Penny Arcade (born Susana Carmen Ventura, July 15, 1950) is an
American performance artist, actress, and playwright based in New York
City. She is known for her comedic wit, forthright delivery, and stage
presence. Her performances explore topics such as gentrification,
humanity, womanhood, LGBT culture, nostalgia, family history, and the
life of the outsider. Additionally, Penny Arcade is known for her
association with underground arts and culture.Susana Ventura was born
in New Britain, Connecticut, and grew up in a working class Italian
immigrant family. Her father fell ill from a severe beating he endured
at Ellis Island in 1946 and in 1953 he was committed to Connecticut
Valley Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut, where he died 12 years
later of a heart attack at age 50. Her mother was left to raise 4
children alone and worked as a seamstress in local sweatshops. The
family was presided over by her maternal grandparents, both born in
the 19th century in a remote Southern Italian village of Picerno,
Basilicata, as was her mother. The cultural clashes between the young
Susana and her mother and grandparents were inevitable in the dawning
of the free wheeling 1960's.At age 12 she had the highest score in her
age group for reading comprehension in the state of Connecticut.
Shortly afterwards in 7th grade she was labeled promiscuous. First by
jealous girls in her junior high school and then by lies told by the
boys whose advances she rebuffed. She explained, "I was perceived to
be this girl that everyone had slept with when I was 12 -- no one
anyone knew, but they had heard." At age 13, she ran away from home
and spent 4 weeks homeless in Old Saybrook, Ct. She was apprehended,
taken to The Hartford House of Detention, brought to Juvenile Court
where she was sentenced to two years at Marian Hall, Sacred Heart
Academy for Wayward Girls, a reform school run by the semi cloistered
Sister Of The Good Shepherd. She wrote her first play here at age 14.
She was released at shortly after her 16th birthday and one month
before her 17th birthday in 1967, she climbed out her bedroom window
into car full of gay men and drove to to Provincetown, Massachusttes,
where homeless once again she spent 1967's Summer of Love. At the end
of September with money half earned/half pilfered from a Boston
sandwich shop where she worked for three weeks, she left on a plane
for New York City, where to amuse her mentor Jaimie Andrews, a 27 year
old gay man who took her into his one room studio after several months
at risk on the streets of NY, she changed her name to Penny Arcade
after an LSD trip.As a child, Penny Arcade did not plan to become a
performance artist. In her working-class Italian-American family,
there ..."just wasn't a format for that," she explained. However, when
she was living on the streets of New York City, Penny Arcade was known
for her wit and one-liners. Jamie Andrews, of MainMan management
company, was drawn to her charisma, and he took her into his home when
she was sixteen years old. Jamie Andrews then introduced Penny Arcade
to John Vacarro.
American performance artist, actress, and playwright based in New York
City. She is known for her comedic wit, forthright delivery, and stage
presence. Her performances explore topics such as gentrification,
humanity, womanhood, LGBT culture, nostalgia, family history, and the
life of the outsider. Additionally, Penny Arcade is known for her
association with underground arts and culture.Susana Ventura was born
in New Britain, Connecticut, and grew up in a working class Italian
immigrant family. Her father fell ill from a severe beating he endured
at Ellis Island in 1946 and in 1953 he was committed to Connecticut
Valley Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut, where he died 12 years
later of a heart attack at age 50. Her mother was left to raise 4
children alone and worked as a seamstress in local sweatshops. The
family was presided over by her maternal grandparents, both born in
the 19th century in a remote Southern Italian village of Picerno,
Basilicata, as was her mother. The cultural clashes between the young
Susana and her mother and grandparents were inevitable in the dawning
of the free wheeling 1960's.At age 12 she had the highest score in her
age group for reading comprehension in the state of Connecticut.
Shortly afterwards in 7th grade she was labeled promiscuous. First by
jealous girls in her junior high school and then by lies told by the
boys whose advances she rebuffed. She explained, "I was perceived to
be this girl that everyone had slept with when I was 12 -- no one
anyone knew, but they had heard." At age 13, she ran away from home
and spent 4 weeks homeless in Old Saybrook, Ct. She was apprehended,
taken to The Hartford House of Detention, brought to Juvenile Court
where she was sentenced to two years at Marian Hall, Sacred Heart
Academy for Wayward Girls, a reform school run by the semi cloistered
Sister Of The Good Shepherd. She wrote her first play here at age 14.
She was released at shortly after her 16th birthday and one month
before her 17th birthday in 1967, she climbed out her bedroom window
into car full of gay men and drove to to Provincetown, Massachusttes,
where homeless once again she spent 1967's Summer of Love. At the end
of September with money half earned/half pilfered from a Boston
sandwich shop where she worked for three weeks, she left on a plane
for New York City, where to amuse her mentor Jaimie Andrews, a 27 year
old gay man who took her into his one room studio after several months
at risk on the streets of NY, she changed her name to Penny Arcade
after an LSD trip.As a child, Penny Arcade did not plan to become a
performance artist. In her working-class Italian-American family,
there ..."just wasn't a format for that," she explained. However, when
she was living on the streets of New York City, Penny Arcade was known
for her wit and one-liners. Jamie Andrews, of MainMan management
company, was drawn to her charisma, and he took her into his home when
she was sixteen years old. Jamie Andrews then introduced Penny Arcade
to John Vacarro.
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