B.A. and M.F.A., Denison University, Granville, Ohio

John Kuhner was born in Cleveland. He moved to New York in the mid-1960s and later lived in Los Angeles and San Francisco. His acting work included a role Off-Broadway in Your Own Thing at the Orpheum Theatre in 1968. The show, based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, was written and directed by Donald Driver, with music and lyrics by Danny Apolinar and Hal Hester. It ran for 937 performances and won a Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1968.

Kuhner was also a visual artist who worked with fine nibbed pens and water colors.

In the 1970s he adopted the name Ponyman, identifying with Pegasus and playful young horses. He worked as a rock musician in Philadelphia before moving to the West Coast.

During his years in San Francisco he became well known as an actor in alternative venues such as the gay collective Theatre Rhinoceros and the performance space 544 Natoma, founded by Peter Hartman. He created the mysterious Leatherman character in the premiere of C.D. Arnold's play Delivery, and appeared at 544 Natoma in Cal Yeoman's Sunsets, among numerous other shows. He was also active in San Francisco as a "sporting club host" at the Caldron and Bootcamp.

At 544 Natoma, six months before his death, he performed Sawdust, an evening-length autobiographical one-man show consisting of 26 songs he had written over a period of fifteen years.

"The character, Sawdust, represents facets of myself, different things I've gone through...things we've all gone through. I don't think I was there alone. Sawdust went out in the world looking for himself. His experiences, from high to low, brought him suffering and confusion until he underwent a healing and realized he himself was love."

John Kuhner Ponyman died of AIDS in San Francisco at the age of 41 on February 4, 1984.

—Nurit Tilles

WORKS:

Sawdust (1983)
Music and Lyrics: John Kuhner Ponyman
Arrangements, Musical Direction, Piano: Scrumbly Koldewyn
Percussion: Rich Stone
Staging and Lights: Peter Hartman
Additional Lyrics: Michael Mullins, Steve [illegible in credits]
Producer and Manager: John Janes
Produced at 544 Natoma in San Francisco (August 1983)
Songs include:
    The Fantasy Man
    The Five O'Clock Queen
    Crazy Night (tango)
    In The City
    Be A Clown
    Where Do I Find?
    Curly Head
    Who's Gonna Be Your Mirror Now?

OTHER WORKS:
Piano pieces, sketches and other material on cassette tapes marked "Diary #2," "Diary #3," and " The Other Diary #3" (see Archives).

UNCOMPLETED WORKS:
Unknown

WRITINGS:
Unknown

DISCOGRAPHY:
Your Own Thing, original Off-Broadway cast recording, Charles Schneider, conductor, RCA 1148 (1968); re-issued as CD: RCA 63582-2.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• "The Mirror Man," Bay Area Reporter, August 11, 1983.
• "One From The Heart, Two" by John F. Karr, Bay Area Reporter, August 18, 1983.
• Obituary, Bay Area Reporter, February 9, 1984.
• Death notice, San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 1984.

PERFORMING RIGHTS AFFILIATION:
Unknown

RESOURCES:
Unknown

MUSICAL EXECUTOR:
Dr. Susan Kuhner (sister)
7476 State Route 43
Kent, OH 44240
s.kuhner@att.net

Thomas Kuhner (brother)
P.O. Box 171
Sanbornton, NH 03269
(603) 286-0200
thkuhner@yahoo.com

OTHER CONTACTS: