May 23, 2025

Artists

ALEX TATARSKY 

Called “a hilarious, finely tuned absurdist” (Theatre Jones), Alex Tatarsky makes performances in the uncomfortable in-between zone of comedy, dance-theater, performance art, and deluded rant--sometimes with songs. Tatarsky experienced fleeting fame as Andy Kaufman’s daughter and used to perform as a mound of dirt. Playing with perceptions of language and narrative structure, their live performances are highly responsive to context and audience, often breaking the fourth wall and embracing the clown as a model for delighting in failure. Venues include The Kitchen, Abrons Arts Center, Playwrights Horizons, MoMA PS1, The Whitney, La Mama and many bars and basements. Tatarsky is currently touring their falling apart coming of age tale Sad Boys in Harpy Land and compost clown performance lecture Dirt Trip. Get in touch: @tartar.biz 

VAPE KID JR. 

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GUY?

Vape Kid Jr. is a drag king, puppeteer, and sound designer based in NYC. Vape Kid Jr. and his mutant friends have been featured as New York representatives in the International Puppet Slam and in such publications as Them Magazine, the New York Times, and the cover of Puppet Slam- History & How To. He is the co-creator and star of the anti-Fascist puppet musical “Vape Kids Cool Zone.” Get weird with Vape Kid Jr. and his menagerie of mutants. WARNING VAPE KID SHOWS MAY FEATURE GUNS, VIOLENCE, BLOOD, GUTS GOOPS, POOPS, AND A WHOLE LOT OF HEART. 

@vapekidjr 

DUNS 

Duns is a Philadelphia-based theater maker, clown, and hip-hop artist who has performed in schools, community centers, theaters, and festivals all over the country and internationally for 10-plus years. In his work, Duns draws on the artistic lineages of Pochinko Clown, Social Presencing Theater, and Comedic Improvisation. 

After learning about prophetic witnessing through a 10-month spirituality cohort, Duns’ curiosity led him to consider how the conditions of suffering can give way to prophecy, but can also make humans vulnerable to the manipulations of a guru. Through this work, Duns poses the question “If we have to surrender to a higher power to experience a spiritual awakening, what are the dangers of that surrender?” The characters that Duns embodies each grapple with this question from different positions and through verbal and nonverbal dialogue with the audience. 

@sterlingduns