Dito van Reigersberg, a 2002 Pew Fellow and theater artist who exhilarated audiences with boundary-defying drag performances and innovative, experimental productions, died on June 1, 2026 following complications from treatment for leukemia. He was 53 years old.
van Reigersberg’s Pew Fellowship was shared with his Pig Iron Theatre Company co-founders, with whom he sought to make “experimental theater with a heart,” according to co-founder Dan Rothenberg. “Dito was part of the very life blood of Pig Iron,” the company shared in a statement. “So much we have accomplished, so much we are proud of, is due to Dito’s incomparable spirit, creative spark, and irreverent humor. He was a marvel in life—onstage, offstage, in rehearsal, in the classroom, on walks in the woods, sitting in his garden, making Spanish tortillas, or singing his heart out.”
van Reigersberg developed and appeared in numerous Center-supported Pig Iron productions, including 2006’s Obie Award-winning Chekhov Lizardbrain and 2015’s I Promised Myself to Live Faster. In 2012, he spoke with us about collaborating with Toshiki Okada on Zero Cost House, the Japanese playwright and director’s first English-language production. In 2024, his musical Poor Judge, a work based on the songs of Aimee Mann, debuted at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival to great acclaim, including three Barrymore Awards.
van Reigersberg also lit up the stage as Martha Graham Cracker, the electrifying persona he debuted in 2005. Her monthly cabaret showcase at L’Etage spent 15 years attracting sold out crowds to Philadelphia’s Bella Vista neighborhood with flamboyant antics and a broad range of pop covers, encompassing Judy Garland, The Shirelles, Black Sabbath, and Radiohead. van Reigersberg performed as Martha locally with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, and the Bearded Ladies Cabaret; appeared regularly at Joe’s Pub in New York City; and toured internationally.
van Reigersberg’s longtime pianist and band manager Victor Fiorillo called him “a master of crowd work” in an obituary published by The Philadelphia Inquirer, a sentiment echoed by Philadelphia Orchestra music and artistic director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. “Dito’s character had this extraordinary gift for holding joy and sharp, cutting truth in the same breath, and the room always responded to it,” he said.
Born in 1972, van Reigersberg grew up in the Washington D.C. suburbs and moved to the Philadelphia area to attend Swarthmore College. He also trained at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance; the iconic dancer and choreographer’s Night Dance inspired him as a student, and he would later adopt her name for his alter ego.
After graduating in 1994, van Reigersberg moved to Philadelphia and launched Pig Iron with Rothenberg, Quinn Bauriedel, and Suli Holum. Their 1997 production Cafeteria, “a wordless piece about the American life cycle,” won him a Barrymore Award for Best Choreography. In a 2013 interview with Philadelphia Gay News, he cited the production as his favorite, and one that convinced the company to remain in Philadelphia.
van Reigersberg is survived by his husband, Matthew Neenan. Read more about his work and legacy in obituaries in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Gay News, WHYY’s Billy Penn, and Out magazine.