BRATTLEBORO — Five nationally renowned storytellers will bring the heat and the laughs on the evening of April 20 as part of an ambitious fundraising campaign for renovations at the venerable Latchis Theatre.
Take a Seat: Five Storytellers on a Mission is presented by The Hatch (a.k.a. Tom Bodett, Rita Ramirez, Elizabeth Catlin, and Rich Korson), and features master storytellers P. J. O'Rourke, Adam Wade, Peter Aguero, Jim O'Grady, and Ed Gavagan.
The five comedians are performing together for the first time-and as part of the Latchis Theatre's “The Heavens and The Earth” campaign. To date that campaign has raised nearly $350,000, $200,000 shy of its goal needed to replace the seats and restore the historic zodiac ceiling of the 1938 theater.
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Latchis, 48 Main St., and tickets range from $25 to $50 for the balcony and orchestra. Premium guest tickets are $1,000, and come with perks.
Take a Seat's performers will tell what they promise are true stories about themselves and the people they know, and in language that would be right at home on the late-night circuit.
The evening's host is Brooke Van Poppelen, one of Esquire magazine's “Best New Comedians” in 2012 and a cast member on History Channel's “I Love The 1880s.”
O'Rourke, America's premier political satirist, is the former editor-in-chief of National Lampoon magazine and a best-selling author of more than a dozen books.
Wade is a graduate of Keene State College and is an 18-time StorySLAM Champion at The Moth (www.themoth.org), the not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, which The Wall Street Journal has praised as “New York's hottest and hippest literary ticket.”
O'Grady, transportation reporter with WNYC in New York City, has reported for The New York Times and teaches journalism at New York University.
Aguero, another Moth GrandSLAM Champion, is the lead singer of The BTK Band, which bills itself as New York City's hardest-partying improvised-storytelling rock band.
Gavagan, a nationally recognized designer-builder whose work has been featured in Elle Decor, Architectural Digest and The New York Times, shares his stories on National Public Radio, at The Moth, and at The Story Collider (www.storycollider.org).
Storytelling 'lives and breathes...'
Aguero tells true stories about his life around the world as part of his profession, and reports the art of the oral tradition is “living and breathing.”
“If you lock a story in, you will choke it to death. Even though often I tell the same stories, each time I tell it there is the chance I'll make a discovery,” he says.
And because of that chance for discovery, Aguero says Take a Seat audience members should arrive at the Latchis without expectations.
“The beauty of the event is that you can shut yourself off and lose yourself in a story. Maybe a story will remind you of something in your life, and tell you we're not alone,” he says.
And the kinds of stories Aguero tells are subject to evolution and rediscovery:
“Storytelling is a living, growing thing,” he says. “My first stories, as many people's are, were outrageous crazy college tales. But as I have grown older, the stories have become more contemplative, such as experiences with my father which sometimes have been difficult. Now I feel that everything in my stories is not on the surface, and that there is more depth in what I am telling.”
A renaissance in the art of storytelling is centered in New York City where Aguero works as a story instructor at The Moth, a nonprofit group dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling.
That organization was founded in 1997 by poet and novelist George Dawes Green, who wanted to recreate the feeling of sultry summer evenings in his native Georgia, where he recalled moths were attracted to the light on the porch while he and his friends gathered to spin spellbinding tales.
The Moth now runs storytelling events in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and other U.S. cities, often featuring prominent literary and cultural personalities.
Notable Moth storytellers include Andy Borowitz, Ethan Hawke, George Plimpton, Rev. Al Sharpton, Gay Talese, and Sam Shepard.
Up from The Hatch
The event is produced by The Hatch, the area's new nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds for other nonprofits throughout the Southern Vermont region.
The Hatch was created by four friends: Tom Bodett, author, humorist, and NPR regular; Elizabeth Catlin, president of Green Mountain Camp and vice president of the Latchis Corp.; Richard Korson, a television producer and media executive whose credits include The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report; and Rita Ramirez, president and coach of Girls on the Run Vermont.
As Bodett explains, The Hatch hopes to produce two live events a year, with the goal of broadening listeners' minds and hearts while thinking outside the box to generate funds to support the social and cultural infrastructure of the greater Brattleboro area.
“[Fundraisers] end up going to the same well over and over,” says Bodett. “How many raffles and pizza sales can people get to go to?”
Instead of “hitting up the same people over and over for money and time,” Bodett says the four chose to team up, and put on two or three really big events a year, focusing the benefits on one or two efforts and organizations at a time.
A world-class event could also tap into a new audience, he says. “We could bring new people to the party and give them something for their money.”
The idea for their first event, Take a Seat: Five Storytellers on a Mission, came out of Bodett and Korson's connections in entertainment and media. Korson who knew “a lot of really funny people who live within four hours of Brattleboro” said, “Let's get four or five of them to come up and tell us funny stories.”
Bodett said the artists are charging nominal fees, “really just travel expenses,” so virtually all money raised will support the Latchis renovations.
VPR will broadcast an edited version of the program at a date to be announced, with introductions and commentary from Bodett.