New York’s queen of the underground confronts gentrification, cultural amnesia and the cost of self-censorship on November 6.
WEST STOCKBRIDGE, MA– Internationally acclaimed performance artist Penny Arcade brings her award-winning solo show “Longing Lasts Longer” to The Foundry at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 6. This one-night-only performance is presented in collaboration with Spin Cycle NYC.
After two world tours reaching 46 cities and 204 performances at venues such as St. Ann’s Warehouse, “Longing Lasts Longer” arrives in the Berkshires with its collision of stand-up comedy, memoir, and rock-and-roll soundscape mixed live by Arcade’s longtime collaborator of 29 years, Steve Zehentner. Through the lens of Arcade’s experience in New York City, the show turns personal history into a fierce examination of international gentrification, cultural erasure, and the normalization of self-censorship.
Arcade rejects nostalgia, asking what happens when cities lose the people and places that carry their histories– when culture trades risk, curiosity and dissent for comfort.
A performance artist whose name has become synonymous with “Downtown New York Art,” thanks to her early career relationship with Andy Warhol, Arcade presents dangerous ideas and a radical inquiry into what it means to be a human, right now, right here.
“Penny Arcade combines the anarchy of Lenny Bruce with the pathos of Judy Garland… provocative, intellectually stimulating, perceptive and hilariously funny,” wrote The List UK.
These themes carry particular resonance across the Berkshires and Hudson Valley, where questions of affordability, cultural identity and the future of independent artistic spaces continue to shape the region. The Foundry’s intimate 80-seat black-box setting places the audience in direct conversation with an artist whose work has never separated performance from participation.
ABOUT PENNY ARCADE
Penny Arcade, born Susana Ventura, is an internationally respected writer, poet, actress, and theatre maker, and one of the handful of artists who created and continue to define “performance art.” Penny began performing with John Vaccaro’s explosive Playhouse of the Ridiculous at the age of 17, and at 19 became a Warhol Factory Superstar appearing in the film Women in Revolt. With an artistic career spanning almost 50 years, Arcade occupies a unique position in the American avant-garde.
Her work centers outsiders and confronts censorship, queer life, misogyny and more, focusing on the creation of community and inclusion over all else.
HM Koutoukas referred to her as “the little sister of the avant-garde” due to her long association with the architects of the American counter culture movement including: Andy Warhol, Charles Henri Ford, John Vaccaro, Judith Malina, Taylor Mead, Jack Smith, Harry Smith, Tom O’Horgan, and Charles Ludlam among others.
EVENT DETAILS
Penny Arcade: Longing Lasts Longer
Friday, November 6, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
The Foundry
2 Harris Street, West Stockbridge MA 01266
Tickets and information: https://
Presented in collaboration with Spin Cycle NYC.
ABOUT THE FOUNDRY
The Foundry is an intimate, year-round multidisciplinary performance venue in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The venue produces theater, music, comedy, dance, educational workshops and more, providing a safe place to present dangerous work. Work that counteracts the passive, the isolating, the distance between people. Creating a space for audiences and artists to experience and share relevant live arts unlike anywhere else in Berkshire County.
