October 3, 2016

Joe Canuso is a junior at Drexel University and an actor, singer, and musician from the Philadelphia area. From an incredibly young age, Joe was enthralled with all types of performing. He grew up singing in choirs, playing in rock bands and jazz groups, acting in all sorts of different theatre, and developing an undying love for the arts. Joe’s main outlet of performance has proven to be the theatre stage. He has been involved in many Drexel Co-op Theatre Company productions, as well as countless high school, community, and professional theatre projects. Some notable Drexel credits include Matt in Dog Sees God, Silver in Watership Down (a collaboration with Simpatico Theatre Project), and Dr. Orin Scrivello in Little Shop of Horrors. Most recently, Joe has been working with an upcoming theatre company called On the Rocks: the works of Elaina Di Monaco and Haygen Brice Walker. With this company, Joe has acted in two Philadelphia Fringe Festival shows, both of which were very successful as part of Haygen’s (playwright) Dead Teenager Trilogy. Fringe ’15 had the first play of the series: Spookfish, Fringe ’16 had the second: Birdie’s Pit Stop (and the tribe of queers who fucked everything up), and the third installment of the dead teenager trilogy will hit the Philly stage next Summer during the 2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, so stay tuned. The success of these shows has included great press reviews, incredible audience turnout and feedback, and an ongoing effort to spread the beauty of theatre throughout the community. Joe hopes to continue working with On the Rocks for many Fringe Festivals and years to come.

Joe is currently working on a production of Next to Normal with Ash Theatre Company. He will be playing the role of Gabe, and the show goes up October 21^st at the Venice Island Performing Arts and Recreation Center in Manayunk. Joe is excited, humbled, and blessed for all of the opportunity he has had in the arts thus far. He thanks his incredibly supportive parents and family for helping him get where he is today, and he hopes to continue making a name for himself as a performing artist in the Philadelphia community.