Can you tell if someone is an actor by his or her mannerisms in day-to-day life? Immediately, when we entered the room where Susana Ventura, also known as Penny Arcade was, I knew that she was an actor. She exuded confidence in her actions and dialogue that I don’t see often in people. She carried herself with defiance and pride. She strutted while she spoke in a bold, captivating voice. Penny Arcade, after 50+ years of experience, as an actor, has become an actor inside and out.
Her life experience is also what shaped her to be what she is today, a bold confident woman who is not afraid of expressing her opinions, no matter how controversial they may seem. In her most famous play, BITCH! DYKE! FAGHAG! WHORE!, she displays her viewpoints on how the LGBTQ community is affected by society. Instead of patronizing this community, Ms. Penny Arcade glorifies them. She wants people encompassed in this group to feel confident in themselves no matter what obstacles they have to face. Ms. Penny Arcade, herself, faced many barriers as a woman early on in her life and career as an actress. At 17 years of age, she ran away from home because of the abuse she faced from both her parents. Her father was a schizophrenic who threatened to drown her, while her mother was an alcoholic who physically abused her. With her dreams as an actor steadfast in her mind, Penny Arcade joined a group of gay actors that welcomed her into their community. They wanted her to flourish. Penny Arcade was able to find a new shelter and a new family with these starving artists, wanting to make it big. This may be one of the reasons why many of her plays revolve around the LGBTQ community. She wants to pay homage to them for allowing her to survive and live the life that she so desired.
During her speech to the class, Penny Arcade mentioned a theme, that is central to NYC, that captivated my attention, which is known as “cultural amnesia.” This term refers to when a culture loses a part of itself, its identity. Penny Arcade claimed that due to gentrification and the influx of tourists, NYC is losing what made it so special. Instead of retaining the culture of all immigrants, of all cultures, including Chinese, Japanese, Irish, etc, NYC is losing its integrity and becoming more commercial. Stores and housing spaces are soaring in prices, kicking out those who originally lived and worked there. To retain NYC diverse and special community, Penny Arcade argues that we kick out all the tourists. Although this was extreme in my eyes, I could see where she was coming from. She has lived in NYC long enough to see it morph and transform to something totally different than what it initially was. We are uncomfortable to change but sometimes it is inevitable. Yet, we must try our best to mitigate cultural amnesia by continuing to explore and expand on cultures that lay in the cracks of each sidewalk in NYC.
