Kelsey, Katja and Suzanne have a combined 45 years of performance experience, with 20 years of that being in the professional world.  They have performed all over the world with companies such as Pickle Family Circus, Clowns Without Borders, Teatro Zinzanni, and Cirque Du Soleil.  They have been involved with circus education and social circus through CircEsteem, Circus Smirkus, SANCA, and Prescott Circus. The three have experience in clowning, aerial, hand balancing, juggling, acrobatics, teaching, directing and taco making. Together, with their powers combined, they are going to change the world through circus.

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“We are three circus artists from wildly different backgrounds who have come to here to support and meet each other, as well as find a common ground to express things we all feel are not only important, but crucial in this time in the world around us. Our goals coming in were to have a space to train, develop a working relationship, and to discover what we wanted out of each other. Being here has afforded us more clarity about who we are as a collective, what we want to say, and how we want to say it. Our time here has yielded creative explorations stemming from deeply personal places, which we were able to focus on without the noise of everyday life.

It has been difficult to find a residency that is open enough to allow for personal goal making without the pressures of creation and expectation of having a final product. So often art has to meet someone else’s need and here we have been able to look inward and meet our own artistic needs and desires.  We are able to lead ourselves, and not be directed at. That is important as an artist and none of us have found that anywhere else, maybe ever. Penasco fosters the idea of having the room to find our own voice. Without even realizing it, we are all coming from a place of low self esteem in our ability to create, so Penasco has been a reminder that we are good at what we love to do.

Being here has inspired us to return so that we can work on our goal of creating a theatrical circus piece that reflects our personal style, and conveys a universal message about where our world is now, and where it is headed.”

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“As a queer, gender nonconforming brown person, it’s hard to find a place to work and live where I can create my own work and train, free of judgement. Penasco Theater is an empowering home for alternative art-making.” Suzanne Santos

“As someone who has been performing other people’s art for the last seven years, it’s great to come to a place where I can create my own. I have been training circus as a professional for ten years and Penasco has provided the creative space and freedom to branch out and achieve things I didn’t know I could.” Kelsey Custard

“It’s rare to find a place so immediately welcoming and creatively open as Penasco. My time here has been rich with discovery and development and I am so grateful for the space I have here to pursue my personal and collective goals.” Katja Orlow-Ornstein

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Suzanne Santos is an actor, clown, director, and educator.  As an actor, Suzanne toured internationally with the award winning production of Corpus Christi. As a clown, her credits include The Zoppe Family Circus, The Pickle Family Circus School Tour, The New York Clown Festival, Clowns Without Borders, El Circo Cheapo Cabaret, and Le Carnaval Carmagnole.  She is the Lead Clown Coach and Writer/Director of the Road Shows for Circus Smirkus in Vermont.  Suzanne has also acted, written, and directed at CASA 0101 in Los Angeles. She has had the privilege of teaching at Second City, Aloft Circus Arts, Playwrights’ Arena, The Actors’ Gang, SANCA, Prescott Circus Theatre, San Francisco Circus Center, and San Francisco Arts Education Project.  She has worked with the Dell’Arte Youth Academy as an instructor, Assistant Director, and Director. Suzanne holds a Teaching Credential from San Francisco State University, a BA in Theatre from George Fox University, and an MA in Queer, Activist, Experimental Performance, and Theatrical Clowning from New College of California. She is a graduate of Clown Conservatory and Dell’Arte International.

Kelsey Custard has been a clown since she was born, and a professional one for 10 years.  After graduating from the Clown Conservatory, she went on to work for such companies as Pi: The Physical Comedy Troupe, Pickle Family Circus, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Teatro Zinzanni, Velocity Circus and most recently has returned from Europe after touring with Cirque Du Soleil’s Amaluna. She has helped raise over one million dollars for childhood cancer through St. Baldericks and Circus Couture in Las Vegas.  Kelsey holds a BA in Theatre Arts from the University of California Santa Cruz, teaches clowning for Circus Smirkus, and bakes an excellent cheesecake.

Katja Orlow-Ornstein discovered circus arts at age 14 after years of dance and theater training. She took to it immediately, and began performing as an acrobat, aerialist and contortionist with SANCA’s youth troupe, Cirrus Circus, a year later. With them, she has performed gig work all over Seattle and the surrounding area, at Georgetown Carnival, Tacoma First Night, Broadway Performance Hall, as well as creating two full length collective circus shows. She has also worked at Teatro Zinzanni Seattle as a performer and educator. She has taught at SANCA and worked as the Program Director at Circus Smirkus Camp. She is currently on tour with the Zoppe Family Circus.