Well, I'm excited to be back here with some more of my friends, Brock and my new friend Leah.

Thank you so much for having me today.

You guys have a great show that's coming up here at the Elkhart Civic Theater, Merrily We Roll Along, which I think, like when we roll along, I'm thinking like, are we going to be rowing a boat?

But no, that's not it.

It's a very it's a very strange title.

Yeah, but this is a really unique production.

So it's almost.

Or is it about 50 years old now at this point it was 81.

So it's about.

Yeah.

There you go.

Okay.

Math 44.

That's as old as me.

And there we go.

Perfect.

And the unique thing about this one is it works backwards.

Let's talk about that.

Yeah.

So it starts, at the end of a friendship.

And you kind of chart that friendship back to where it all started.

Okay?

A friendship is a really different perspective.

It's very different.

I don't know, a lot of shows.

There's like the last five years, which is kind of told in a similar way.

Yeah.

Where he kind of goes, comes at the end and she's the beginning and they meet in the middle.

But this one starts at the very end and goes all the way back to the beginning.

Okay.

So you play one of those three people, right?

And one of the three friends.

So tell us about your character.

Yeah.

So, I play Mary Flynn.

She's part of the trio of Frank, Mary and Charlie, and, Frank and Charlie are actually friends when Mary meets them, when there's one two years old.

So she immediately feels very, accepted by these, by these guys.

And, she's into one of them, and you kind of watch her, like, grapple with that and grapple with her changing relationship over time.

With both of these guys and how she fits in or doesn't fit in.

What did you find that was so unique about, you know, how your emotional trend went from going from the end of that friendship to the beginning as the character?

Yeah.

So, when we start, the trio is all four years old.

And, I'm not 40 years old, so we're doing that for one thing.

But, I have to think, okay, what has theoretically already happened in Mary's life.

So we do the first scene and then we go to the next thing.

I'm like, okay, forget what I just did.

Oh, what's happened up to this point?

And then we keep doing that back and back and back.

And that's challenging.

How do you direct that for your actors?

I really struggle with how I was going to block the show.

I said, do I block it at the beginning and work back to that?

Like, do I block it at the chronologically beginning and block it forward or erase?

And I just decided to start at the beginning of the show and block it, which is the end, which is the end, and block it forward.

And, I think it's worked out.

I think we've, we've got everything staged and everything's flowing nicely.

And this backwards, this is a Stephen Sondheim production.

It is.

Okay.

And I know you guys have done a number of those in the past.

Are you do you do you do what makes this one in particular so fabulous?

I just think the score is really incredible.

I think the story is so compelling and so relatable to everybody.

I think everybody can relate to having had friends and losing friends and and making new friends and growing as a people, and watching, you know, like partners coming in and out of your friends lives.

And how does the friendship blast beyond these different partnerships and or how does it not last?

Also a friend in addition to that, it's got a like the score is I think also just really it's just it's really catchy score.

Think it's got a very Broadway sound and kind of like pop songs structurally.

But it's very Broadway at the same time.

So, you're not sitting there trying to follow what is going on.

Yeah.

I feel like when I listen to the music, it kind of has hints of, like into the Woods.

Like, I guess it has hints of that, of that Sondheim.

But it's about Broadway composers.

So the two first.

Oh that's right.

Right.

Yeah.

We haven't talked about the Frankenstein are songwriters.

And they write for Broadway shows and it's them struggling with how do we how do we, write a show that is both, commercially viable and artistically what we want to do, which is something that we struggle all the time with as artists.

So it's really relatable.

And yeah, it's just it's great.

I love it is very interesting.

I mean, the whole concept of working backwards, I know, has got to be a challenge to how do you play that into the set design.

So the set has to be really, multi-functional.

So we've kind of started it at the base set is Franck's, Bel-Air mansion, which is where the show starts.

Okay.

And then we pull down blinds and we bring in little skyscrapers.

So, like, as we change locations, the set stays the same, but we bring in pieces to make it look different.

We bring in the grand sometimes when we're at, like, a Broadway show.

Yeah.

A shimmer curtain.

And so it's just it's a really, it has to it has to go to a lot of places and be a lot of things.

So as you can tell, it's like very neutral.

Okay.

It's a very neutral.

Yeah.

And then bringing it in in other ways and same thing I'm assuming with like your costuming.

Yeah, I mean I it's going to be a lot of costumes because every scene, takes place in a different year usually to like, every scene.

Oh my gosh.

And there's nine, there's nine scene.

So we're going from seven 1977 back to 1957.

So the costumes are going to you see the styles shift backwards and the hemlines probably get longer.

Yeah.

Sure.

Now talk to us a little bit about the experience being an actor up here on the stage, because this is not your first time up here at the Elkhart Civic Theater, right?

Yeah.

I well, it's not my first time, I've been involved here, shockingly, for only, almost two years.

Not even quite two years.

My first show here was the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which I have been obsessed with for years.

So I had to come out and audition for it.

And I just, I not a suck up, but I love working with Brock, I do too.

It's wonderful.

And, I love the people here.

And I love getting to, like, dig into these characters in these shows that, we don't always see on other stages around here.

So, you know, when will I ever get another chance to play Mary Flynn in, famous Robert Flock?

And I think that's really unique in what you just mentioned to you guys.

What you do here at this theater is very unique, and it really is a drawing point for a number of folks to come and watch this.

Talk to us a little bit about, you know, what goes into making the decisions for what productions are going to do, including this one.

Sure.

So, I mean, we have kind of the luxury of having a 200 seat house, where we don't have to do like a big, you know, Disney show every time.

We do love a family musical.

We're doing sound music this season, but we also do things on more of a chamber scale.

So like we'll do sound music.

We did Fiddler on the roof, but it feels a lot more intimate here because we've got a more intimate space.

But we also can do shows like Stephen Sondheim shows, and, and actors like doing those shows, and I think audiences like seeing them.

So, it's, it's finding that balance of, of commercial and and and art.

Yeah.

Which brings us all back to the performance.

Okay.

Okay.

We we've come to our conclusion full circle there.

I love it.

Tell people, when is it happening.

Because this is coming up.

Not this week but next week.

Yes.

So it's November 14th and 15th.

So Friday, Saturday, those are 730 shows.

And then it's the 21st, 22nd and 23rd.

Friday Saturdays are always 730.

The Sunday matinees 3:00.

So you have two weekends to come see.

And how do we get our tickets?

So you can get your tickets by calling the box office at (574) 848-4116.

Or you can visit Elkhart Civic theater.org and perfect.

And I know you guys have other stuff in the lineup.

This will be your last show for the calendar year.

Calendar year.

Yes.

Okay.

And then what's coming up next up next is Seussical Junior.

So we got a youth production Seussical .

And then we've got a, first time doing a Shakespeare.

So we're doing Midsummer Night's Dream.

Oh, in midwinter.

So bring a little heat to the to the cold winter months in Indiana.

Then we're doing a Ken Ludwig, Sherlock Holmes show called Moriarty.

And we're closing out the season with The Sound of Music.

Love it.

And I'm sure that's something that you might be interested in coming back for.

I mean, looking to be involved somehow.

I'm not sure what extent or whether it'll be on stage or off, but I've done that show before and I'd love to be part.

I think that's what's so important, and I love that you said, you know, you've only been here a couple years, and I say this about every theater that I visit to, but you guys all each have something really special and unique.

And that's why our community keeps coming back, not just as the audience members, but also as volunteers and actors and participants in this, too.

And and, you know, that is just such an important thing for you guys to have here.

Thank you Courtney.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you guys.

We hope to see you here in the audience for merrily we roll along.

Come on, let's roll.

Rolling.