A reform-school runaway at thirteen, a performer in the legendary NewYork City Playhouse of the Ridiculous at seventeen, and an escapee from AndyWarhol's Factory scene at nineteen, Penny Arcade (born Susanna Ventura) emerged inthe 1980s as a primal force on the New York art scene and an originator of what cameto be called performance art. Arcade's brand of high camp and street-smart, punk-rock cabaret showmanship has been winning over international audiences eversince. This autobiographical trilogy of plays represents her at herbest.Bitch Dyke Faghag Whore , is Penny Arcade's raucous, cutting-edge sex andcensorship show, (which continues to be a commercial hit around the world), featuring the daily life of a receptionist in a brothel, the upbringing and rearingof a "faghag," the evolution of the New York gay scene in the 1990s, and aparticipatory "audience dance break." The funny and heart-rending titlework, Bad Reputation, portrays a young teen runaway's coming of age in a Catholicreform school (run by nuns who are former fashion models) and her subsequent life onthe streets of 1960s New York. La Miseria, a rare depiction of working-classItalian-Americans from a woman's point of view that portrays the clash betweenworking-class morals and compassion during the 1980s AIDS epidemic, rounds out thetrilogy.Bad Reputation is the first book by and on Penny Arcade. The completescripts are accompanied by a new interview with Penny Arcade by Chris Kraus, a rangeof archival photographs of the East Village scene and Arcade's performances, anintroduction by playwright Ken Bernard, and contributions by Sarah Schulman, SteveZehentner, and Stephen Bottoms.