Penny Arcade (aka Susana Ventura) is an internationally acclaimed and respected writer, performance artist , and a cultural icon , known for her authenticity, her take no prisoners humor and magnetic stage presence.
She is one of the few performance artists to gain an international presence in the mainstream entertainment industry. She is also the author/auteur of numerous solo and site specific works, poetry, essays and she continues to define both solo and group performance art and experimental theatre.
Her work has always focused on the other and the outsider and comments on class, race, identity and culture.
Penny Arcade 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 and continues to be relevent and tours today. She is one of a handful of artists who invented performance art in the
1980’s, for which she apologises to everyone everywhere!
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 that influenced everything from Punk to current performance culture. She was a teenage superstar for Andy Warhol’s Factory, featured in the film Women In Revolt.Her long running video project “Stemming The Tide Of Cultural Amnesia” The Lower East Side Biography Project which she created in 1999 with long time collaborator Steve Zehentner broadcasts and cybercasts weekly Wednesdays at 11pm Ch 34 Time Warner or www.mnn.org
A partial collection of her performance scripts with archival photographs , BAD REPUTATION was published in hardcover by Semiotext(e) MIT PRESS January 2010. She was named Provocateur in Out Magazines 100 most influential culture makers. Cynthia Nixon, a 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