ENSEMBLE BIOS

ALASKA THE LOSTBOY (The Theft and Reclamation of Power in One Act) Proudly carrying the name of his home state, Alaska the LostBoy is a seasoned aerialist, sword swallower, and fire manipulator. He is a regular cast member of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, and is ubiquitous in the NYC performance scene. His unique blend of artistic movement coupled with dangerous skill acts have thrilled audiences world wide. @alaskathelostboy

ALIX MARTIN (designer) Alix Martin is an artist/engineer/tinkerer who fabricates props and scenery and has been problem-solving professionally in and out of theaters for half a century . Alix is privileged to be resuming her ongoing collaborative adventures with the staff at Coney Island USA and making new alliances with the artists in this production.

THE ANONYMOUS PLAYWRIGHT (Executive Disorder and Donnie Walks the Plank) is a flame-throwing playwright provocateur whose has given the world’s worst autocrat dictators nightmares for decades, driving the likes of Ferdinand Marcos, Baby Doc Duvalier, Idi Amin, Slobodan Milosevic, Kim Jong-Un, Rudy Giuliani and George Steinbrenner to the brink of suicide. His hobbies include Scrabble, jigsaw puzzles, collecting stamps, painting by number, walking his dog Tippy and seeing Broadway musicals. In real life, he is gainfully employed as a certified public accountant.

AVIV KESHET (Wail and Perfection) is a multidisciplinary artist and performer currently based in NJ. With formal training from The School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, Keshet’s work spans performance art, theatre direction, and fine art, exploring the relationship between individual and society through performance. Keshet has had her work shown in galleries, theaters and dance spaces in IsraelPalestine, balancing creative practice with activism and teaching. @aviv.keshet

BEN MELLER (Onion Shields) I’m an emerging spoken word artist and writer, thriving on self-expression and the power of words. With a creative spirit, I craft poetry that invites you to think, feel, and experience life through my lens. I challenge boundaries with every verse, offering my art freely to all who listen. I believe in the shared journey of discovery, uncovering personal truths while observing the vastness of the universe. Join me on this uncharted flight. @benmellerstudio

DENNIS MORITZ (author, Philoctetes on Spring Garden Street) is a poet who writes a lot of plays. Producers include the Public, Painted Bride, Freedom Theater, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, St Marks, Bowery Poetry Club, HERE. He prefers to work in bars and improvised spaces. Angel Hair/United Artists, the longtime poetry press, published two collections of his theater works: the only plays in that catalogue. www.n1-theatre.com

EMMA PESIN (graphic/poster designer; Down with Bullies; Trump’s Nightmare;  Vissi d’Arte) is a Brooklyn based designer and fine artist. They received their BFA at SUNY Purchase 22’. Group exhibitions include the Dolly Maass, Greenpoint, Established, and Chelsea Galleries. Pesin performed their funeral LIVE! at The Sable Project, was a professional mourner for Anne Katrin Spiess “Death by Plastic“ and creator of the internet publication Clown Soup Mag Zine. You can find them teaching swimming at the Coney Island YMCA. @emmaep.png

IREN KAMYSHEV (The Price of Eggs, Part 1; Onion Shields) I am a movement artist, embodying transformation, emotion, and the tension between cultures. Rejecting victimhood, I alchemize experience into expression. Through dance, I transcend individuality, letting raw emotion shape the space around me. My body is a vessel—a fusion of music, theatre, film, poetry, and fashion—where stories unfold and dissolve. I don’t seek to define but to connect, dissolving borders between disciplines, people, and histories. In movement, I build community. In collaboration, I expand possibility. @art.irka

THE ISHTAR COLLECTIVE (The Temple of Ishtar) is a nonprofit collective of sex workers, survivors, and industry allies in Vermont who focus on intersectional social justice liberation. Our mission is to see our communities thrive as we aim for equity in race, class, gender, healthcare, housing, food, immigration, labor, (dis)ability, and LGBTQIA+ issues, with a special focus on sex workers’ rights and anti-trafficking work. ishtarcollective.org

JAI MOHAN (Vissi d’Arte; The Rebirth Ritual; Donnie Walks the Plank) (he/him/his, ze/hir/hirs, xe/xem/xir) is a composer, singer, poet and ritualist from New York. @bi_jai_themagpie

KATE DALE (designer; Down with Bullies) works as the Properties Shop Supervisor for the Juilliard School, where her work has been seen in over 700 productions. Favorite Scenic and Costume designs for Coney Island USA include Bloody Brains in a Jukebox, The Education of Al Capone as if Told by Jimmy Durante and Killing Republicans- A Rock Opera. Kate is a long time participant in the Mermaid Parade and is deeply devoted to the mission and culture of Coney Island USA. @mermaidkateq

LEO LOVELY (Executive Disorder) is a 22-year-old queer trans performance artist living and working in NYC. He explores themes of gender, eroticism, the body, and taboo. Leo has been acting, dancing, writing, and drawing for as long as he can remember, with little formal training. He is here today thanks to the lifesaving gender-affirming care he received as a trans minor.

LIZ LEIGHTON (Perfection; Daughter Liberty) is a writer/performer based out of New York City. @ladyintheradiator123

LUNA FELIZ (The Rebirth Ritual; Daughter Liberty) is a multidisciplinary artist, witch, and non-practicing black cat enthusiast. In last year’s ritual cabaret she played Carmen in The Balcony and contributed her persona Helene Melina as part of the Art Brothel. She’s overjoyed to contribute to a project that continues to resist the current administration and hopes that her, Sam, and Jai’s performance art piece and revitalization spell provides a space for comfort and rejuvenation amid trying times. @lunafelizgio

MAE B RAAB (Proof of Dance) (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based artist and educator, working with dance, movement, and theatre as her primary mediums. They are a graduate of the Masters of Arts in Applied Theatre program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies. Mae has researched, written, and presented on interactive theatre and audience agency and engagement, and the development of a liberatory dance pedagogy. Mae B Raab

MARISSA GUTIERREZ-VICARIO (Smashing Piñatas/Smashing Borders) (she/her) is a human rights and peace-building activist, artist, educator, and youth advocate. At the age of seven, as a third-generation Mexican-American / Chicana from southern California, she learned the art of piñata-making. Marissa is Doctoral Fellow and Part-Time Lecturer at Columbia University’s Teachers College in the Art Education program. As a scholar, Marissa is researching public art at / around the U.S.-Mexico border. Visit artejustice.org/marissa or follow @strikepinatas on IG.

MARIYA DIMOV (Docta Ignorantia) was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and immigrated to the United States in 1990. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY as an energy worker and artist focusing on sculpture, video, installation, and performance. She received her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and has shown in several international video art festivals in England, France, and Italy as well as Apexart (NYC), Slought Foundation and Fleisher Ollman (Philadelphia, PA). mariyadimov.com
(with…)
OIHANA GARDE is a healing artist, ritualistic performer and experience designer from the Basque Country (Spain) With a background in acting, contemporary circus and dance, she blended her academic knowledge with her spirituality and lived experiences, co-creating SEER Dance/Movement and Dance of Union. She is part of the sacred dance duo Dis:solution and creator of “In Service Of Love” a ritualistic series of experiential performances. www.atrillium.com
(and…)
SASHA DREY (music) is an award-winning composer/sound designer, singer and multi-instrumentalist. About a decade ago he started studying shamanic musical instruments from around the world and learn Harmonic Overtone singing (throat singing) with Kaigalool Khovalyg (Tuvan band Huun Hur Tu). The last five years he has led several singing workshops at various festivals such as Jelag and Peace Temple.

MAXINE STEINMAN (Her Kind) has presented her work in the US and abroad in Taiwan, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, and Cyprus. Praised as “ingenious” and a “jewel” by Jack Anderson and Jennifer Dunning, she received grants from O’Donnell-Green Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Dance NJ and a 2025 Finalist award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Associate Professor of Dance at Montclair State University, Maxine holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Peck School of the Arts.  maxinesteinmananddancers

NATE C JONES (Elon 2 in Philoctetes on Spring Garden Street) is a comedic performer, actor, and writer based out of Philadelphia. Known for his Americana condescension and wit he hopes to entertain the masses for years to come.

PATRICK DAVID WALL (Ritcab T. Clownington aka Ritcab the Clown; The Theft and Reclamation of Power in One Act) The production manager for nonprofit arts organization Coney Island USA, Patrick Wall has been shepherding and supporting artists through the creative processes for the last 16 years. With 30 plus years of experience in a multitude of artistic media, including live performance, he endeavors to make Coney Island a safe hub for artists to find expression, and to leave better than when they came.

PNK VLVT WTCH (Body of Sorrow 3:) Mutation; Donnie Walks the Plank) is a multi-instrumentalist and performance art entity. She transcends binaries. Her work is grounded in Surrealism and Witchcraft, both emotional and archetypal. During the day she haunts the Coney Island Circus Sideshow as Niki B. The Talking Doll and is producer of Menagerie of Filth. At night you can find her performing at The Box NYC. @pnkvlvtwtch

SAMANTHA NAHRA (The Price of Eggs, Part 1; The Rebirth Ritual; Vissi d’Arte; Perfection; Donnie Walks the Plank) has sung the roles of Miceala in La tragedies de Carmen, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief, Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica and Bianca in La Rondine. She is the librettist and premiere singer of “A Dramatic Soprano Tries Cooking…The Opera” and “A Dramatic Soprano Tries Cooking…The Sequel” composed by Philip Wharton. samanthanahra.com

STEPHEN HASTINGS-KING (durational interruptus, A Big Picture) is a writer and partner in Pattern Recognition: A Research Collective.

SUE YOCUM (author; Vissi d’Arte; Daughter Liberty) spends her time pursuing two passions: animal rescue and theater. In January 2005 she created Playwrights for Pets, which has so far produced more than 20 benefits for animal welfare organizations! Proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Actors’ Equity, SAG-AFTRA, the Barrow Group’s FAB Women, and Honor Roll! (an advocacy and action group of women+ playwrights over 40). @playwrightsforpets

VISCERA NEFARIOUS (Mythical Beast) is a New England based sideshow artist and street performer who delights audiences of all ages with her death-defying stunts and unconscionable dad jokes. She also delights audiences of adults-only ages with her work in burlesque and kink, which she facilitates as the resident Circus Producer at Burning Roses Burlesque. Find her on Instagram at @Viscera.Nefarious

WHARTON TRACT (Philoctetes in Philoctetes on Spring Garden Street) is an actor, singer, songwriter and all-around theater technician (lighting, set, sound designer and builder/rigger. His home base is Philadelphia where he is currently working with playwright Dennis Moritz (n1-theatre.com) developing new plays and productions. Wharton is happy to be back working with Gabriele and Nick and the staff at Coney Island Ritual Cabaret!