1234.

Get my shoes in.

Out the door.

Five.

I'm lost.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Feels great.

I'm gonna shine.

After I do what I'm gonna do.

I do it again.

Yeah.

Look at the sky with the beautiful color.

But never just for me.

You gotta share it with another.

I got to show, to give.

Let I want singing show.

Take a look and say a beautiful morning that turns into a beautiful evening.

And together make beautiful art.

And if you wanna see that, come along with me.

That's right.

And welcome to Experience Michigan.

I'm so glad that you're here with us today.

We have a great show for you.

We're going to be heading over to the Elkhart Civic Theater, a very emotional performance of Dear Evan Hansen.

This is a regional premiere for this particular musical.

You want to make sure that you get your tickets in time for that.

We're also going to be talking about a feature presentation that we have in partnership with the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and that one is all about the Bonnyville mill.

So take a peek at that.

But first up, it looks like we're in Arundell.

So let's take a trip on over to Phoenix Performing Arts for their version of frozen.

All right, let's go to the theater to see frozen.

It's coming.

I have waiting for the song.

Are you waiting for that?

I know I always gotta get some song in there to Ashley, I love you.

You know this.

I love you.

We're besties.

And Phoenix Performing Arts is putting on frozen.

And I'm so excited for this because this is like, one of the very first ones that is happening in the community.

I'm excited that you guys are bringing it over here and to Middlebury.

We're at Northridge High School.

Yes, putting it up on the big stage.

Yes.

And honestly, I can't imagine a better place to be because of just how many people we have involved on stage and off stage.

And you're only getting a snippet of the set behind me that this is so grandiose.

There are so many things that are hiding up here, and so we are so blessed to have this space in this partnership with Northridge Community Schools to be here this summer and yeah, to bring it to Elkhart County, but just in the Middlebury area.

Now, I know that this is a big cast because everyone wants to be in frozen, right?

Yes.

And if you don't, then what are you what are you doing?

How many people do you have your cast.

Because this was a two part cast.

I know you just had your junior cast.

Yes.

So we had a little over 100 in our youth cast last weekend, and we have just shy of 50 in our main stage cast, which is happening this weekend.

That's amazing.

Obviously we have Olaf over here giving us some warm hugs.

How exciting.

Okay, Matthew, this is is this your first time puppeteering?

Yes, actually, this is my first time doing a full puppet like this.

Okay.

And how do you feel about that?

Oh, I feel great.

All the practice is hard to learn.

It was very hard at the beginning.

We.

We had some struggles walking, but after a while I got used to it and using his hands.

So.

Okay, you got to tell me a little bit about this.

Get up.

Yeah.

So it's a little different with puppeteering than what you might imagine.

So it's not something he's just holding with his hands.

It's physically strapped to him from basically from chest to toe.

And so when he's walking Olaf is walking.

And so it's he has to, you know, manipulate the shuffle a little bit.

He's, he's got the waddle down and then, yeah, he can manipulate his hands and his face, his mouth.

Yeah.

So while he is talking and he's got a little mechanism back, should we give away the.

There's a little bit of Disney magic actually.

Elsa Spring goes a little flurry on him and then he.

Yeah.

Then he is able to move his mouth.

But so while he's singing and speaking, Olaf is as well.

And so he's a two for one character, which is actually very talented, I have to say, very talented.

And the only thing I know about puppeteering is when you're talking, their mouth should be open, right?

Like right.

There is a funny section where if he's reacting to something.

When we first started rehearsing or like the directing staff was laughing because he may be reacting and Matt wasn't quite or vice versa.

And so getting the mouth to be open at the same time.

Oh yeah.

Oh, they can see everything.

So yeah.

So it was he's been he's had a few weeks to work with this since its arrival.

And so he's I think he's mastered it pretty well.

Okay.

Awesome.

Now we got to talk about the show itself.

This is more of the traditional.

But there is some new stuff incorporated into the script.

Yes.

So the movie, the animated film from 2013 that hopefully all the Disney fans know and love.

It's exactly what you'll expect there, the characters that you know and love.

But then when they come up with a musical in 2018, it made it to Broadway.

They expanded.

So the music directors and lyricist, they created new songs, there's some new scene work, and so it's everything you know and love.

And then more.

I talked to you a little bit briefly as a Disney snob.

I still come by that pretty easily.

There are some shows that are animated film first and they become useful.

So it's like, oh, why did they get rid of that?

Or why do they change that?

When I, Zack and I got to say this on Broadway three weeks after it opened originally, and when I saw it, I gasped out loud more than the kids that were, because it was just done so beautifully.

So whether you love frozen or you just want to see a spectacle, it's just it's magic, truthfully, from start to finish.

And so it's just so well done.

Now, I have to say, I met someone the other day who has not seen frozen.

I know you have to school though.

I know, I know, it's shocking.

Okay, so math, you're telling me from your perspective as Olaf was the story about the story is about Elsa and Anna, and Elsa does has these magical powers and she accidentally harms Anna.

And it's on her journey and how they get back together and become best friends.

Okay, okay, I like it.

There's a lot of magic involved with.

There's magic and there's but there's so many relatable things to and, you know, with our youth cast last week like because they're younger and they're growing, we tried to instill, you know, like you do in stage.

There's so much that can be learned from art.

And so we talked about that with our adults as well.

You know, what are the underlining messages?

Yes.

These are animated characters you're bringing to life.

And yes, we don't necessarily have like snowmen in your backyard that are talking to you.

Oh, don't you need to come to your house?

It's like there are messages that can be taken away as well.

And so I love that kind of that two for one special that you get with having an evening to just enjoy and experience leisure and art, but then have a message that you can take home as an adult or as something that you can take home with your young ones too, about, you know, being yourself and not judging a book by its cover and showing kindness and empathy and all of those things.

That and that being night dot dot.

Get that in the show.

Okay, now let's talk about the set, because I know we're saying just a part of just a little bit.

I can't imagine the work that goes into designing and building.

I tried to pull him up here today because I went, okay, so Zach has obviously he's our technical director and artistic director and all the things.

And so he built all of this and all the things you can't see yet.

And then our scenic painter Karina, she painted it all the summer all by hand.

And so I had been at rehearsals most of the summer with our kids and our adults and things like that.

So I didn't have a chance to see when it got put up.

I had seen some little bits in the works when I came in, and they had some of the flies in the air.

I actually started crying, which is kind of embarrassing, but it was just, I don't know if it was a combination of just being so proud of the people that I love, or if it was just that, like the people that are going to be coming to Middlebury, what they're going to see in the caliber that they put out, and then also the Disney kid in me, I just literally I stood right over there and like, cried.

He was like, oh, do you hate it?

I was like, no, I have no words.

So this is just a snippet.

There's some things he's hiding up here and pictures of videos.

They just don't do justice.

So if nothing else, if you don't come for Disney, come for Zach and Karina because it's just it's beautiful.

Okay.

And now this isn't your first time up on the stage here with Phoenix, correct?

No.

All right.

Tell me about your experience in acting.

I mean, I've been doing shows with Ashley honestly, since 2018.

Oh, wow.

And, I mean, I've been doing this for a long.

I can't even count how many shows now, but plenty of years, you know, acting.

And he was part of he was our Jesse Tuck in our inaugural production, Tuck Everlasting.

And we've kept him ever since.

So thankfully he hasn't run away from us.

I love that, I love it, and you know, I know we talk about this all the time, but being a part of theater is really becomes your family, and it's such a great way to connect with other people and to gain more confidence and and just to be yourself, really.

And I know that people find that when they come to the stage, but you guys also had a lot of new people join you this time too.

Yes.

So we had so many new faces in our adult show, which again, for a Disney title, you never know.

Not everyone's a Disney adult like us, but people were just excited.

It wasn't necessarily even a title.

They just came to us in auditions.

They were like, my friend or my family member has participated with you guys, and they just had nothing but great things to say or they love their experience.

And so we wanted to try it for ourselves.

And so it's been so wonderful to welcome them into our family.

And then in our youth cast, we had over 50% of them brand new to us.

So new faces, new names.

Yeah.

I mean, we have like I said, we have new faces every audition that we have.

But this summer, I mean, it was in droves of hundreds and hundreds of auditioned because again, with little ones they love.

They love.

Is that why you guys moved to this stage for the summertime?

So we are so blessed.

Yes.

To have that partnership, because we did the same thing last summer as well.

Again, to hopefully just be able to include as many people, you know, there are limitations with space and safety, but we were able to include over 100 of them and we had two sold out performances for them.

And so we're hoping to do that.

Thank you, thank you.

They were very excited.

It was just I don't know if they were more excited just for us to say that they were sold out or that they were more excited to get on stage, but just like, go out there and get your nerves a little bit when you're like, it's a sold out crowd.

Yeah.

But then they feel like so, you know, so cool.

And they should and they should.

And so we're hoping that we can do that for our adults too, because while it is the same title, it's a different show entirely.

And it's a little bit different between the kids and the adult.

Yeah.

Which is kind of nice.

So we had a great partnership and mentorship between our youth cast and our adult cast.

So did you get to play around with little off to for the cast at a rehearsal recently?

And he he was so good.

And I got to see him last night and he did so well and he was over complimenting like, what are you talking about?

You're doing just as good as I am.

Yeah, and it's me.

Because, you know, of course you think what the little ones watching you ones, they'll be inspired.

But it's really cool for me and our staff to watch the older ones get inspired by the young ones, too.

And so I just kind of sit back like that little mom with the camera, and I'm like, just being friends.

And they're just so sweet.

And the camera this time are you?

I am not, you're going to be on stage.

I am maybe casting a couple ice flurries or two.

So we're gonna let it go.

I think people get their tickets in one of the showtimes.

So we have Friday and Saturday at 730 or Sunday matinee at 3 p.m.

you can head to the Phoenix Arts, or you can show up the day of the show and pick them up at the door.

All right.

We'll see you there.

So break a leg or an artistic a stick.

You guys know I love being on stage, but there is a special performance that's going to be happening.

And I absolutely love this story, but it's a very emotional one.

Dear Evan Hansen is a Tony Award winning performance, and I have my friends with me here today.

We are up on the stage right now and I have to say, Brock, you always do a fantastic job with this.

But this is the first time I've seen this stage, this open.

I mean, we're all the way upstage here.

I know I look at it and I'm like, am I forgetting something?

It's just so.

It's so open.

It is.

It is so.

Dear Evan Hansen, I mean, this has been around for, what, ten years or so around.

Yeah, it premiered on Broadway in 2016.

Okay.

Okay.

So it's been a little bit, but I mean, it's won many Tony Awards.

It has a phenomenal storyline.

But again, it is it's very relatable, which is what we were saying just before we got started, but also very emotional.

Do you want to talk a little bit about the storyline itself?

Sure.

So the story of Dear Hansen is about a young man, Evan Hansen, and he has some struggles with anxiety and depression, and through a misunderstanding, he comes in contact with a young man who committed suicide.

Family.

And they come to believe that he was their son's friend, that he wrote his suicide note to to Evan, and what starts as a well-intentioned I don't want to say white lie, but yeah, it's kind of just spirals out of control.

He's almost wants to be that support person for the family, just to assure them that, yes, he was loved.

And that was very true.

I think even in our real lives, everyone is loved in some way or some form, right.

So I think it's very relatable on this.

And I know, especially with mental health and especially with the younger group too.

It's important to share this kind of story.

Okay.

So this is your is this your first time here at my first time at Elkhart Civic?

Yeah.

Okay.

Awesome.

But you have a little bit of a theater background and you're playing Evan.

I'm playing Evan.

This is your first time playing Evan, though?

Yeah.

I never done this show.

That's a big role.

It is.

I'm really grateful to be a part of this.

Okay, so talk to me about that transition to becoming Evan Hansen.

What's it been like for you?

So it's it's been like very different from any of the roles that I've recently played.

Like, I've done like SpongeBob, I've done Macbeth.

Sorry, but you can't say it.

I don't believe in the superstition, but but those roles are completely different because Evan is so, like, real, like he's such a real person.

The writers of the script did a really good job with that, of just making it.

Like, he's definitely like someone that could have existed in our world today.

Like this.

All could have happened, I feel like.

And so being able to, to kind of like take on, like a persona that I feel like isn't unrealistic.

It's been a different kind of like approach that I've taken, and I've kind of just been able to draw from myself because I've also been a more like shy, reserved kind of person, especially like in my youth.

And and so I've been able to take a lot from that and, and explore his character that way.

Yeah.

And this is a musical.

This is a musical.

Okay.

I mean, we got to talk about that because I love the music.

The music is so stunning.

And it's it's such an interesting musical because one of my, one of my team members said, it's like, this is a play where some of the conversations accidentally just happen to be set to music because it's it's just it's written when you're in a when you're in a scene, it's written like a really great drama.

Yeah.

And there are definitely funny moments.

So yeah, I don't want it to sound like it's super heavy.

It definitely is.

But there's moments of levity.

But the score is just so stunning.

And the Grammy Award winning score, Tony Award winning score.

Wow.

Yeah, just great music.

Okay, so let's talk about the set here because again, this is the first time you guys have done something like this.

What went into the thought process to make this happen.

So the original production was very is very tricky to wrap my head around this show because the original production was all motorized.

So you had pieces like sofas that would just come on from the wings.

And so I had to say, how can everything move silently on and everything just transition so seamlessly?

And it's very minimal.

Almost every location is 1 or 2 pieces that suggests the space.

And then we've got the back wall.

We are using the projections from the original Broadway production.

Oh, cool.

So we have the original Broadway production projections, and they kind of are part of the set.

The projections tell a huge part of the story.

You've got text messages and and phone calls that all come up on the back wall.

Now, I know that again, this is an emotional show.

What's it been like working with the cast and coming into these characters?

It's been so amazing.

Like, I've so enjoyed being able to meet all these new people and work with them.

Everyone is just super nice and welcoming and getting to see everyone like, fall into their characters.

I feel like has been really cool and it's been like a different kind of community, I guess, that I've had within this show because it's all people that I like, mostly people that I had never seen before or anything, never heard of them.

So it's been really cool to get to meet them.

And it's a relatively small cast, isn't it?

It is.

It was originally on Broadway with a cast of eight.

We've added an ensemble of five, and there are some moments that we've incorporated into our production that you won't be expecting.

If you know everything we've, we've.

That was going to be my next question.

Like, is there any what kind of liberties have you taken to maybe make it your own here at Elkhart?

Well, it was really important to me that we cast it age appropriate.

Sometimes you'll see, like a 30 year old Evan.

And so all of, all of our high school characters in this show are actual high school age or like early 20s.

I think 21 or 22 is the oldest high school age character in the show, and this cast is more new people.

Yeah, than I've ever worked with before.

Four of the five teen leads I've never worked with before really well, that's exciting for you guys.

I mean, it's exciting for the organization itself.

It's wonderful and everyone just fits into their roles so perfectly.

I just I said to my assistant director, Stacey had auditions.

I'm like, pinch me.

This cast is just like, they're just a joy to work with and they're so incredibly talented.

You do not want to miss this company, I love that.

And speaking of that, so when can people see this performance?

Because it's coming up.

It's coming up.

We open Friday night.

So it is Friday and Saturday of this week and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday of next week.

I love that okay.

So when people come to this I want to make sure they're aware.

Again, we've kind of touched on what the topic is, but it is probably not age appropriate for younger ones.

Definitely.

I would say this is more like a PG 15.

And even then I think, you know, parents will want to use their judgment on on what you know, what their child or even themselves.

So I know we were talking a little bit beforehand to this is a very sensitive topic, and almost anybody in this entire world has known someone who has dealt with mental health issues, or maybe they have themselves too.

So I would definitely recommend bring your tissues for this one, because even though it has the full storyline, some parts are very emotional and and again, very relatable.

And I love that you're using a cast that is coordinated with actual ages two that's really unique for you guys and being able to expand it within that.

What's it been like to kind of find those folks here in Michiana?

Because we are so talented with this regional premiere.

This is the first time.

It's the first time anybody in our area has done this show.

And so we were overwhelmed at auditions.

We had over 40 young people auditioned for this show, many of whom we had never seen before.

Just people who were excited about telling the story, passionate about the material, passionate about the message of the story.

And yeah, this is a story that really will.

I just think it's it's maybe one of the most important things that I've ever had a hand in, just from a, from a content perspective.

And I know for you, this is your first time playing this type of role, but I'm telling you, this is going to impact the rest of your life, right?

Like, yeah, if you're going to feel this, you're going to know the show so well and it's always going to be a story that you're going to be able to tell.

Yes.

I've absolutely felt myself like growing as a performer just in the few weeks that we've been working on the show.

I really appreciate being here.

That's awesome.

All right, well, come on out.

Opening night is tomorrow night.

Break a leg and we'll see you here.

Thanks for joining.

I'm here at the Elkhart County Visitor Bureau with Terry.

Terry.

The Elkhart County Fair is obviously one of the biggest things going on right now.

I didn't realize just how big as a person who came from another country.

The county fairs are absolutely massive, and the Elkhart County Fair must be one of the biggest ones.

It is.

It's one of the third largest for h fair in the nation.

So yeah, so at this level and so it is a wonderful eight day extravaganza of youth and agriculture and carnival food, fair food, fried elephant ears and hot dogs and pie and all the goodness of the Midwest.

America, right.

It feels like America.

Like, you know, the fair, but all the things that you think about.

But again, it's just a lot of people having fun.

I just wish it was in the fall.

So it wasn't so hot personally.

But I know that's part of it.

That's what people love.

And and from a visitor point of view, I know it's really big with locals do.

Many people actually travel in for the fair as well.

Or is it mostly local people that go to it?

Well, it's a mix, but they have a fantastic music series with artists ranging from Ludacris to Charlie Crockett.

So these artists have fan bases that draw from all over the area.

So I would imagine in particular for the concert series, you're going to see people from all over the region coming here for that.

And I know that I hadn't actually heard about this before, but there's a grand prix coming up.

What's that?

Yeah.

So the past few summers in early August, we have the Elkhart Grand Prix, which is kart racing, and it takes over the streets of downtown Elkhart.

So these are really powerful machines.

They don't look like like, like F1 or any car, but they can go really fast and it's really cool.

And to see racers going at these really high speeds, you know, everyday life.

Shouldn't shouldn't do that.

Yeah.

But it's a lot of fun and people love it.

And it's a it's a great weekend in Elkhart.

That's cool.

Yeah I wasn't familiar with that.

And I noticed something I love, which is the World Rally Championship, which happens all over the world.

And that's coming for the first time back to the US next year in like, Tennessee.

So if you could try and get that anywhere in this region, that would be amazing for 2028.

So if you could just work on that, that would be great.

All right.

I'll get you some more notes from that.

Well, one thing that we can guarantee on for now is Bonneville Mill.

So tell me a little bit about their experience that's coming up.

So first of all, Bonneville Mill is the oldest continuously operating grist mill in Indiana.

And this year, visitors can learn a little bit more about how water was used to power mills like them and how it really helped build industry.

And so you can sign up to start at the Elkhart County Historical Museum, which was not not a couple miles away in Bristol.

Learn about water and then go to the mill.

Get a demonstration about how the mill works here.

A talk from the miller about the history of the mill, and then get to see the mill and operation and then take, perhaps take home a bag of fresh ground cornmeal.

That's what I did recently when I was there, and I love it.

I think it's absolutely amazing.

And I know that every year you have a well crafted video series on Bonneville.

Mill was featured on last year's series, so we're going to watch that right now here on Experience Michiana and get a deeper look inside everything that you were just talking about.

Bonneville mill is a grist mill.

There are many different kinds of mills, and for example, a sawmill would produce lumber, but a grist mill specifically grinds grain into flour.

Grist mills were very important in Indiana because back when Bonneville was built, almost everybody was at least partly farming for their income.

So all of those crops produced grains that had to be ground in order to make usable products such as flour and cornmeal.

So Bonneville Mill, of course, when it started, was a service to the local farmers.

And at one time there was quite a variety of different grains that were grown in Indiana.

That has kind of been reduced in recent years.

So we don't grow as large a variety of grain as we did when this mill first opened.

But this mill has always ground wheat and corn, rye, those are very common grains.

And we still grind those particular grains today.

Our main goal is to preserve the mill, preserve the history, preserve the culture, and demonstrate those things to the visiting public that comes into the mill.

Currently, we grind wheat, rye, oats, buckwheat, spelt yellow and white corn.

In the fall, we separate the stones so that they can be cleaned and serviced, and in the spring we put them back together so that we can start grinding for the next season.

So today we took the top stones and we placed them back on top of the bed stones because a set of millstones.

There's a top and a bottom, the the runner stone and the bed stone, and we put them together so that we could get them ready for the grinding season.

The turbines are actually located in the water, in the basement of the mill, and directly off the top of the turbine.

There is a drive shaft, and drive shaft is right behind me back here.

And that drive shaft goes all the way to the top so that it can power any of the equipment above this floor and on this floor, the drive shaft can be attached to machinery using gears, belts and pulleys.

Those are the most common things that we have to hook machinery up to our drive shaft.

We have two sets of grindstones.

One is French burr and one is granite.

Both are very hard stones.

The French burr stones are original Edward Bonnie stone.

So he brought those here when he came in 1837, and we are still using them.

The milling process has a number of different aspects to it, depending on what product you're trying to make.

You have to set the gap between the stones, the speed at which the top stone is rotating, and the speed at which the grain is feeding into the eye of the stone.

All of those things have a little bit to do with how fine or course the product comes out.

And so if you're making a wheat flour that you want to be very fine, you're going to have a tight gap set on the stones, you're going to feed the grain in relatively slow, and you're going to have the top stone moving at a fairly good pace.

So all of those things, every time you are grinding something different, you have to pay attention to each of those three things.

Our goal is to talk to every person that comes in the door, and to demonstrate the grinding process to them.

History is important because we can look at history and we can learn the way things were, and we can also get ideas of how we can do things in the future.

And to me, it's kind of interesting that this mill was a water powered mill still is.

And we've kind of forgotten about wind and water.

And in this day and age, we are reverting back to those ideas as potential power sources for a lot of stuff that we're doing nowadays.

Thank you so much for joining us this week on experience.

We'll see you next time.

Enjoy your summer.

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

Thank you.