It’s the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, three days before the final performances of the Early Evening Show, and Mike Miclon is bringing a giant, wrinkled Hubbard squash from his car into Amanda Houtari’s house. The large, brown, bumpy vegetable is playing a critical part in the sketch they were rehearsing . . . as a turkey. “I’m sure we just saw the Hubbard,” says Miclon, founder of the Oddfellow Theater in Buckfield, “and thought it looked like a turkey, which it does, and that became the thing we built the whole sketch around.”

The sketch, originally performed in 2004, mutated from that simple concept into something zany, unpredictable and touching — in a word: Oddfellowean. It became a cooking show, hosted by one of Miclon’s characters, Dickie Hyper-Hynie, and his mother, MaryAnn Beth Anne Hyper-Hynie. Dickie and his mother, you see, are vegetarians, only Dickie does not know that, Miclon explains. So every year Mrs. Hyper-Hynie stuffs a Hubbard, all the while pretending it is a turkey.

Miclon and Houtari are rehearsing the sketch for the final Early Evening Show, which took place last week. “So we’ll need turkey seasoning, Indian corn, a can of pumpkin pie,” Miclon says, running through the list of stuffing ingredients.

“Don’t forget, a couple bags of marshmallows,” Houtari adds.

A rehearsal isn’t really a rehearsal with Miclon. It is a “jam session” in his own words, a collaborative, free-form process with a lot of joking and playing, and it means that the final product is inevitably spontaneous and full of improvisation.

But after 14 years of offering performance art, musical acts, sketches, goofy characters and general absurdity, Miclon is closing the doors on the Oddfellow Theater at the end of December. After its traditional and very untraditional “Christmas Carol” shows later this month, the Oddfellow troupe, with Miclon at the center, will make their last curtain call in the theater on New Year’s Eve after performing their final show: The Farewell Bash!

Over those 14 years, the theater has presented countless drama pieces, talent shows and musical acts by a variety of performers. It has also become a springboard for regionally and nationally renown artists, such as musician Ray LaMontagne and EepyBird (better known as “the Mentos in Diet Coke guys”). But the mainstay has become The Early Evening Show. The free-wheeling live talk show has been hosted monthly by Miclon and featured comedy sketches, performers, music and lots of improvisation. The longest-running variety show in Maine, it is the de facto home of characters like Dickie Hyper-Hynie, a naive and good-natured, if spastic, young man played by Miclon, and the Duffas, co-presidents of the spurious Buckfield Department of Tourism, played by Miclon and Fritz Grobe.

These characters will likely make an appearance at The Farewell Bash!, as will many others who have graced the Oddfellow stage over the years, according to Miclon. These include characters like Moto Hoonchbach, Miclon’s vain and charismatic hunchback, who for the last six years has been the star of “Bah Hoonchbach — A Very Odd Christmas Carol.”

“One of the things that has developed over these 14 years is a body of acts and characters,” said Huotari, who has worked with Miclon since they met at a Celebration Barn workshop in 1991. Celebration Barn, in South Paris, is an internationally recognized training ground for actors and performers, founded by master mime Tony Montanaro. Celebration Barn is also where Miclon met Fritz Grobe, one half of Emmy-nominated EepyBird.

“It’s been an evolving company, but there’s such comfort” at the Oddfellow Theater, said Huotari, who is now the executive director of Celebration Barn and who plays Dickie Hyper-Hynie’s mother, among many other Oddfellow characters.

At Huotari’s home in South Portland, she and Miclon are still preparing the Hubbard-stuffing sketch.

“We stuck the rubber chicken parts to the Hubbard with thumb tacks,” says Miclon.

“I think I still have the chicken parts,” says Houtari.

“Knowing us, we took them and didn’t throw them away,” Miclon replies.

“I like in this sketch when there are two things going on at once, it makes it feel like we’re moving forward in the scene,” says Huotari.

“Or sideways, at times,” Miclon jokes.

Since its inception, the theater has operated as something of an anomaly in the world of performing arts, propelled by a small, close-knit team of actors and performers who have branched out but continue to come together to create and perform Oddfellow shows. “No one could ever tell you who wrote what,” joked Miclon as he explained the group’s creative process. “It’s all teamwork. No one says, ‘I want to be the star.’”

“In typical theater, you have your director, your stage manager . . . everything is set in stone,” said Casey Turner, who has worked with the theater since she was 12 years old. “Here, there is no hierarchy, it’s democratic. Everything is free-form, everything is organic.” Turner is now 24 and a professional actor in Portland, but that does not stop her from returning to her hometown several times each year to participate in Oddfellow performances.

Turner is a typical Oddfellow alum, if there is such a thing. She was introduced to the world of theater by Miclon, who she calls her mentor, and she credits the Oddfellow Theater and its anarchic creative environment with training her as an actor. “This is a really important place for a lot of people,” she said.

Some on that list have reached lofty heights. Grammy-winner Ray Lamontagne, for example, had some of his first performances in front of an audience on the Oddfellow stage. Grobe, who achieved national fame through EepyBird, has been a fixture of the theater since the beginning. Jason and Matt Tardy, who perform a juggling act as The Tardy Brothers and fuse music and performing arts with their project AudioBody, have also been an integral part of the theater, even helping in its construction. “Matt and I tore the old place apart and Jason and I built it back up,” said Miclon.

Miclon and his wife, Kim — “She never wants to be on stage but she may have the greatest laugh of all time. She still laughs at my shows and I still love to hear her out there” — bought the old Odd Fellow hall on Route 117 in “downtown Buckfield” in 1997 and completely renovated the place with the help of family and other performers (hence the building’s Jason Tardy and Casey Turner “wings”). The 150-seat theater opened in 1998, though it has undergone expansions and additional renovations since then. For years, the Miclons and their three boys lived above the stage, though that area is now used to house performers who travel to Buckfield to participate in the shows.

“It’s really like a family here,” said Turner.

 Miclon and company are tweaking a fake coffee commercial.

“No, you’ll have to really spill the coffee on her,” Miclon tells Jason Tardy. “So that when you say, ‘My coffee!’ we’ll go right into the song.”

Then the gang gets carried away, literally. Miclon and Early Evening Show orchestra leader Oren Robinson are supposed to escort Casey Turner off the stage in the scene, but during one run-through Miclon breaks character, puts on a sleazy voice and pretends to abscond off stage with Turner.

Casey plays along, calling “Wait, wait!” dramatically.

Miclon laughs and returns to the scene. Turner takes her place as well.

“OK, let’s run it again,” he says.

Two weeks ago, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, hours before the final Early Evening Show at the theater, the Oddfellow gang was back together again, primarily joking around, ostensibly putting the final touches on the sketches and acts that would make up the show. It was much as Miclon had described it. “We come in and jam,” he said. “We develop the skeleton. We know where we need to go in the scene, and then, since we all work so comfortably together, we just let it ride.”

The fate of the theater seemed a trifle to the performers, concerned as they were with the last Early Evening Show. Miclon plans to sell the theater, though it is uncertain who will buy it or what the space will become.

Hannah Perry of Buckfield sat in on the rehearsal. “It’s been awesome having this place,” she said. “It’s an incredible performance outlet. . . . Hopefully something else artistic will take its place.”

Shane, 20, and Brian, 15 — two of Mike’s sons — sat in the audio booth. Shane was running the lights and sound for the show, a role he’s taken on full time for the theater. Brian works concessions. (Third son Collin, 18, is in charge of the box office.)

“I remember all the different stages of the theater,” said Shane, referring to the piecemeal way in which it was constructed. “It’d be really sad if it was turned into something that didn’t have anything to do with performance.”

His father expressed the same wish. “Ideally I would love if it stayed a theater,” said Miclon. “But I have to remember that the most important part of the theater I’m taking with me,” which is the relationships and the collaborative style of production, he said.

Miclon is working on his monologue with Jason Tardy in the lobby of the Oddfellow Theater. Tardy sits on a large, regal throne, while Miclon stands, delivering potential jokes.

“I’m the worst at monologues,” he says. “It’s what I have the most trouble with . . . so I thought I’d open like this: ‘This is the last Early Evening Show. Over the years, I’ve delivered some pretty bad monologues. Well I won’t break the tradition now. Don’t worry, everyone, this will definitely be a bad monologue.’”

Miclon said it is time to move on. He chose to locate the theater in Buckfield in part because he thought it would offer a good environment for developing his craft and in part because of a desire to give back to the community he had called home. In both respects Miclon estimated he has achieved his goal. He has created long-lived characters and honed sketches, performance acts and his improv skills. “I feel like I’ve become 10 times the improv actor because, well, we had to.”

And he hopes that the theater has had a positive effect on Buckfield and beyond. “I have people say it’s had a huge impact on our community,” he said, adding, “You want to believe that’s true.”

“I would say it is,” Huotari assured.

Now, Miclon said, he wants the freedom to explore more artistic, and physical, territory, as well as the time to work on new projects. While he admits the theater has “never been a big money maker,” he said financial concern “wasn’t a major factor in the decision to close.”

Among the projects Miclon has in the works are a feature film and an Early Evening Show Tour that will begin in Maine but may expand beyond the state. Those projects, Miclon said, “are going to involve 90 percent of the Oddfellow alumni, like Amanda, Fritz, and Jason and Matt.”

Miclon said his next big focus will be his film. Entitled “Richard Cubed,” the film is a takeoff of Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” and will feature Miclon’s Moto Hoonchbach character. The script is written —“I wrote it . . . well, me and Bill wrote it,” Miclon admitted — and shooting is scheduled to begin in August of next year.

The Early Evening Show Tour, which Miclon hopes to begin at theaters across the state, will also commence next year. “We want to get our feet wet and see what it’s like to travel.” Ten to 12 performers will make up the touring group, Miclon said, which has aspirations beyond Maine. “We’ll take it as big as we can.”

Miclon recalls one of the wildest moments on stage. “We had a dog named Bear that lived with us above the theater. We had an amazing a cappella group called FourShadow that we had every year for 10 straight years.”

At one performance, they left the back door open for air circulation. One of the FourShadow members, “Kevin, asked if we worried that a wild animal would walk in. We assured him that it would not happen. During their show, Bear decided to come down and see what was happening on stage, peeking in from backstage. Someone in the audience said his name, Bear, as Kevin turned around to see a large brown animal,” says Miclon.

He “jumped so high off the ground that he fell down. Once he realized it was our dog, he was laughing so hard it took him 10 minutes to explain it to the crowd.”

Some local residents are saddened by the theater’s closure. “I’ve been to the Oddfellow Theater many, many times,” said Mike Cote, as he rang up groceries in Tilton’s Market, next door to the theater. Cote, who lives in Greene, said he enjoyed the Early Evening Shows, particularly the juggling acts. “I’m really sad,” he said. “But I really feel like the community didn’t do enough to support them.”

Wendy Turner, a Buckfield resident and mother of Oddfellow’s own Casey Turner, was also saddened by the closure. “As a small town, it’s just nice to see a gem like that develop.” She also speculated that the local community could have been more supportive of the theater. “Usually at least half the audience is from away,” she said.

There is a question now as to where residents will go for cultural and artistic performances. “Without this theater, the artistic community here might cease,” said Casey Turner during a break in rehearsals.

At Tilton’s market, her mother had the same fear. “There is the local drama troupe and they do shows at the high school, but it’s not the same,” she said. “I think people didn’t realize what they had here.”

But Miclon said the community helped and supported the theater from the beginning. “I swear I’ve been hired by everyone in this town,” he joked, performing at everything from birthday parties and family gatherings when young, to company parties and fundraisers. “It’s been the coolest place, in terms of supporting the theater.”

That extends, he said, even to those who did not see any performances. “There was one woman who saved every press clipping about the theater, and she’d bring them to me . . . even though she never saw a show.”

The players

Mike Miclon

After attending workshops at Celebration Barn and doing some touring, Miclon returned to Buckfield in 1997 and began work on the Oddfellow Theater. The theater opened in 1998 and has been putting on variety shows, musical performances and theatrical pieces ever since. Miclon is considered a mentor to local performers who have found a supportive home on the Oddfellow stage. At 14 years, his Early Evening Show is the longest-running variety show in Maine.

Fritz Grobe

A performer and creative partner with the theater since its inception. A Buckfield resident, Grobe continues to work with the theater regularly. He has served on the board at Celebration Barn and is one half of the performing group EepyBird. He also formed The Odd Company, a touring comedy and juggling production, with Amanda Houtari and Miclon. The three met in the early ’90s while taking workshops at Celebration Barn. Among other characters, Grobe and Miclon play the Duffas, cultural ambassadors to Buckfield who work at the fictional Buckfield Tourism Department.

Amanda Huotari

Has worked with Miclon on and off the Oddfellow stage since 1991. Huotari has been an actor and writer for the Early Evening Show and other Oddfellow projects. A few years into the theater’s history, she christened the character Dickie Hyper-Hynie. She also plays Dickie’s mother, MaryAnn Beth Anne Hyper-Hynie. Houtari is the current director of Celebration Barn.

Jason and Matt Tardy

The Tardys helped build the theater, both physically and creatively. They met Miclon in high school and apprenticed at the theater. Under Miclon, they honed their technical craft as jugglers and performers, and learned the ins and outs of running a theater. The Tardys live in Turner, now, but continue to work with the theater. As The Tardy Brothers, they tour and perform their comedic juggling acts, and as AudioBody, they fuse performance and music.

Casey Turner

Like the Tardys, Turner began apprenticing under Miclon in high school. As a sophomore, she and Miclon wrote an entire Early Evening Show by themselves. Turner credits the environment and challenges of the Oddfellow Theater with training her as an actor. She lives and acts professionally in Portland, but she also returns to the theater regularly to perform.

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