January 29, 2025

At

The Slipper Room

167 Orchard Street

New York, NY 10002

All proceeds benefiting our community health partner

Credits

CAST

Dana Abrassart

Maine Anders

Juanita Cardenas

Jon Joni

Katie Mariko Murray

Ryan Shinji Murray

Tamara Ochoa

Maya Shah

Veronica Viper

Show written and devised as a collaboration by the cast

Artistic Direction, Production Design, Costumes and Puppets by

Juanita Cardenas

Sound Design by

Tamara Ochoa, Dana Abrassart, Ryan Shinji Murray, Katie Mariko Murray

Video Content by

Dana Abrassart and Ryan Shinji Murray

Scripts by

Dana Abrassart, Tamara Ochoa, Tyler West

Parody Lyrics by

Ryan Shinji Murray, Matt Roper, Juanita Cardenas, Tamara Ochoa

Light and Sound by

Johnny Horrible

MEET THE TEAM

Dana Abrassart is a designer & performer, hailing from the currently independent nation of Canada. Dana’s design work spans the fields of product design, biodesign, and experience design with emerging technologies, such as motion capture and VR. As a performer, she revels in all things campy and absurd. Dana has performed at venues around the city such as the House of Yes, The Roseland Ballroom (RIP), The Slipper Room, & Theatre for the New City. She is a proud co-collaborator and co-creator in Visceral Abstractions, an absurdist artist collective based in NYC. She has taught aerial in NYC, South Korea, Brazil, & Cambodia. @danaabrassart

https://armchair.guru/

Tamara Ochoa (she/her) is a Chilean-born performer and speech-language pathologist. She is a co-collaborator and co-creator in Visceral Abstractions, an absurdist artist collective based in NYC. Her aerial performance work shares imaginations and musings on struggle, wonder, and the absurd - often including her long hair as a choreographic element. She has performed at House of Yes, The Muse, Slipper Room, Coney Island USA, and Theatre for the New City, as well as private events and festivals in and outside NYC. @lazuleye

Maya Shah (she/her) is an art advisor, performer and cultural producer based in New York City. She works collaboratively with artists such as Papo Colo, Frank Bowling and Jane Dickson to steward their legacies and manage their creative practice. She is an active member of the cultural fabric of New York City and has produced socially engaged public art projects for organizations including Monumenta, Culture Push and the NY Dept of City Planning. She is a member of the absurdist circus theater company Visceral Abstractions and currently building an artist residency in the Dominican Republic. @dodekah

https://mayashah.art/

Colombian-born artist Juanita Cardenas (she/ her) turned her BFA from Cooper Union into a one-of-a-kind career in the performing arts as a cutting edge innovator. She combines aerial performance and puppetry in her worl. She is a directs and creates full lenght theater pieces, designs costumes and puppets, fabricats them and performs solo and ensemble work as an aerialist and puppeteer.

She is the artistic director of the absurdist circus theater collaborative collective Visceral Abstractions, which has had long running sold out shows at House of Yes, The Slipper Room, and Coney Island USA. In 2024, she and her partner Ryan Shinji Murray were awarded the MAP Fund grant towards the creation of a new show. @polychromatico

https://www.juanitacardenas.com/

Jonathan (Jon Jõni) McDonald (he/they) (High Point, NC) began his training in traditional African, Caribbean, and Modern dance with the Egwynn Dancers of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. After studying a summer at Edna Manly School of Arts in Kingston Jamaica, Jonathan sought out training in ballet, jazz and contemporary at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. He has danced with companies such as the Jan Van Dyke Group ( Greensboro NC), Kearns Dance Project (Burlington, NC), and Terrenova Dance Theater (Burlington, NC); all the while teaching in Greensboro at Artistic Motion School of Arts, and Dance Project: School of City Arts. Since moving to NYC in 2015, Jonathan has danced with RuddR Dance, Segerra Dance Theater Project, while training in circus arts. He debuted his first solo trapeze act fall of 2017 with A&S Productions’ “Circus Muse: A Traditional Circus,” at The Muse Brooklyn. Since, he has performed with House of Yes, Company XIV and Secret Loft. @jonjoniofficial

Ryan (he/ him) is a multi-disciplinary circus artist, back for his third production of Sex Ed! He has performed around the world with Cirque Éloize's "iD" and as an original cast member of Cirque du Soleil's "Kurios," touring with the show for eight years and as well as taking turns as the understudy hand balancer and comic characters. Now, he is Brooklyn based and collaborates with several different companies and stages including ABCirque, Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, 3AM Theatre, Parallel Exit, and Westchester Circus Arts. He also coaches circus arts at Circus Academy New York. @ryanshinji

Coined the “Triple Threat of Burlesque” Maine Anders (she/ her) captivates audiences every time she hits the stage. This international sensation has performed everywhere from MGM Grand’s Studio 54 (Las Vegas), Le Bus Palladium (Paris), Buddha Bar (Beirut), Dragon-I (Hong Kong) to The National Theatre Reykjavik (Iceland). She has toured with DJ Tiesto, performed on the Latin Grammys with Wisin y Yandel and has joined several legends including James Brown, Lionel Richie, and Pharrell Williams, burlesque divas Dita Von Tease and Amanda Lepore, making The Maine Attraction a legend in her own right.

Her ability to transform herself into a myriad of characters gives her the opportunity to play roles that are left of center, and the elements of sex, comedy and drama effortlessly, as seen in her self-conceptualized one woman show, The Last Day of Black History Month: A Conversation With A Naked Southern Black Lesbian. She was one of the featured dancers for the 2015 Grammy Award fuse Winner Cheek to Cheek PBS Special with Lada Gaga and Tony Bennett. She played principal characters in multiple off-Broadway productions such as the burlesque murder mystery, Lady L’Amour’s Final Bow and Broadway on the Bowery.

Her latest achievement is her debut as a producer in what has now become a touring burlesque review, Life in Sepia. The spotlight has been shining bright on Maine through many publications; Gothamist, OUT, Buzzfeed, Time Out, The Village Voice, Broadway World, Go Magazine, Playbill, and VPR. She’s a star in musical theater, television and film and will continue to grace any stage where she can let her creativity ride. @themaineattractionny

https://www.themaineattraction.com/

Veronica (she/her) Is a New York based performance artist @veronicaviper3

Katie (she/ her) is thrilled to be joining Sex Ed and finally collaborating with the creators of Visceral Abstractions. A NYC-based singer and actor, Katie spent the last year touring North America with Disney’s Frozen playing Queen Iduna and understudying the role of Princess Anna. She played Cinderella in Into the Woods at Signature Theatre, which garnered a Helen Hayes nomination. Select theatre credits include Jane Doe in Ride the Cyclone at Arena Stage, Johanna in Sweeney Todd at Signature Theatre, Maureen in Rent at Signature Theatre, and Janet Van De Graaf in The Drowsy Chaperone at Pittsburgh CLO. In NYC she did the developmental workshop of KPOP at ARSNova and Dave Malloy's immersive mini musical: Love Around the Block at Hèrmes. @ktpotaty

https://www.katiemarikomurray.com/