The AWARD-WINNING Electric Pressure Cooker Cabaret returns for another month of “ANYTHING GOES” fun!

Started in the basement of a flower shop, the #EPCooker is an artist driven event that sees over 100 audience members, 20 performances and 6 non-stop hours of art.

Registration for performers begins at 7:30 pm. Performances begin between 8:00 – 8:30 pm. Anyone may sign up for a 10-minute slot. Performers may pre-register at watheatre.com/epcooker.

An emcee, house drum kit, keyboard and sound system (with operators) are provided. This month’s emcee is the artistic director of Akron’s Gum-Dip Theatre: KATIE BECK!!!

ALL varieties of acts are encouraged to perform. Previous acts have included: monologues, acoustic musicians, play readings, comedians, experimental art, dancers, scenes from plays, improv, devised work, full rock bands and performance artists. But the sky is the limit; no art is too taboo for the #EPCooker!

ALL levels – from beginner to the most experienced – are encouraged to perform. Those under 18 are permitted to attend (and perform!) with adult supervision.

The #EPCooker is not just an Open Mic. It is an open and welcoming community of artists. It is also a great networking event, a great place to improve stage presence and a great place to develop as an artist. Storyteller Kyle Jozsa, Just Go With It Improv, Copper Pennies and many other acts premiered at the #EPCooker.

Pub Bricco has a full bar and a wide selection of food. Food and alcohol are permitted in the theatre.

The Electric Pressure Cooker… presents Bigger than a Breadbox is one of the 27 winners for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge Akron. Bigger Than A Breadbox needs to raise $75,000 in matching funds – $37,500 over the next 11 months!

For more information (including the up-to-date funds raised) visit watheatre.com/btab or email watheatre@gmail.com.

ABOUT THE EMCEE

Katie Beck aka K-Beck aka K Beezy is a community-based theatre artist who grew up in Firestone Park and South Akron. She is a 2014 graduate of Allegheny College with her BA in theatre and community and justice studies. (Don’t be fooled by the rocks that she got, she’s still Katie from the block). Most recently, she co-wrote and directed Into the Mold: a Firestone Park Community-Based Play. This year she was also commissioned by the Year of Meadville (Pennsylvania) to create A Town for Us which premiered at their Community Celebration. Katie took two years of ballet as a child so now she considers herself a professional dancer. She loves black olives, furry cats, and everything Akron. The only cheese she likes is in jokes.

Oh. And she contributed an account of community-based theatre in practice to “Developing a Community-Engaged Scholarly Identity,” a chapter in the recently published Publicly Engaged Scholars. But no big deal or anything.

ABOUT BIGGER THAN A BREADBOX

Building on the success of Wandering Aesthetics’ reoccurring Electric Pressure Cooker Cabaret, Bigger Than a Breadbox (BTAB) draws inspiration from Akron’s historic ties to vaudeville. Using this vaudevillian blueprint, BTAB will be a dynamic quarterly event that celebrates artistic excellence and unites audiences through affordable access to a revolving lineup of high quality performers. BTAB will tour Akron; each “bill” will be comprised of acts selected from the EPCooker and the neighborhoods where BTAB events are held. Acts will reflect a diverse array of talent and receive a performance stipend.