Dramatis Personae


A list of characters mentioned throughout the research correspondence

Animal

with

Amy Malick — viola player

Brian Saner — member of Goat Island Performance Group and instructor at Art Institute of Chicago, summer 2000

Carole and Jimmy Lennon — founders of the Lennon Studios

Dennis Peron’s Cannabis Buyer’s Club and Cannabis Cultivators Club — underground cannabis clubs for people with AIDS and similar illnesses (also John Taylor’s Flower Therapy - John was an associate of Dennis)

DJ Haverford & Wendell Walters — NYC friends who put Animal up in January 2002

Dominic — old friend and great bud

Drew Bourn (‘Sabrina’) — director of the Gay and Lesbian Archives at Stanford University

Eddie — manager at The LURE, NYC

Felicia Traylor-Bass — administrative director of Alliance Consulting who died in 9/11

Flower Therapy — underground cannabis clubs for people with AIDS and similar illnesses [John Taylor - see Dennis Peron]

Gene Puerling — Uncle Gene; jazz musician, vocal performer and arranger 

George Coates & the George Coates Performance Works group — American theatre director

Greg Taylor – club promoter, activist, arts professional, very much the face of the community, now living the low key life in Washington state

Gilbert Baker — creator of the rainbow flag, and friends with Animal from 1990 onwards

Goat Island Performance Group — Chicago-based collaborative performance group

Guy Messenger — guitar and underscore, The Animal Ensemble, Animal’s Positive Christmas — A Viral Celebration, 1991, original member of the Ensemble, Patriots, Perverts, 1990, Pieces of Jesus, 1992, Issue of Blood, July workshop 1993.

Hank Hyena (Pellisier) — founder of the Grasshopper Palace theatre

Hunter Reynolds — performance artist, with whom Animal attempted a brief and disastrous co-studio in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Ira Marlowe — singer/songwriter, playwright, compatriot in activism

Jack Curtis Dubowsky – composer, conductor. Animal also played for his Duran Duran orchestra gig at The Stud/Trannyshack in 1997

Jerome Caja — scenester, performer, artist whose work almost made Whitney Biennial, beloved legend

Jessie Turner — original ensemble member, muse, classical soprano, guitar/singer/songwriter

Jim Carroll — author of The Basketball Diaries

Joseph W. Bean — leather mentor, and the first director of the Leather Archives & Museum

John (Jahn) & Brittany Neff —  John was a collaborator on Second System (1992) Engineer and producer of Equa, the studio project Animal was practicing for on 9/11, featuring the “Sinematographer” track

Justin Vivian Bond — “Kiki and Herb”

Karen and the Mega Bytes Cyber Café at the Crystal Mall in Waterford — who donated computer time and resources in September, 2001 while Animal was displaced

Karl & Steve — friends and hosts in San Francisco, October 2001

Karl — friend in Monterey, October 2001

Lanny Colunga— perhaps Animal’s greatest friend ever

Larry Senko — recruiting manager at Alliance Consulting who died in 9/11

Leigh Crow – “Elvis Herselvis”

Lewis Walden IV —  DJ and creative talent, together with Michael Kerkes, behind Club Uranus the spiritual and artistic home of the Gay 90s in SF

Lincoln Anderson — Animal’s husband

Mario DeSio — singer/songwriter; “we met on the steps of Sproul Hall at University of California in Berkeley in 1986, he and a friend were playing guitar, I held up my flute, they said yes, I jumped in, and we played together for a decade at clubs and gigs.”

Mark Lentczner — musician from the Animal Ensemble, Brooklyn native

Mel Leverich — Archivist & Collections Librarian at The Leather Archives and Museum, Chicago

Michael Kerkes — aka Michael Blue, a legendary club DJ (Club Uranus, Chaos), a close friend and whose art was displayed at Animal’s shows

Michael Kirsche — videographer, Issue of Blood, 1993

Michael Petrelis — pioneer AIDS activist

Mike — an old friend, based in NYC, “meeting by chance for years”

Mouse (Philip “Todd” Wood) — studio engineer and performance keyboardist, Issue of Blood, July workshop, 1993

Omewenne Grimstone — performed Nico: My Empty Pages at 21 Bernice Theatre, an influence

Paul Dresher — composer, formed the Paul Drescher Ensemble in mid-1980s

Peter Doyle — co-founder of A.S. 220 (Alternative Space at 220 Weybosset Street

Ranger — old friend, and the original Pup of the Pup Play kink practice; Animal is the second-earliest Pup

Red Cross relief centre staff and the case worker from Buffalo — New York, September 2001

Richard E.T. White — director, who worked together with Rinde Eckert on the workshop Slow Fire. 1987

Rick B — NYC friend, circa 2002, with a “timely truck and encouraging words”. Friend of DJ and Wendell

Rinde Eckert — composer, collaborator with the Paul Drescher Ensemble

Roshan Ara Khan — violin, The Animal Ensemble, Animal’s Positive Christmas 2: The Virus That Causes, 1993

Scott Bowditch — to be added later

Scott Seaboldt — art director for Pieces of Jesus and co-founder of A.S. 220 (Alternative Space at 220 Weybosset Street)

Shaun Loftus & Nick Gragard — friends, and hosts of the fundraising dinner ‘Animal Dinner, 23 November 1993

Spalding Gray — monologist, actor, autobiographical performance artist

Steven Krefting — baritone, special guest, Animal’s Positive Christmas 2: The Virus That Causes, 1993

Susan Lucille Phaneuf — producer of Issue of Blood

Taurus Webster — artist and leatherman

Tim Sarter — electric bass (Thursday), The Animal Ensemble Animal’s Positive Christmas 2: The Virus That Causes, 1993

Tom Marzella — director of 21 Bernice Theater

Tommy Hom & David Murphy & Mike Salinas & Brian Carmichael — NYC friends who helped Animal to clear out from his apartment in January 2002

Tony Vaguely, The Sick and Twisted Players — homed at 21 Bernice Theater, he was the major underground queer theatre producer/director of that time

Umberto Rocha — co-founder of A.S. 220 (Alternative Space at 220 Weybosset Street)

Waiyde Palmer – scenester and historian

Wayne Bruce Lee — a gay, HIV-positive tattoo artist, whose legal case in San Fransciso was subject of the work Issue of Blood

Willie J Watson — drummer in the Animal Ensemble, best friend, first friend in leather and in the South of Market district; original ensemble member, longest-serving member, died sometime between 2003-2009