The Beat

January 2002

Karen never really felt America until she left America. Like most Americans, she was more aligned to her lineage, than her homeland. Her grandparents came over to America, to NY from Ireland. A day didn't go by that she wasn't reminded of the fact that she was Irish. It wasn't until she got to Ireland, that she felt American for the first time.

Weaving in and out of many worlds in the US, in Asia, in Europe, and throughout the Middle East, Karen tells a series of surreal and humorous stories of her looking out at the world and the world looking back at her. She is at home wherever she goes. She never had a home of her own or a womb of her own as she is a twin. This lack of her own space has made her at home, every place. She feels like a woman of the world, where the world is her home and LA is her storage space. Others don't necessarily see it that way.

She came to realize that her label in the world is "American Woman". She looks like the All American Girl and it can't be denied, she was Made in the USA.

"American Woman" opened in March, 2001 at The Singapore Comedy Festival where Karen was the only female in the fest. It has since played in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Barcelona, Spain, Singapore, Bali, and Kuala Lumpur. Karen will continue her world tour of "American Woman", throughout 2002 performing in Europe and throughout Asia in the Fall of 2002 with a documentary crew filming the tour. .

After September 11th, this piece has even more resonance. It is a provocative, poignant and timely piece for anyone with a sense of adventure, a sense of humor and a sense of personal history. So fasten your seat belts it's going to be a bumpy night!

Karen Loftus is live at the Centerstage on January 31st and Feb 1st at 9:45 pm.