Nicky is an acclaimed solo performance artist and has written & performed the following solo shows: Asian Boys directed by Laurie Carlos (Performance Space 122), Houses & Jewels directed by Laurie Carlos (DTW), and House/Boy directed by Ralph B. Pena (La MaMa, Dublin Theatre Festival, Singapore Performance Initiation Festival). Nicky’s most recent full-length performance, now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories, directed & designed by John Jesurun, premiered at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre in March-April 2019, performing with choreographer/dancers Irene Hultman, Jon Kinzel, Vicky Shick, Paz Tanjuaquio. Nicky was honored at Movement Research’s GALA in 2016.
“I remember many of Ruth’s performances as an original founding member of Mabou Mines, in many theater works directed by Lee Breuer & Joanne Akalaitis, and many times at La MaMa. Her fierce portrayal of Brecht’s MOTHER, her fearless, heartbreaking LEAR; her epic solo HAJJ was especially mesmerizing, haunting and incandescently performed with an articulated precision containing oceans of emotional depth and intimacy. In her life, she exuded kindness and empathy, with moments of laughter and a keen understanding of a life fully-lived. And then there was that ever-present lit cigarette always in her hand.”
