Welcome to Experience Michiana, it's a lovely week, we're fresh off of Valentine's Day, I feel a lot of love in the air, especially for some of the awesome places that we've been visiting lately.

I'm Courtney Jorgensen and I have with me today Kelly Burgét.

So nice to have you here, Kelly!

Yeah.

Well, it really was a great Valentine's Day.

I love how you say there was love in the air.

Everywhere we go, there's lots of love and lots of wonderful people that we get to meet.

And we have such a great show this week.

We're going to head over to Indiana University, South Bend and find out about the Raclin Represents webinar series.

And it's all about how arts can bring healing and help to our community.

Then where are you going, Courtney?

Well, I'm also going to be doing a little bit of out and in because Elkhart Civic Theater has an upcoming show two across and they are also offering a streaming option for that.

So you have the opportunity to get back into the theater and also be able to watch it from home to what else you have going on this week.

Kelly, something's coming up next.

I'm really excited about it because I've been there before, but you haven't yet.

But it seems like everybody's here but me.

So I finally get to go to St. Joe and I like to go River Rocks.

Is that OK?

So I'm going to head over there and I just want to say that you will all be amazed at my athletic prowess.

Let's just say that.

And let's just head on over to River Rock.

Let me just start out by saying that it is one of the coldest days and the Michiana area.

But as cold as it is, it could not keep me from coming out to River St. Joe and find out all about River Rocks.

Now, we were here before we found out all about sustainability, found out about the great food and the brewery.

But today we're going to find out about a game that's a cross between curling and shuffleboard, neither Brian, of which I've ever done.

So you've got your work cut out for you.

Sure know this.

This is our response to covid winter, right?

We had to find something that people wanted to do outdoors because we have to be outdoors.

That's still independently fun that they would do even if it wasn't required.

It's simple.

It's it's shuffleboard on ice.

Two teams alternating red, blue, red, blue.

And the goal is obviously to win.

And the way you keep score is whoever gets closest to the center wins the points.

How many points you get depends on how many more you have closer before that team has its bocce style scoring.

OK, now this is very unique to our area, is that correct?

We don't know any other parts of it.

Yeah.

So it's it's it's 50 feet of Iceland.

We have a chiller that allows us to play and we'll play into late march so.

Oh wow.

Pretty fun.

Now there's three lanes here I can see.

And is there, are the reservations required.

There are.

You know, it's been fairly popular.

So you can go to River Central Dotcom or Web page.

There's a tab in the upper right hand corner that lets you book and pay online.

Oh, that's wonderful.

So are you going to show me how the game is playing again?

I've never done this before.

It's pretty fun if you take a broom in his room.

Do I have to sleep first versus no, you don't step on the ice and stay back here.

Oh, and you just you take a stone.

I'll give it a go to show you the start.

You put your your broom on the ice.

You can either do it like this or flip it over if you want and you just give it a push and aim for the center of the target.

A little too hard.

Oh, no.

Oh, wait, it's coming back.

All right, so just kind of take it and just give it a little push.

A little push.

Oh, there we go.

Oh, maybe that one's stuck a little bit.

It wasn't me.

It was a there.

Maybe I blame the stone is a good strategy.

How do I get another job out here.

You get you get four tries.

Actually this is really I can see because like you said, I mean, you got to get out here and, you know, this is I just push this thing good.

You really got to give it a shot.

Got to give it a shot.

So it's a great exercise.

There you go.

Come on.

But I'm way off target.

Oh, very good.

I was too strong.

OK, so you go again now.

Right.

Here we go.

We alternate.

And I'm going to try to get right in the middle there.

A little hard.

So is there a certain strategy to this type of Technique practice practice that do it a couple of times?

That's the best one yet.

All right, I'll take it now.

What are the days where people can come and do this?

So right now, during the current state of things, we're open Thursday through Sunday, four to eight on Thursday, two to eight on Friday two to eight on Saturday, and then 12 to six on Sunday.

Wow.

Now, while we're out here and I'm going to take now, that was a good one, Bryan.

It's good.

But you get more practice tonight.

Yes.

All right.

I'm going to try again.

Not too hard this time.

Oh, no.

It's going to stop short A.

All right, Brian, don't knock me out, OK, but that's my goal.

It is.

I know that's your goal.

All right, let's let's do it.

Oh, no, that's a that's a good one.

Dang it.

No, you're still closer.

OK. All right, this is my last one.

All right, Kelly, don't knock yourself out.

All right, here we go.

So I also while I'm taking my last shot, I noticed some fire pits out here.

Yes, we have.

In addition to about.

Wait, wait, I got that.

OK, give me another do over.

Do over.

So in addition to about seven heated tables, we have seven fire pits, too that we keep going for everyone.

Just let us know if you need one lit, if it's not lit already and it'll it'll keep you warm.

That's really definitely takes the edge off now.

OK, real quick, before I take my last shot, what are the little kind of huts over there?

Right.

So those are our heated tables.

We're in the process of of in the next couple of weeks, adding to thirty thousand BTU propane heaters to either side.

So it's going to feel like seventy plus degrees in there, even in weather this cold.

Really, really nicely done.

And they fit right in with the tables.

Well that would be great because I will tell you this, you know, we've featured the food on our show and I heard the food is fabulous.

I'm a little jealous that I wasn't here, so I'm going to have to come back.

All right.

But first, let me take my last shot here for the win.

Oh, come on.

Gee whiz, you still won.

OK, then I when you did your congratulations first time playing Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I could see why this is a lot of fun.

So when you come and rent it, how long do you have on the lane.

So you have an hour or two.

Depends on how long you book.

You can certainly book more than that if you want as well.

That's great.

It's all automated and all right there and shows you the availability and the cost.

Right now.

I'm sure after we're out here for a while, people are probably ready to get something to eat or drink.

I hear you have kind of a s'mores kit.

I saw some toasted marshmallow things that you can put on hot chocolate.

Yeah.

So we want to make it fun for everyone and we want to sort of work with what we have, which, like you mentioned, is our seven firepits.

So there's a s'mores kit and we have sticks for people to use and there's hot chocolate and hot cider.

And for those who who drink mulled wine to keep you warm.

Oh, that sounds really good.

Well, I can take one maybe a mulled wine.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, let's go.

And by the way, I know you probably let me win, but thank you.

And I did not I don't I don't let you win.

Well, for a fun day here, whether it's food, whether you want to hit the brewery or you want to do the river rocks, come on out to River St. Joe For a fun family time.

Well, Courtney, now I know with all the excitement, all the buzz was about with the St. Joe River rocks.

Oh, my goodness.

I had so much fun.

I've never done that game before.

Shuffleboard, curling.

And I beat Brian not once but twice.

Hey, Thats girl power.

You're rocking it out now.

Absolutely.

And it's so much fun.

So guys head on over there for lots of family fun.

Even in the outdoors, it's cold.

If it was, I wasn't even cold because I was having so much fun.

Courtney.

Well, something you can do to warm up if you're looking for something to do indoors or maybe you want to do it in your own home.

The Elkhart Civic Theater.

I had a chance to go speak with the folks over there.

I'm really excited about bringing theater back with their upcoming show, "Two Across".

So let's head over to the Elkhart Civic Theater so we can see what they have going on and how they're bringing a theater back to the community.

I love the stage.

I absolutely adore it, especially the theater locally here in Michiana.

And so I'm so excited today to speak with folks from the Elkhart Civic leader who are putting on the next production of a show called Two Across And I have with us, the executive director of the Elkhart Civic Theater.

Dave Dofor.

Hi, Dave.

Hi there.

How are you doing?

Good.

And I also.

have one of the actresses for the upcoming performance, Annette Tie.

Annette, how are you?

I'm good, thank you.

Now, this is a unique production.

It's just you and one other actor, correct?

That's right, Colin.

Colin Russell is is the other actor.

OK, awesome, and what is it like or what has the experience been like in rehearsals with it just being the two of you?

You know, it's been great, it's been a lot of fun to.

Really kind of dig in deep because there's only the two of us, so we've got that kind of luxury to just really kind of really delve into the script and play around and have fun with it.

And Collins and wonderful to work with, as has Kevin, the director.

So, yeah, it's been great.

I think most actors will will tell you anyway, anybody who really is kind of into the craft of acting and that certainly is, is that, you know, smaller shows might be more challenging, but they also give you a chance to kind of stretch a little bit, which doesn't always happen with larger shows.

Absolutely.

And Annette tell us a little bit about what two across is and what's the story behind it.

So it takes place on the BART train, rapid rapid transit train in the Bay Area and to strangers in the middle of the night and up in a car by themselves.

And they're both doing New York Times crossword puzzle.

And she is looking for privacy so that she can kind of deal with a very emotional thing she's going through right now.

And he is looking to talk and get help on the crossword and, you know, ultimately kind of jump in and try to solve our problems for her.

And so it's about their how they.

How this little very short time span of an hour and a half, how they get to know each other and kind of see their characters developing and reacting to each other and maybe falling for each other and see what happens.

Now, when can people come and see this Annette?

So the opening night is February 26.

So it's twenty six, twenty seventh in twenty eighth, and then the following week, March 6th and 7th.

And we are also selling streaming tickets.

So if you are not comfortable coming to a theater in person, you can watch at home live with the streaming tickets, which I think is a really great, great thing that we have to offer.

Absolutely.

And Dave, you were telling me about how you're able to space the audience out as well to some of the extra precautions Yeah, it's basically that we don't obviously, we just we just block certain seats out so that they're not available.

And we do have to do a little bit of adjusting.

Sometimes we have a group that comes in that's five or six people, but they all are live together or whatever.

Usually it's the most just three or four.

But we we do it just when we have to.

And and so we end up with a pretty small house house, meaning audience in the auditorium, but we're slowly getting more interest in some of the streaming.

And so it it's it's been a kind of a boon to us to be able to continue to offer our season in both of those ways.

We are we are experiencing a certain I'm just from the phone calls, a lot of our patrons, especially the older ones who have been vaccinated, are itching to come back to the theater.

So that's kind of nice to hear it, really.

I mean, how important is it to continue to bring theater to the community?

Well, I think that we serve two masters here, in essence at the theater.

One is our audiences and our audience.

I think it's important they get to see art that they wouldn't ordinarily necessarily get to see.

We do a lot of shows that maybe aren't done by a lot of other theaters.

Of course, we all have our specialties in community theater and people need the outlet to be able to get and frankly, to get together in a space and enjoy something as a communal event.

And then the other M., so to speak, that we we serve is our participants, our volunteers, our members who love performing, love, exploring the arts.

And so much of the arts has been closed down for, what, nearly a year now that I think it's important that we are able to be open as much as we can so that people can continue to appreciate, appreciate the arts.

It's you know, it's not all about Netflix.

That is very true.

And I love that you guys still have that streaming option, too.

So for folks who still want to stay indoors, still have the option to experience theater, because I still think that is so important to now with the tickets coming out there for the two across, where can people purchase those tickets at or how do they go about doing so?

If they can if they can go to the Elkhart Civic Theater Facebook page and there's information in there that you can locate.

Easiest thing is go Elkhart Civic Theater dot org, which is our Web site.

And you'll see in the little thing that goes by, a little slide show that goes by, you'll see that too, across as mentioned.

And click on that and it'll give you the two different links, one for streaming and one for in-person tickets so you can make your choice and go from there.

All right, and Annette anything that's coming up for you next, how is this made an impact on your life, being able to be back on the stage?

Oh, it's been so wonderful.

I feel so lucky to be able to do this because, you know, I think Dave said, you know, Netflix doesn't really do it after a certain point.

So this has been just wonderful to be able to get out and be with, you know, a couple of people anyway and work on work on our craft.

So that's very lucky.

But and then also, you have something else coming up, though, and that is in June, our youth camps come back.

Hopefully, if everything goes well, we will be having our youth theater camps in mid-June.

And hope is is the plan right now.

So that's what I teach the younger camp.

It's teaching kids, teaches the youth, the younger group, which is our storytellers camp.

And then we also have one for older kids, which is a very fast paced, put together a musical in two weeks.

Awesome, well, thank you guys so much for joining us today.

We're looking forward to being two across from you and looking forward to sharing the theater with the community and both in person and with streaming.

I'm so grateful that you guys are giving options to people so they can still have the fine arts in their homes and in their lives.

Right.

OK, thank you.

That was so awesome.

And again, for more information so you can get tickets or streaming tickets if you want on our website or on the Elkhart's Civic Leaders website, and Kelly, you have a virtual option for people to going on right now?

Absolutely.

It's at IUSB and it's the Raclin Represents webinar series and it's all about bringing hope and healing to our community.

So let's catch up with interim Dean Muniz this spring, the Rachlin School of the Arts and will premiere a new webinar series titled Raclin Represents.

And here to tell us more about it is interim dean at the Raclin School.

At this point, Jorge Muniz and Jorge.

It is so good to see you.

It has been quite a while.

It's wonderful to see you, Kelly, and thank you so much for the opportunity to have this conversation.

And first of all, we just want to say congratulations on being interim Dean, the head of the music department for quite a while and have done such a wonderful job there at the university.

So congratulations to you.

Thank you so much.

It's my privilege and my pleasure.

How does it feel to be interim, Dean?

What?

For me, it just when I was asking someone for me to serve my university in a capacity that is more all encompassing, I am a composer.

So and I love writing for the stage like opera.

I know there's another works like that.

So for me, embracing other art is part of my nature.

So for me, doing that from the administration perspective, it was just natural.

So and I know my colleagues for many years in the arts, so it was just an easy transition.

I'm just really honored to work with all of them.

But I hear you mention the community and truly Rachlin represents, which is this webinar series is all about reaching the community.

Can you tell us what inspired this series?

Well, so partly it was, of course, while we were going through this year, you know, with so many struggles our country and the world have gone through, not just in the sense of the pandemic, but also so many other areas in our society.

So much healing is needed.

And I always saw the in to school since I came here for over 14 years ago as the hub, the center for connecting the arts to our community, because we are the public university here in northern Indiana and central Indiana.

And and I always saw that we should be the first ones reaching out.

So these webinars came with the idea of involved in our community at large to understand better what we are doing in the arts, particularly.

And now just coming back to what we've been going through these past year, I think there are some topics that could shed some light to the community at large about the role of the arts.

Yes, we entertain.

We can make you have a wonderful time watching us dance, play, music, speak.

But there is so much more that we can do for healing in our society through what we do in the arts.

So that's that's what kind of started everything.

Jorge what makes the arts a vehicle for bringing healing and hope and compassion, particularly at a time like this?

Well, I think, you know, I know to speak less of other of other areas, you know, but the arts more than anything more.

More than anything, speaks about emotion directly, heart to heart, and I think that's where us as artists can really speak directly.

There's there is nothing that can move you more than an artist expressing, you know, in front of you either in movement or singing or but also through a painting, through a sculpture.

And there's nothing that speaks to more directly.

So when artists hear our use of an abstract, a school create new works of art that directly speak about our current struggles, I think we are better positioned to really move people to act.

And obviously, at the end, my vision at the end is that the Raclin school can effect a change in an active force in our society.

That's what I always tell my students in composition.

Now it begins on February 2nd and we'll talk about the topics in just a little bit.

But tell us what the set up will look like.

Will there be a panel?

And I know that you'll be moderating it, correct?

Yes, correct.

So so I'll be moderating these three.

We're planning on having three.

This semester is the first time we were doing this.

It is a learning experience for myself because although we're all doing a lot of room these days, I assume webinar is a slightly different format.

But what it allows is it allows us to have a lot of people coming in also from the communities that are more open.

So the format will be that the moderator.

But I want our guests to really take over the conversation.

So we'll have, for example, this first one, which is of being an artist.

An epidemic here will have all these guests talk about their own answer to the topic of the day.

So in this case, that when I just said and then through that, I hope a conversation among the panelists will start.

And then I would like to make sure that at least 20 is about 50, five minutes for the webinar.

So I will hope that the last twenty, twenty five minutes will be questions that the audience will actually post through.

And I'll bring them up for different answers.

And I want to make sure that is not just one, but maybe have five different answers, you know, and that's great.

And I think that's where we can have really interesting conversations.

I really appreciate the topic as well, because it really has been a struggle.

But I mean, for everyone, but particularly I feel for artists this year.

Yes, indeed, I mean, this whole country, of course, we have suffered in many different ways, but I think the artists, sometimes it's something we don't think as much because we have so many first needs, you know, people around in our community.

But art has suffered so much because venues have closed, grants have dried up or have diminished, and even in things that are not performative acts, for example, in museums, art galleries that also have closed or limited.

And this has caused a lot of struggles for ideas of how to get their voice heard in our community.

Absolutely.

Now, the second topic is healing and the arts.

And and many times I think when we hear that the word healing, we think of physical healing, which is important.

But there's so many other types of healing, like emotional, racial, social healing.

Yes, indeed.

And that was part of my idea.

You know, the topics I have left and quite often because I, I invited different people from many very different areas in motivating the arts in some cases may be in the business area or it may be in the health sciences area.

And the ideas the old might have different answers to that.

But healing, as you very well said, is about healing.

Yes, physical healing, but healing of the mind, healing of the spirit.

And that is, I think, where, you know, our therapists, our counselors will have a voice also.

But also, as you very well said, you know, healing our society as a society, we need to bring those those conversation up as well.

Absolutely.

And then the last one will be compassion and hope of the arts.

Can you tell us a little bit about what that will look like?

Yes.

And these last topic is it's a topic that for me was very close to me because many years ago I have the privilege to working with the Southern Symphony to develop what we call the Requiem for the Innocent, which was a large work oratorio with several choruses and and the symphony.

And the point about that piece was a prayer and a healing time through that music for those left behind after terrorist attacks.

We had a lot of conversations around the community and panels as well.

And I think it helped.

And the main key words that were in response to that piece were compassion and hope.

And I wanted to bring that again because although our struggles are maybe different than 10 years ago, they're very, very hard, very, very deep.

And I thought it would be good to bring organizations from our area to come to that conversation, how they are helping the most in need today and then to bring artists to the platform as well and have a conversation.

Absolutely, where how can people be a part of this webinar series?

Well, the easiest way is to contact us through Facebook directly.

@RaclinArts is the official website, Facebook page of this Raclin School of the Arts.

And through there, we already have a link posted for the very first webinar, which is next Monday, February 22nd at noon.

And Anees, through that webinar registration, they can have their personal link and they can participate by joining next week at noon and like that will have postings to remind for the next one as well.

OK, wonderful.

Well, thank you so much for sharing all of that with us.

And thank you for all that that you do.

And also all of the professors they are.

What a difficult time to be to be a professor and a teacher right now.

So thank you so much, all of our best to all of you.

And we look forward to the webinar series Rachlin represents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It was so good catching up with interim Dean Nunez and what a wonderful webinar series and truly so needed.

Now, if there was ever a time that we need healing and hope in our community, it is now.

So for more information about that, you can head over to their Facebook page and also experience Michiana Dog.

Well, next week, Courtney, I am so excited because I'm going to have to work out a little bit more because it is restaurant week and we are going to be headed out to some new restaurants trying some new food.

I can't wait, but like I said, I'm just going to do a little bit extra because I'm ready to get my chow on.

Yes.

And it's going to be delicious.

There's so many restaurants that are featured in Nilles, and I'm so excited as things begin to open back up that we can start to feature those so people can get out exploring once again when it's safe to do so.

Now, you have an idea that you want to share with us a place that we should be visiting so we can bring it to you here on experience.

Michiana, you can go ahead and share it with us on our Facebook page.

Use the hashtag experience, Michiana, and we'll be sure to see it so we can come out and visit there, too.

Thanks so much for joining us this week.

And we look forward to seeing you again next week.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.