Ray Caspio received a 2016 Creative Workforce Fellowship in Theatre. The Fellowship is a program of the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture. Funding for the Fellowship program is made possible by the generous support of Cuyahoga County residents through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

TingleTangle
produced by Theater Ninjas
conceived by & starring Ray Caspio
directed by Jeremy Paul
original compositions, arrangements & accompaniment by Eric M. C. Gonzalez
contributing creators & performers (2014) Katie Beck, Valerie C. Kilmer, Ryan Lucas, Dan Rand & Amy Schwabauer
contributing creators & performers (2015) Ryan Lucas, Michael Prosen & Amy Schwabauer

SOLD OUT and EXTENDED the run!
Most successful box office for a ticketed show in Theater Ninjas’ then nine-year history.

Theater Ninjas’ original production, TingleTangle, is an evening of personal storytelling, sketches, songs, and conversations about sexuality, marriage equality, the many angles of oppression, and the power of compassion. It revels in the nuances of identity and how we all use performance to communicate our truest selves to the world. Monologues I wrote and performed, drawing on my experiences as a married gay man in Ohio, form TingleTangle’s core. TingleTangle set Theater Ninjas box office records and was the first production in the company's nine year history to extend its run. A faithfully updated version of the production returned in June 2015 to sold out crowds, poignantly closing the day marriage equality was fully legalized nationwide. The monologue below, “First Time,” talks about that single moment when we discover who we are.

Press:
Interview on this show is so gay with Ken Schneck
The Sound of Applause: NPR/WCPN 90.3 Ideastream interview with Dee Perry
Cleveland Centennial (David Hansen) Review
Land of Cleve Review
Sound of Applause's Best of Theatre 2014: for TingleTangle (at 23 minute mark)
Cleveland Scene's Best Risk-Taking: for TingleTangle
Tpography's Special Project Recognition: for TingleTangle
Land of Cleve's Top Theatrical Experiences: for TingleTangle

lighting design by Ben Gantose (2014) & Franny Gallagher (2015)
costumes by Kevenn T. Smith
stage managed by Kaitlin Kelly (2014) & Franny Gallagher (2015)
assistant stage managed by Christina Dennis (2014)

performed at Guide to Kulchur (October-November 2014) & Maria Neil Art Project (June 2015)
photos by Frank J. Lanza Photography, courtesy of Theater Ninjas

Tingle-Tangle: Preludes I & II
produced by Theater Ninjas
conceived, written, directed & performed by Ray Caspio
original compositions, arrangements & accompaniment by Sean Ellis Hussey
special thanks to Jeremy Paul

Tingle-Tangle: Preludes is a queer performance of songs and stories in which the lines of gender and sexuality bend and redefine themselves. Frightened voices around the world are adapting to recent social changes through an influx of hate speech, violence and oppressive laws aimed at LGBTQIA individuals. This transgressive cabaret that looks at a world filled with fear, oppression, and hate speech, but responds with love, compassion, humor, and the desire to understand...not to mention some out-and-out DESIRE. There are no easy answers, and laughter and tears make great dancing partners. Tingle-Tangle: Preludes is a seductive tango between pain and pleasure.

lighting design by Ben Gantose (2013) & Greg Falcione (2014)
stage managed by Kaitlin Kelly (2013) & Bryan Ritchey (2014)

performed at Survival Kit Gallery (November 2013) & 78th Street Studios (February 2014)
video courtesy of Theater Ninjas

Uncle Toots’ Pasta Dish
produced by Ray Caspio & Kevenn T. Smith at the 2020 BorderLight International Theatre & Fringe Festival
created by Ray Caspio
with performer-creators Ryan Lucas, Cassie Neumann Lucas & Lauren B. Smith
special appearances by Davis Aguila, Lauren Joy Fraley & Amy Schwabauer

SOLD OUT the entire run!

Uncle Toots wants one last pasta dinner in the home he’s about to lose, but more than sauce is stirred up and served when his family and longtime hospice nurse ambush him about a 60 year relationship he packed away. With you, Toots’ wide-eyed sister, Aunt Barb, multiple-war veteran, Rocky, and Obamacare’s Nurse Nancy at the dining room table, a tale of lost love awakens this contentious family to realities they’ve never faced before. Uncle Toots’ Pasta Dish is an improvised experience you help bring to life even if you decide to just shut up and eat!

clothing consultant Kevenn T. Smith
pasta by Marilu Mercadante
photos by Steve Wagner

Toots’ personal attorneys, Sally & Sal Incesta, Esq., M.D., appeared on Toots’ always-on TV during the meal.
written by Ray Caspio & Ryan Lucas
directed by Ray Caspio
starring Amy Schwabauer
filmed by Ryan Lucas with Lauren B. Smith
edited by Ryan Lucas

Thank you to our GoFundMe supporters for making Pasta Dish happen!

$25-$49
David Hansen
Anne McEvoy
Judith Ross
Frances Smith

$50-$99
Mark Dembroski
Benjamin Gregg
Pandora Robertson

$100-$199
Cindy Tilocco Riley

$200+
Anonymous

Sunday Dinner with Toots
produced by Ray Caspio & Kevenn T. Smith
created by Ray Caspio
with performer-creators Benjamin Gregorio, Cassie Neumann Lucas & Lauren B. Smith

Sunday Dinner with Toots invites audiences to join the eccentric Uncle Toots and his adversarial family around his dining room table with the promise of homemade food, camaraderie and conversation. Inspired by interviews with first and second generation Italian-Americans who grew up on Cleveland's East Side in the 1930s through 1950s, Toots is a hilarious, improvised, interactive exploration of how living characters coexist with diverse people while dealing with alcoholism, cancer, love lost and found and lost again, the loss of a child, aging in America, and America’s health care industry. Audiences are spurred into thinking about themselves and the people in their lives in new ways, such as discovering compassion for adversarial relationships and igniting curiosity about the differing stances of those whom they encounter in life.
 

clothing consultant Kevenn T. Smith

performance space donated by Cleveland Opera Theater
Developed as part of the LAUNCH performance creation residency program of the Community Engagement & Education Department at Playhouse Square, Cleveland, Ohio.
partially supported by the 2016 Creative Workforce Fellowship
photos by Frank Gallo
February 2017

Uncle Toots’ Parlor
created by Ray Caspio
starring Davis Aguila, Ray Caspio, Nick Earl, Ryan Lucas & Cassie Neumann Lucas

Uncle Toots’ good friend, Rocky, is a contestant on tomorrow’s episode of President Trump’s new hit game show, “Presidential Firing Squad!" Rocky, a World War II vet, thought he was in the right killing Nazis during the war, but times have changed and now he’s going in front of the firing squad for crimes against the USA! So come on over to Toots’ in celebration of Rocky’s final hours!

produced by Ray Caspio & Kevenn T. Smith
performed at Cleveland Public Theatre’s Pandemonium 2017
clothing consultant & makeup design by Kevenn S. Smith
installation space by Ray Caspio & Beth Wood

The Excavation & Ninja Days @ the Cleveland Museum of Art
produced by Theater Ninjas
directed & devised by Jeremy Paul
lead creative team Ray Caspio, Ryan Lucas, Cassie Neumann, Jeremy Paul & Renee Schilling
performed by Davis Aguila, Ray Caspio, Katelyn Cornelius, Cassie Goldbach, Val Kozlenko, Ryan Lucas, Cassie Neumann, Michael Prosen, Renee Schilling & Lauren B. Smith
Ninja Days produced by Ray Caspio and featuring Davis Aguila, Ray Caspio, Lauren Joy Fraley, Valerie C. Kilmer, Ryan Lucas, Cassie Neumann & Renee Schilling
 

Theater Ninjas present the latest version of their original performance The Excavation, a theatrical celebration of the life, death and re-birth of Pompeii in popular culture. Using the Ames Family Atrium as a staging ground for this sprawling choose-your-own-adventure-style performance, the Ninjas explore the comic and tragic legacy of this famous city through a blend of site-specific performance and interactive storytelling. Theater Ninjas will also be integrated into the exhibition during special Ninja Days in March, April, and May, through a blend of site-specific performance and interactive storytelling. This exciting collaboration between the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland-based Theater Ninjas brings together performance and the visual arts in a one-of-a-kind experience filled with humor, pathos, and catastrophic volcanic eruptions.

Press:
Interview with Dee Perry on The Sound of Applause

technical direction by Chuck Karnak
stage managed by Kaitlin Kelly
special thanks Jon Seydl & Bethany Corriveau

March-June 2013
photos by Benjamin M. Coll, Howard T. Agriesti & Frank J. Lanza Photography, courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art & Theater Ninjas

Peek
created & produced by Ray Caspio
interactive installation designed & performed by Ray Caspio, Lauren B. Smith & Kevenn T. Smith
 

A flirtation in oration and creation outside of a bathroom as a man greets and reads to his guests from Carl Jung's Red Book while his every action is observed and recorded by a woman with a pen and a man with a crayon.

Press:
Cleveland Magazine
Examiner

based on an idea by Raymond Bobgan & Beth Wood
special thanks Ben Gantose, Faye Hargate & Joan Hargate

performed at Cleveland Public Theatre's Pandemonium 2012
September 2012