February 8, 2006
Crock Pot serves up entertainment
Poets, musicians, dancers and storytellers take the stage at Old Town Playhouse
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
For the fifth year running, Crock Pot Theater has delivered: food and fun for a fiver.
The annual event drew just over 100 people Saturday night to the Old Town Playhouse's Studio Theater, where laughter and good food kept everyone warm as winter returned outside.
Supping on a variety of homemade soups and desserts plus donated breads donated by Stone House Bread and the Grand Traverse Bagel and Bakery, attendees also imbibed hours of talent.
Musicians, dancers, storytellers, poets and comedians entertained the enthusiastic audience, many of whom are playhouse veterans either on or back stage. Author, activist and speaker Stephanie Mills of Cedar again emceed the show, her dry comments and smooth delivery stitching the show together for the third year.
"Everyone says, 'When's the next one? A whole year, we have to wait a whole year?'¡" said organizer Ann Norris. "The dancing was so much fun, when they did the swing dance they pulled people out of the audience and that was so cool."
"People are really generous with their time - and soups, too," she added.
A mid-winter feast of entertainment, Crock Pot Theater met its annual goal of fun, not fundraising: the event broke even with the nominal $5 admission fee per person.
"It costs us that much to open the building and turn on the lights," noted Phil Murphy, executive director of the Old Town Playhouse. "We basically try to cover our costs."
"For five bucks, people get a wonderful evening's entertainment and food," he added. "There's not any place that you can do that anymore, not for five bucks."
Crock Pot Theater began in the 1990s as a way to honor the spoken word. Its first couple of shows, which were held sporadically until the current five-year run began in 2001, featured storytelling exclusively. Although it has expanded since then to include a range of performing arts, such as this year's belly dancing, swing dancing and singing, it's heart remains a celebration of rhetoric.
Poet Terry Wooten shared a half dozen poems, some his original compositions, including one in progress. He covered a range of topics from political to historical to nature, luring the audience in to provide sound effects for his final piece.
Former Eastern Elementary School principal Bill Smith, now an elementary school principal in Troy, appeared at his second Crock Pot Theater. Trading dress shirt and tie for a red flannel shirt and jeans, the deadpan Smith wowed the crowd with his "Gagnon, World Champion Moose Caller" bit, delivered in a French-Canadian accent.
Hailing from Maine, Gagnon's call at one point drew 864,245 moose from "horizon to horizon," not to mention three Alaskan Caribou and one large dog. When Gagnon later demonstrated the call for the Sportsman Club of New York - despite not having moose insurance for the entire state of New York - the sound even animated a stuffed moose from the Museum of Natural History.
"His stories are wonderfully humorous and he has such a droll delivery that really works," said Murphy.
Crock Pot Theater provides performers such as Smith, who have demanding careers and are not involved in community theater, an outlet for their talent.
"These are people who don't always have performance venues so this gives them an chance to be seen," said Murphy of the show's open mic format. "That's what I think makes it so special."
Otsego County bus driver Matt Engel has become a perennial favorite of Crock Pot Theater. He makes the trek every year from Gaylord with at least six months of work on his routine - noted for signs and biting wit - spurring him on no matter the weather. His riffs skewer current events, celebrities and local politics in a Saturday Night Live Weekend Update style.
"This is what I do in my spare time," he said. "I even wrote one story on the way over today, about VASA and no snow."