The Tank Double-Features Two Award-Winning One-Woman Physical Comedy Shows

Brooklyn's Kaitlin Kaufman and Maine's Amanda Huotari will present a double-feature of their award-winning American-themed one-woman physical comedy shows at The Tank on October 11-14.

Yay America! is created and performed by Kaitlin Kaufman and directed and co-created by Elizabeth Baron. Yay America! was awarded "Critic's Choice" at 2019 Portfringe Festival and "Most Likely to Cause Whiplash Over the Myth of Democracy" at 2019 Providence Fringe Festival. The show was hailed as ""Masterful clowning!" by the PortFringe review team.

Pretty Face: An American Dream is written and performed by Amanda Huotari of Celebration Barn Theater in South Paris, Maine and directed by Aitor Basauri, joint artistic director of the UK's premiere physical theater ensemble, Spymonkey. The show is funded in part the Maine Arts Commission, and independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Petty Face was awarded "Best Comedy-Physical Theater" at the 2019 Indy Fringe Festival. "Huotari blew the roof off!" raved Suzen Murakoshi, director of the Ha Ha Hawaii Physical Comedy Festival.

Kaufman and Huotari met at Celebration Barn Theater while working with artistic provocateur Giovanni Fusetti in 2017. After developing and touring their solo shows independently, they are teaming up for three nights at The Tank.

Huotari explains, "While our shows are linked thematically, we're approaching the audience with two distinct points of view. Kaitlin's character, Penelope, is heart-warming and gut-wrenching-she innocently elicits huge laughs as she optimistically seeks to heals divides. By contrast, Pretty Face is direct, funny, and fearless as she pointedly asks the audience "How free are you?"

Kaitlin Kaufman is a self-described "red nose wunderkind and mime princess" from Long Island, NY. She trained at HELIKOS: Scuola Internazionale Di Creazione Teatrale in Florence where she specialized in physical theater performance and devising. She has studied intensively with Giovanni Fusetti, Elizabeth Baron (LaLa Theater) and Matteo Destro (Teatro Punto, Larven Teatro). Kaitlin performed in HamletGhosts at HERE Arts Center, The Ume Group's Dream Dances at Irondale Center, and in River Rouge at Lenfest Center for the Arts. Kaitlin has performed and taught for Clowns Without Borders in Haiti and Southeast. She trains the clowns for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and works as a Red Nose Doc with Healthy Humor (formerly Big Apple Circus Clown Care).

Amanda Huotari is an award-winning performer who's toured her original solo work to international venues from The Montreal Clown Theatre Festival to Bogota's Teatro R101. She's currently in her 13th season serving as Executive Artistic Director of Celebration Barn Theater, Maine's international center for creating and performing original theater, where she produces 30+ shows and hosts over 200 artists from around the globe annually. Amanda received a BFA in acting from Emerson College and studied physical theater at L'École Internationale de Théatre Jacques Lecoq in France. She's as created and performed in many original productions of physical theater, including The Soirée (directed by Avner Eisenberg), The Fabulous Problemas (directed by Davis Robinson), and Camp Maine (an interactive production, directed by Jeff Wirth).

Yay America! and Pretty Face: An American Dream will be presented on October 10-12 at The Tank NYC. Tickets start at $20. https://red.vendini.com/ticket-software.html?t=tix&e=9cd9de3e6455320e5c514641bcff213b