Look around: it's winter, the world has warped, and all we have is each other. Join artists from Oakland and New York City as we perform two bold works exploring what it means to be alive today.Yay America! and Fix Me, Baby perform one weekend only, January 11th and 12th, 2020.
First, A Little Backstory
This summer, Dugway Proving Ground culled together some donated frequent flier miles and brought our play Pretty Bird to the Providence Fringe Festival.
Adam and Lily were well-acquainted with humid RI summers, while Shannon was getting her first taste (a Northern Californian at heart, she may or may not have thought over-the-knee black leather boots were appropriate summer shoes). The opening night of the festival started innocently enough, but by mid-party, blistering summer heat broke into a thunderstorm. Under the dull roar of rainfall, we met Kaitlin Kaufman—AKA Penelope the Clown.
We immediately hit it off: both socially, and then, creatively. Kaitlin, a self-described "red nose wunderkind and mime princess from Long Island" is a clown who specializes in mask performance, mime, and improvisation, having trained in Florence, Italy. By day she works as a clown doctor. When Kaitlin saw Dugway's Pretty Bird at the festival and proceeded to surface all sorts of profound meaning from the show, we were impressed. But when we saw her solo clown performance of Yay America! and left the theater weeping, we were transformed.
Flash Forward Six Months
After being cross-country cheerleaders this fall (Kaitlin performed Yay America! at the Tank in NYC, while we debuted Pretty Bird to West Coast audiences in November), we're reuniting for a night of performance this January 11th and 12th, 2020. Kaitlin is traveling from NYC, and Dugway Proving Ground will produce Yay America! alongside Fix Me Baby, a spanking new one-act from Lily Mathews, directed by Adam Kotin. We hope to see you there.
YAY AMERICA!
Created and performed by Kaitlin Kaufman
Co-created by Elizabeth Baron
In this heart-warming, gut-wrenching solo clown tragicomedy, Penelope the Clown splits sides and heals divides with a surprising and loving patriotic foray. West Coast debut.
FIX ME, BABY
Written and performed by Lily Mathews
Directed by Adam Kotin
Featuring original music by Dan Berson
Somewhere, in a cafe, a woman with a rash stares down despair through the eyes of a stranger. This debut one-act play is full of astonishing heart and bizarre imagination.
Performance Details
Saturday, January 11 at 7pm
Sunday, January 12 at 7pm
Jeffrey Bihr Studio (5390 Miles St. Oakland, CA)
Advanced tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets. Seating is extremely limited.