ARTIST STATEMENT

My art is a raw and unapologetic dedication to truth as a human who encounters marginalization in today’s society. It is a response to the aggression and division of sociopolitical narratives, institutions, people, and technologies artificially dividing the individual from themself and a collective well-being. My gesture is to reach the collective soul in an act of emotional healing to free ourselves and embrace our common humanity.

While it may vary in form, the foundation of my process is intuitive movement of the body. Psychophysical explorations connect me to the truth of my body by opening a gateway to sensations, emotions, and image, bringing the unconscious to the conscious. These improvisations result in confessional to camp text, drawings, paintings, and illustrations, as well as video, audio, photography, characters, and states of being that unite in performance installations. Through performance rooted in transparency and vulnerability combined with the atmosphere we occupy, I create space for the sacred and the profane, confronting the complexities of identity and its place in society. The resulting intimacy invites the passive observer into authentic interaction, creating a true event between us that ignites connection on the soul level. Together, we ride the intersection between the personal and the political, forming a bridge between our inner and outer worlds.

Freedom and expression of truth are recurring themes in my work, arising from the repression that we often face. I draw inspiration from Expressionism, the Weimar Republic, 1960s and '70s pop culture, superheroes, and homoeroticism, as these have fought against repression and inspire liberation in thinking and being. Through my art, I inspire others to embody, feel, accept, and connect, leading to personal transformations affecting society.

BIO

Ray Caspio (b. 1979, they/he) is a performance and conceptual artist.


Their performances have been recognized by critics as “transcendent,” “magical,” “powerful,” “indelible,” “riveting,” “intensely honest and unflinching,” with Ray being called “a shapeshifter” and “one [person] tour de force.” 

Ray received a 2016 Creative Workforce Fellowship for their original performance work, a 2016 LAUNCH Artist Residency from Playhouse Square, and a 2022 Satellite Fund grant from SPACES, funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, for THE WALL. Select works while Associate Artistic Director of Theater Ninjas (2012-2015, now Maelstrom Collaborative Arts) were supported by the Ohio Arts Council and Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

Ray’s original creations have been performed at The Cleveland Museum of Art, BorderLight International Theatre + Fringe Festival, 78th Street Studios, Theater Ninjas, Cleveland Public Theatre, and Playhouse Square.

While an actor (2008-2021), they performed in new and contemporary plays, and served as a performer-creator in numerous devised works, originating over 30 roles. They began creating and producing performance installations accompanying devised productions in 2011. Caspio appeared on Best of Theatre lists for Cleveland Scene Magazine (2014 & 2017) and WCPN/NPR’s The Sound of Applause (2014, for the conception and performance of the immersive cabaret exploration of gender, sexuality, and marriage equality, TingleTangle). They were also profiled by Scene as “The Thespian” of 2014.



Ray’s acting work was experienced at Playhouse Square, Dobama Theatre, BorderLight Fringe, Cleveland Public Theatre, Theater Ninjas, convergence-continuum, Playwrights Local, Radio on the Lake Theatre, Talespinner Children’s Theatre, and in commercials and short films. 

Ray created the Uncle Toots YouTube series and ongoing live performance pieces, in addition to the comedy and conversation podcast, WHO•RAY, which they co-hosted with Uncle Toots. With Paul K. Bisson, they currently co-host Satin Tights: a Wonder Woman Podcast, an episode-by-episode journey through Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman TV series.

Ray’s training background includes Bouffon (Giovanni Fusetti), Eccentric Performance (Avner Eisenberg & Julie Goell), the Alba Method (Certification Level 2), and Improv & Sketch Writing (Second City Chicago). 
Ray studies with master teachers of the Michael Chekhov technique at the Michael Chekhov School, Hudson, NY, and the international faculty of MICHA, the Michael Chekhov Association. Ray is a member of MICHA. They’ve also studied virtually with Chekhov Studio International and Chekhov Studio Chicago. Caspio founded Michael Chekhov Center Cleveland in 2018 after a decade exploring the technique to share their understanding of Chekhov’s principles with Northeast Ohio performing artists.

Caspio believes performance is an exercise in spirit and a means of service to illuminate and challenge societal norms with daring honesty, a sense of beauty, and mischief. Every project should carry with it the potential to lift and transform the veils of perception, Self, identity, society, and beliefs for artists and audiences. 

Caspio has taught for Baldwin Wallace University’s Musical Theatre Program, Playhouse Square, Disney Musicals-in-Schools, Cleveland Play House Theatre Academy, MetroHealth Arts in Medicine, Planned Parenthood, the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. They teach Michael Chekhov Technique each summer in Dobama Theatre’s Emerging Artist Program, DEAP. Ray is available to lead private and workshop sessions in the Michael Chekhov technique and personal storytelling. Their process guides and celebrates the individualities of the artists involved, meeting the artist where they are and encouraging their growth. Caspio believes in respecting the artists’ health, lives, contributions, and time. They believe an actor must be capable of complete transformation and surrender to the will of the character they are portraying. Ray works experientially and deeply through movement, and encourages a sense of ease, curiosity, fearlessness, risk-taking, and play in the studio, rehearsal room, performance space, and in one-on-one coaching sessions.

Ray graduated from Cuyahoga Community College in 2007 with an Associate of Applied Business in Illustration. They were the first student ever to be hired immediately upon graduation to conceive and produce a large-scale marketing campaign for the school. While there, they were trained by renowned figurative artist, Shirley Aley Campbell. Their illustration and graphic design work has appeared on billboards, posters, postcards, print ads, clothing, and the web for clients such as The National Organization for Women, Playbill, the independent comic book So Super Duper, various theatrical productions in Cleveland and Los Angeles, Theater Ninjas, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.


Ray’s drawings, paintings, photographs, and illustrations are in private collections in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe.

Education
2007 Cuyahoga Community College, Associate of Applied Business - Illustration

Michael Chekhov Technique (continuous study since 2008)
The Michael Chekhov School, Hudson, NY
MICHA, the Michael Chekhov Association
Chekhov Studio Chicago
Chekhov Studio International

Performance Training
Alba Method (CL2) - Nancy Loitz, Roxane Rix & Elizabeth Towsend
Bouffon - Giovanni Fusetti, Celebration Barn Theatre, Portland, ME
Cabaret - Charles Eversole & Lora Workman, PlayhouseSquare, Cleveland, OH
Eccentric Performance - Avner Eisenberg & Julie Goell, Celebration Barn Theatre, Portland, ME
Improv & Sketch Writing - Second City, Chicago, IL
Personal Storytelling - Lily Be, Second City, Chicago, IL
Voice - Natsuko Ohama (Linklater), Celebration Barn Theatre, Portland, ME

Representation
Heyman Talent
The iGroup
Productions Plus
The Talent Group

Grants & Fellowships
2024 Premiere Fellowship, Cleveland Public Theatre
2022 The Satellite Fund, administered by SPACES and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Regional Regranting Program
2020 Emergency Relief Grant, administered by SPACES and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Regional Regranting Program
2016 Creative Workforce Fellowship, Community Partnership for Arts and Culture via Cuyahoga Arts & Culture

Residencies
2016 LAUNCH Artist Residency - Tier One, Playhouse Square, Cleveland, OH

Solo Exhibitions
2023 The Wall, 1300 Gallery at 78th Street Studios, Cleveland, OH
2014 Oh, My Stars!, Maria Neil Art Project, Cleveland, OH

Group Exhibitions
2024 Visual Vibration, LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, OH
2023 CLAW Kinky Art Show, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Velvet Kisses, Yards Projects, Cleveland, OH
2023 The Dirty Show, Detroit, MI
2022 Queer Pulse…Ripple Effect, The Gallery at Lakeland, Kirtland, OH
2021 CONVERGE, Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, Cleveland, OH
2021 Doableguys - Through the Glory Hole: Homoerotic Art Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY
2020 BAYarts Annual Juried Exhibition, Bay Village, OH
2013 Winterloo Art Mix, Maria Neil Art Project, Cleveland, OH

Publications
2022 Wonder Women: NYC’s Heroes of Heterodoxy, The City Reliquary Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2021 CONVERGE exhibition catalog, Artists Archives of the Western Reserve
2004 The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook by Scott Schechter

Performance Art/Interactive Theatre (Creator, Performer, Designer; addl. production roles noted)
2025 THE BUCKTOOTHED F△GG⊙T (or THE NIJINSKY INCANTATION), Cleveland Public Theatre - Premiere Fellowship
2023 The Wall, Self/Satellite Fund grant & Ohio City Theatre Project, 1300 Gallery @ 78th Street Studios
2019 Uncle Toots’ Pasta Dish, Self Produced at BorderLight Intl. Fringe Festival
2017 Sunday Dinner with Toots, Self Produced, Cleveland, OH
2017 Uncle Toots’ Parlor, Self Produced at CPT’s Pandemonium
2016 Your Ask Is Mine, Self Produced at Theater Ninjas
2015 The Turing Machine, Theater Ninjas (Producer, Co-Writer, Graphic Design)
2014 Code: Preludes - Turing’s Office, Turing’s Memory Palace & Hacker’s Lab, Theater Ninjas (Producer)
2013 The Bearded Gas, The Cleveland Museum of Art at Transformer Station (Peformer)
2013 Ninja Days @ the Cleveland Museum of Art, Theater Ninjas/CMA (Producer, Lead Creative Team, Performer)
2013 Telephone - Bell & Watson’s Lab, Theater Ninjas (Producer, Performer)
2012 Peek, Self Produced at CPT’s Pandemonium
2011 Erato & Luigi, Self Produced at CPT’s Pandemonium

Directing
2024 I Wear My Dead Sister’s Clothes, BorderLight Fringe Festival (Char & Chuck Fowler Audience Choice Award)

Selected Devised Theatre (Performer & Writer in a devised work; additional production roles noted)
2014-15 TingleTangle, Theater Ninjas (Conceiver, Producer, Graphic & Space Design)
2014 Code: Preludes, Theater Ninjas (Producer, Graphic & Installation Design)
2013 The Refrain, Theater Ninjas
2013 The Excavation @ the Cleveland Museum of Art, Theater Ninjas & CMA (Lead Creative Team, Graphic Design)
2012 Marble Cities, Theater Ninjas (Producer, Assistant Director)
2012 At-TEN-tion Span, CPT
2012 Crash Project, CPT
2012 To Fasten Your Seatbelts…, CPT
2012 The Refrain, Theater Ninjas/CPT
2011 Monster Play, Theater Ninjas/CPT
2011 The Excavation, Theater Ninjas
2010 Open Mind Firmament, CPT

Selected Contemporary Theatre & New Works (additional production roles noted)
2021 Under the Sycamores, BorderLight Virtual Fringe Festival
2019 Sorry Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea, CPT
2018 The Silence of Dr. and Mrs. Caligari, Playwrights Local
2017 Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars, Dobama Theatre
2017 The Secret Adversary, Great Lakes Theater Outreach
2016 The Santaland Diaries, Playhouse Square & CPT
2016 Give Me the Map, convergence-continuum
2015 An Apology...Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening, convergence-continuum
2015 The Santaland Diaries, Playhouse Square & CPT
2014 The Importance of Waiting for the Eagle, CPT [BigBox]
2013 Telephone, Theater Ninjas (Producer)

2013 Black Cat Lost, Theater Ninjas (Producer)
2012 The Ghost of Gordon Square Theatre, Theater Ninjas
2012 The Tale of the Name of the Tree, Talespinner Children’s Theatre
2011 The Internationalist, convergence-continuum
2011 The Miracle at Naples, convergence-continuum
2010 Inoculations, Theater Ninjas

Storytelling & Cabaret (Creator, Writer, Performer)
2017 Just the Two of Us, Cleveland Museum of Art: MIX (with composer Eric M.C. Gonzalez)
2016 First Time, The Stoop, Chicago, IL
2013-14 TingleTangle: Preludes, Theater Ninjas (with composer Sean Ellis Hussey)
2009 What Makes a Man, Playhouse Square

Short Film
2013 Love, at First... (Lead), Theater Ninjas (Writer, editor, performer)
2012 Loss Prevention (Lead), Fourth Eye Films
2011 Cast Off (Principal), Fourth Eye Films

Video/Web Content (Creator, Writer, Performer)
2011-Present Uncle Toots, YouTube
2017-Present Satin Tights; A Wonder Woman Podcast, Podcast (Co-Host)
2016-2018 Who•Ray, Podcast (Creator and Host, with Uncle Toots)
2013 Love, at First…, short silent film for Theater Ninjas’ The Excavation @ the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (Writer, Actor, Editor)
2013 Erato for The Excavation @ the CMA, Theater Ninjas
2013 Uncle Toots Tells You Where to Go - Waterloo Arts, Theater Ninjas
2013 Uncle Toots Tells You Where to Go - 78th Street Studios, Theater Ninjas

Teaching Experience (Acting)
2018-Present Michael Chekhov Center Cleveland (Founder)
2022 & 2023 Dobama Emerging Artists Program: Michael Chekhov Technique, Dobama Theatre, Cleveland Heights, OH
2021 Guest Artist in Michael Chekhov Technique at Baldwin Wallace University, Music Theatre Program, Berea, OH
2017-2018 Cleveland Play House Theatre Academy and Summer Camp (improv, acting, devised theatre, playwriting, character creation, movement), Cleveland, OH
2015-2019 Disney Musicals-in-Schools via PlayhouseSquare, Cleveland, OH
2015-2018 Stories ARThe Best Medicine through MetroHealth Arts-in-Medicine, Cleveland, OH
2015-2017 The Art of Storytelling, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
2014 Performance workshops for teens served by Planned Parenthood and the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, Theater Ninjas, Cleveland, OH
2013-2016 Playhouse Square Children’s Theatre Series In-School Educational Workshops (Pre-K thru 6th Grade), Cleveland, OH

Artist Talk
2023 The Wall, hosted by curator Kelly Pontoni

Grant Jury Panel
2023 The Satellite Fund, administered by SPACES and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Regional Regranting Program

Media Coverage (selected)
Connelly Rice, Karin. MetroHealth transforms the medical arts with cultural arts. Fresh Water Cleveland, January 3, 2017. http://bit.ly/2mu0Khh
Howey, Christine. Cleveland Scene’s 2014 People Issue: The Thespian, Ray Caspio, July 9, 2014. http://bit.ly/1yzgmQy
Howey, Christine. The Best of Cleveland Theatre in 2017, December 27, 2017. http://bit.ly/2Ie2cPK
Howey, Christine. Review: Code: Preludes. Rave and Pan, May 7, 2014. http://bit.ly/1tY6kcQ
Howey, Christine. Review: Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars. Cleveland Scene, December 5, 2017. https://bit.ly/2BPUpoL
Howey, Christine. Scene’s Theater Awards for (Most of) 2014: Best Risk Taking. Cleveland Scene, December 31, 2014. http://bit.ly/1CEwUf6
Johnston, Christopher. The Therapeutic Value of Theater. Community Partnership for Arts and Culture’s Culture Forward. August 9, 2017. http://bit.ly/2v5n5oE
Simakis, Andrea. Review: Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars, Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 9, 2017. https://bit.ly/2s1W1HO
The Sound of Applause: The Best of Theater 2014. NPR/WCPN, November 5, 2014. http://bit.ly/1DZfWWC
The Sound of Applause: Code: Preludes. NPR/WCPN, January 6, 2015. http://bit.ly/1labpoU
The Sound of Applause: The Excavation @ the Cleveland Museum of Art. NPR/WCPN, April 4, 2013. http://bit.ly/18dvK7s
The Sound of Applause: The SantaLand Diaries. NPR/WCPN, November 25, 2015. http://bit.ly/1OzMGZV
The Sound of Applause: TingleTangle. NPR/WCPN, November 5, 2014. http://bit.ly/1Elx0WA
The Sound of Applause: The Turing Machine. NPR/WCPN, May 20, 2015. http://bit.ly/1M8ka11
this show is so gay: Ray Caspio. Podcast, June 11, 2015. http://bit.ly/1OzMNVi
Usmani, Josh. CPAC and CAC Creative Workforce Fellowships Announced. Cleveland Scene, December 23, 2015. http://bit.ly/2mBfYAl