Chicago Solo Theatre Presents 185 BUDDHAS WALK INTO A BAR at Studio-Be Tonight

Chicago Solo Theatre brings two award winning Chicago based solo performers together for a night of top notch performance at Studio-Be, Chicago's best BYOB theatre venue.

"185 Buddhas Walk into a Bar": The art of improvisation creates stories from thin air, making the unseen seen. For Amanda Rountree, this is not just an art form, but a way of life - one that includes unexpected twists and turns - leading, if not to mastery, to enlightenment. Written and performed by Amanda Rountree, and directed by Jen Ellison, the show follows the artist on a path filled with funny and touching moments.

About Amanda Rountree: Amanda Rountree has been performing improvisational theatre professionally since 1992, teaching since 1998, and directing since 2002. She relocated to Chicago in 2007 from Seattle where she was a performer and instructor with Unexpected Productions and a performer and co-artistic director of Playback Theater Northwest. Amanda has entertained audiences in seven countries and countless North American cities utilizing a wide variety of styles, disciplines, and formats. (She's performed everything from improv games in Kentucky and improvised Shakespeare at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival to drama therapy in Japan and breakthrough formats in Germany). Chicago audiences have seen her in Impress These Apes 2, Don't Spit the Water, Soiree DADA: Shmukt die Hallen, The (Edward) Hopper Project, and her one-woman shows, The Good, the Bad, and the Monkey and 185 Buddhas Walk into a Bar. In addition to being a company member of WNEP Theatre, she has been a repeat performer with The Noah Ginex Puppet Company, The Beast Women Cabaret, This Much is True, Chicago Solo Theatre, and The Kates. She is a resident teaching artist for Lifeline Theatre and the Second City Training Center. amanadarountree.com

"BRUISER: Tales from a Traumatized Tomboy": Some girls dream about their wedding day. Others long to play with ponies. Only a select few name and collect their scabs, speak to imaginary rodents in their minds, and make mortal enemies out of cute yellow doggies. Kelsie Huff brings to the Chicago stage the true story of how a misplaced tomboy blossoms into an even more awkward adult. "BRUISER" tackles the hilarity of adolescent and adult humiliation using Huff's trademark blend of uproarious characters, crushing and unavoidable hereditary influences, and engaging storytelling. Huff shares her unique brand of humor in a new knock-down, drag-out solo show hailed as "comic gold" by the Boulder Daily Camera.

About Kelsie Huff: Kelsie Huff is a comedian who performs at venues such as Zanies, Chicago's Laugh Factory, Mayne Stage, and throughout the suburbs. She has also performed at several comedy festivals including, New Orleans, North Carolina, Boston Women in Comedy Festival, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and Chicago Funny Female Festival. Huff's humor has "an infectious joyousness that makes you happy to be alive" and she "makes confident choices and creates loud, defined characters that are both unbearable and hilarious". Kelsie has been described as a "Midwestern American Intangible Cultural Treasure" who makes the audience feel as though they have been transported from a dark Comedy Club to a private slumber party. Like most Chicago comedians Kelsie studied at iO and Second City. While nailing her object work and "yes anding" her heart out she met Amy Sumpter and formed the two women sketch comedy team Children of the Absurd. Their signature show titled "10% Less Fat" focused on the absurdity of female body image and was performed all over the Midwest. Huff then wrote and produced her acclaimed one woman show, "Huffs", which explored the struggle to find forgiveness in one dysfunctional family tree. It was given a 4 out of 4 review from Boulder's Daily Camera, was a "Don't Miss" in Time Out Chicago and won the Boulder Fringe Festival Encore Award. Kelsie also received the Camera Eye Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Comedy). Kelsie can currently be seen performing stand-up around Chicago and is jazzed to head up, the kates, an all female stand-up line-up performing the last Saturday of the month at The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square, Chicago. She also teaches Feminine Comique, Chicago's only all female five week stand up class. kelsiehuff.com

Studio Be is an ambitious, non-profit, performing-arts training and development facility available to the public. We produce relevant entertainment for Chicago audiences. Studio BE provides a quality venue for rent for ambitious Chicago artists. studio-be.org

Studio BE is located at 3110 N Sheffield just steps off the Belmont Red, Brown & Purple Lines, and #77 Belmont Bus. Street and garage parking is available.

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