In 2005, Amy Roeder was living in New Hampshire and recently had been denied entrance to graduate school. She found herself disappointed and without other options. But at a friend’s suggestion, she decided to put her theater degree to use.
“I got out the yellow pages — because that was a thing we still had back then — and I opened it to theaters.” There was one theater in Boston looking for improvisational comedians, so she made a call, thinking nothing would happen. Before she knew it, she was at an audition.
The problem?
She had a never done improv before.
She thought to herself, “I don’t even care. I’m just gonna try.”
Ten years later, Roeder teaches others improv.
She’s had job experiences in Boston, New York and Chicago and finally received her Master of Fine Arts in theater.
Needless to say, she got the job.
Roeder, who started her position as director of education at the Penobscot Theatre Co. almost exactly one year ago, will be presenting at PechaKucha Night Bangor on Aug. 21.
PechaKucha Night events take place in over 800 cities around the world and provide a public space for creative individuals to share their ideas with an audience. Presenters discuss their work in a slideshow format, showing 20 slides for 20 seconds each. The slides transition automatically, and the presenters discuss them as they appear.
As director of education, Roeder handles all educational elements of the theater, including adult classes, a master class series and outreach.
When she was approached about presenting at PechaKucha Night Bangor, she did what she says improv comedians do: She immediately said “Yes.”
“I’m going to be presenting about not just being here [at Penobscot Theatre Co.] but about what it means to have a theatre in the community, what it means to participate in live theatre, what it means to teach live theatre to adults, to kids — what that kind of art experience brings to their lives,” Roeder said.
PechaKucha Night Bangor has acted as a public forum for greater Bangor’s talent for more than four years and takes place every three months. According to Gibran Graham, an organizer of PechaKucha Night Bangor, there are about 10 PechaKucha Nights in various towns in Maine. Upcoming PechaKucha Nights include PechaKucha Mount Desert Island Night on Sept. 16 at the Abbe Museum and PechaKucha MidCoast Night on Sept. 18 at the Owls Head Transportation Museum.
“What’s really interesting is that it’s a way for not only ourselves but the audience to learn about and get in touch with a lot of different things,” Graham said.
Graham and other organizers of the event, including Annie Collins, encourage people to tell their stories when they otherwise would remain unknown.
“We try to be one step ahead about what’s happening in Bangor,” Collins said.
The first PechaKucha Night was held in Tokyo in February 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture. Klein Dytham architecture organizes and supports the global network of PechaKucha Night and continues to host PechaKucha Night Tokyo.
Friday’s lineup will feature various people who choose to express their creativity in different ways. Presenters include Gregory Howard, a professor at the University of Maine and author of the fiction novel “Hospice”; George Danby, editorial cartoonist for the Bangor Daily News; Tom Bearor, who did a Semester at Sea while in college and gifted soccer balls to kids around the globe; Meg Bearor, who recently returned from a humanitarian trip in Africa; and, of course, Roeder.
Roeder has never presented at PechaKucha Night before. But much like the chance she took on improv so many years ago, she looks forward to the new experience.
“Being that I have such a long career as an improvisational comedian, I’m going to rely on comedy to get me through the parts where I’m not sure what else to say,” she joked.
Doors will open for the event at 7 p.m. Friday, and the show will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Union Street Brick Church at 126 Union St. Admission to the event is $6.
“It’s brought something new to Bangor,” Collins said. “Just come to an event and see for yourselves. Once you come, you get hooked.”
