by Amy Condra<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This article was originally published in the Juneau Empire<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Perseverance Theatre\u2019s Artistic Director Art Rotch was thrilled when he found out that playwright and performance artist Penny Arcade was coming to Alaska for a visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was amazed she was going to be in Juneau!\u201d said Rotch. \u201cShe usually plays in Sydney, London or New York.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPenny, and her genre of work, of drawing on material and creating a show in the moment, is pretty unique,\u201d he added. \u201cShe was one of the creators of this type of work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rotch isn\u2019t alone in praising Arcade; when recounting his 10 most influential art experiences to Rolling Stone magazine, singer Jeff Buckley included Penny Arcade in the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newsweek has called Arcade \u201ca wonder to behold.\u201d The Sydney Morning Herald declared, \u201cwhat raises Arcade to the level of greatness is her insight into the collapsing soul of America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was even portrayed by \u201cSex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon in a 2009 BBC film, \u201cAn Englishman in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet, chances are you\u2019ve never heard of her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t get a lot of mainstream press in America, but that makes sense,\u201d said Arcade. \u201cI talk about real stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arcade\u2019s shows, which are both autobiographical and observational, blend a spirited enthusiasm for fun (audience members are often encouraged to dance during intermissions) with an unflinching look at how people are, how they live, and how they communicate with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPenny\u2019s been able to maintain the beautiful anarchy that children exhibit with their natural abandon, sense of adventure, rebelliousness and hatred of authority \u2014 until, of course they are socialized,\u201d writes Steve Zehentner in his essay, \u201cIn the Trenches with Penny Arcade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The essay appears in \u201cBad Reputation: Performances, Essays, Interviews,\u201d published in 2009 by Semiotext(e). This book celebrates the work and words of Penny Arcade, and also includes scripts from three of Arcade\u2019s performance pieces: \u201cLa Miseria,\u201d about growing up in an Italian working-class family in a Connecticut factory town; \u201cBad Reputation,\u201d about an adolescence plagued by alienation and run-ins with authorities; and her sex and censorship show about, well, sex and censorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What will Arcade be presenting to Juneau audiences?<\/p>\n\n\n\n She says that although she tours around the world, each performance is site-specific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is about connecting with the audience,\u201d said Arcade. \u201cI\u2019ll do some of my character work, some spoken word stuff, and create a show specifically about me being in Juneau.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This will be Arcade\u2019s first foray to Alaska. She said she is intrigued by a culture that has historically valued individuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would imagine that there are a lot more highly individualized people living in Juneau than in my East Village neighborhood right now,\u201d said Arcade of her home in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In one of her shows, \u201cNew York Values,\u201d Arcade discusses the demise of her city\u2019s identity, of its evolving status as a marketing capital rather than a cultural one, of wealthy art school students replacing working artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have a real problem with hipsters; they are a very annoying group of people,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you have to live in a publicly sanctioned hip neighborhood to be hip, then you have a problem!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n True individuality is becoming an endangered trait, Arcade said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would imagine that there are a lot more highly individualized people living in Juneau than in my East Village neighborhood right now.<\/p>Penny Arcade<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven though America has always identified itself as a place of rugged individuality, the culture that we live in really doesn\u2019t like individuality,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, even those people who supposedly align themselves with a bohemian or alternative lifestyle, really don\u2019t like people who are highly individual \u2014 they all get the same tattoo because they all want to look different-but in the same way that everybody else looks different!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you live in a place like Juneau you\u2019re a little less susceptible because you\u2019re more on the outside of things,\u201d added Arcade. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason that people on the outside of society see things more clearly \u2014 it\u2019s because they\u2019re in a better position to observe them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arcade\u2019s performing career was launched from the outside of mainstream culture in the late 1960s, from the New York stage of John Vaccaro\u2019s Playhouse of the Ridiculous and the films of Andy Warhol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then she has written and directed 10 full-length works, and is currently at work on several new projects. Her sex and censorship show, created 20 years ago, is being revived for a run in London\u2019s West End.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While some may consider her outrageous, Arcade believes that she is simply describing the world as she sees and experiences it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her willingness to share uncensored glimpses into her experiences, into the family and culture that formed her, is remarkable considering that she was once told to stay silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a scene from \u201cLa Miseria\u201d where Arcade\u2019s brother basically tells her that nobody wants to hear from her; nobody is interested in anything she has to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arcade\u2019s enduring career as a performer indicates that simply wasn\u2019t, and isn\u2019t, the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arcade is committed to her beliefs, and she is committed to sharing them through her work. She admits, however, that sometimes that exposure can be painful to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEveryone has an inherent nature,\u201d she said. \u201cMy inherent nature is very timid \u2014 English is not my first language, I\u2019m immigrant Italian with a working class, peasant background, I wasn\u2019t pumped full of self-esteem as a child \u2014 I have that going on as my internal center.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m very clear on that, that it costs me something to be honest,\u201d she added, noting her role as a performer. \u201cAnd yet I\u2019m concerned about being pristinely honest, because I have a responsibility to the public to be as articulate and as truthful as I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her shows, however, are not didactic; they are developed through improvisation, through interactions with the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This weekend, Arcade\u2019s show, \u201cThe Girl Who Knew Too Much,\u201d will be performed in two different settings \u2014 at Perseverance Theatre Friday night and at The Rendezvous on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such cooperation between venues is, Arcade said, an effective way to present more art to more people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of places talk about the shrinking audience space for live art, leaving the public to have to watch reality television,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the more places presenting live art, and the more cooperation among venues, the more possibilities there are to reach the public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne part of the public might be comfortable going to Perseverance Theatre but not to The Rendezvous, and vice versa,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arcade is adamant about the role of art in our lives: \u201cThe public needs art like they need bread.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI believe that we go to the theater to experience that which we are unable or unwilling to experience in real life,\u201d she said. \u201cGoing to the theater and seeing a live performance is different from sitting there and watching television; there is an energy that passes between the audience and the performer, and I maintain that during each show I walk a tight rope between the audience and myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWhat raises Arcade to the level of greatness is her insight into the collapsing soul of America.\u201d by Amy Condra This article was originally published in the Juneau Empire. Perseverance Theatre\u2019s Artistic Director Art Rotch was thrilled when he found out that playwright and performance artist Penny Arcade was coming to Alaska for a visit.… Continue reading New York theater artist to perform in Juneau<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","post_format-post-format-gallery","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1340,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions\/1340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}