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
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