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.

Welcome to Experience Michiana.

I'm so glad you're joining us this week.

We are deep into fall and there's plenty of activities for you still to experience.

We're going to be talking about Disney's Descendants that is going to be performed with Premiere Arts over at the Lerner.

You might see some familiar faces.

That's right.

Some of the Jorgensen girls are actually in the show.

Be sure to get your tickets for that one.

It is one weekend only.

Also, we're going to be talking about the fall fling happening at Bendix Woods.

This one is great, especially for those little kids under five.

You want to get all those details, including a hayride.

Lots of fun activities with them.

But first up right here, well, we're taking a look at the Requiem of Hope.

That concert is coming up soon.

You want to make sure that you get all the information coming up next.

Well, today we're coming to you from Kosciusko County.

And my friends here in Winona Lake, we are at the Rodeo Heber Auditorium.

This is a phenomenal space.

And here I can hear my voice echoing.

I can't imagine the sounds that are going to be coming out of the vocals that are going to be happening here in just a short bit.

Tell us about the Requiem of Hope, this beautiful concert that you guys are going to be putting on.

Judy, you take it first.

We, have a guest conductor named Pearl Shangkuan, and we're bringing her in from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But Pearl is renowned all over the world.

And I was looking her up before, before this.

And she's amazing.

And I know you guys have been working a long time to get her here.

Yes.

I first met Pearl when my daughter was a student at Calvin College and sang under Pearl in the Women's Chorale.

Okay, so that's how we met her.

And then some of our choir went and sang under Pearl at Carnegie Hall and did the Requiem of the living, the same piece we'll be doing on this concert.

Okay, so let's talk about the concert because there's a couple different components of it.

You guys are going to be doing some pieces and then the bigger program of it.

Yes, we'll start off with 4 or 5 numbers with our vocal vibes, which is a jazz group with Lancer Chorus from Grace College, with our, Vocal Vision adult choir joined by some community singers.

We've invited many community singers to join us.

So some from Warsaw Community High School, Manchester University, of course, Grace College.

So we'll be doing 4 or 5 pieces before, all with the theme of hope.

Okay.

And let's talk about why it's important.

You know, what made you guys think of that general theme and bringing it here?

Well, I think it's because of the Requiem for the living, as Judy was telling us earlier, Requiem is usually for the dead, right?

As we pray them into heaven in the Catholic Church.

But this is focusing on the hope we have.

And, for the while we're living on this earth, the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

And so what what person in the world today doesn't need more hope?

Exactly.

We all do.

And I think that will come alive within all of the sound that we will hear.

Right?

Absolutely.

Okay.

So let's talk about you finally get to be a part of the chorus.

What is that experience like from the other side?

I'm super excited to be singing this time because our children's choir is not involved.

I get to be part of the adult choir and this music that Dan Forest has written is unlike anything else.

It he literally takes us beyond the world, up into heaven, into the skies.

And when I was singing a couple weeks ago, I was so moved by the beauty of the music.

I started crying and couldn't sing for several pages.

And I stand there, Lori and she's like, what are you doing?

Why aren't you singing?

Like, I can't believe all the singers on the stage just stop because they're all bawling.

We hope not to do that, but it is a very moving piece.

Very moving.

It is, it is.

And I love that you guys are bringing that here.

And you guys have done this once before, right?

Yes.

Three years ago we performed it in the spring.

And when we were trying to decide what piece to do when Pearl came to be our guest, we were kind of looking at different works and finally decided, let's go back and do this one.

We know it.

We can dig deeper into it.

It's like reading a book the second time or seeing a movie for a second time.

You get to see elements of it that you didn't see before, and what goes into selecting you know, who is all going to sing with in the performance, because I know you're using a lot of different groups with that.

That comes from our artistic directors.

Okay.

And Judy is the artistic director for our youth program, which is, as she said, it's not involved in this concert, but doctor artist Faber is our creative artistic director for adults.

Okay.

And together they put all of this together and they work together and make a beautiful event.

It's over all the rocks and dig out all the pieces.

And this is a beautiful space to do it.

And let's talk about this space that we're in right now.

I mean, the auditorium itself is, I would say, is it perfect for singing in here?

It's not perfect.

Okay.

I could imagine my voice.

Well, yeah, I'm on stage.

You can have little pockets of dead areas, but it's fine.

The sound just travels.

We're blessed, and we're blessed to have it right here in our.

Yeah.

Backyard.

Absolutely.

And then let's talk about the symphony orchestra.

It's going to be a part of this too Symphony of the lakes.

Wagon wheels.

Symphony of the lakes always accompanies us and we hire them as individuals.

But they do represent the symphony.

And what are we going to have?

30 some piece orchestra.

Oh, yeah.

They sit down here, we stand up here and the director's way out there, and it's a it's a whole thing.

And this isn't your first time doing this rodeo.

You guys have done your fall concerts before.

Yes.

What are some of the themes been in the past?

Well, last year was our legacy concert in the fall, because we were 40 years old.

Yeah.

So we did a throwback to and, and we had our concert in, the United Methodist Church because that's where we began.

I met you last probably that's where we began.

And so that was a big, big deal.

We don't always do a fall concert.

Okay.

So this is good to know.

So people, if they want to especially have the opportunity to see you guys.

This is a great way to do this in the fall okay.

This is a this is an exception okay.

And I know you guys have other events coming up to do.

Our Christmas concert is December 5th and six, six, six and seven, six and seven Saturday and Sunday right here we are bringing in Shannon Dunn and her Celtic dancers and players from South Bend, right?

Yes, she's from South Bend.

The theme is a Celtic Christmas.

We're very, very excited about that.

They will be dancing all across the stage and all the singers will be down here.

Okay, so that will be a wonderful concert to attend.

Then we oh, we also have the whimsy concert we did for the youth.

Our children are doing two concerts in November, one on the third at the Warsaw Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

And that's free and open to the public.

And then we will be joining Vocal Vibes the next Monday night on the 10th at the Warsaw Public Library.

And both of those concerts will feature silly, crazy songs.

The kids are having so much fun.

Oh, I can't even imagine.

I'm sure you're having fun with that.

We, as you guys know, you guys also have kind of a fundraiser coming up to, in November for your The Honor flight.

Oh, yes.

We're participating in the Honor flight fundraiser.

The honor flight is an opportunity for veterans of wars to travel on a commercial jet from a local airport, all expenses paid to spend the day in Washington, DC.

Tour the monuments, be honored in an assembly, and fly back home at no expense to them.

And they get red carpet treatment all day long.

So obviously there's a lot of money needed to to raise about.

And so we are singing in an event at First Baptist Church on November 8th.

It's a Saturday afternoon, First Baptist Church in Warsaw.

I understand these fundraisers are held around the region, but this is ours, and we would love for the public to come and hear barbershop quartet, Lakeland Christian Academy.

High school choir.

Vocal vision will be, vocal vibes will be singing our jazz group and it's a free concert, but there will be an offering taken.

Okay, wonderful.

Now, back to Requiem of Hope.

What?

We're here for today.

When is it happening?

How can people get their tickets?

Because they do need tickets ahead of time.

That would be advised.

Okay, okay.

October.

Saturday, October 25th at 7:30 p.m.. Okay.

CAPwarsaw.com.

Okay.

Is our website and all of our events are there.

You can purchase tickets for all of them.

That's a great idea.

And I know you're part of the community arts program.

And tell us a little bit more about your mission here.

We have switched our vision and our mission from just producing and performing choral works, which is very important, and that's our heritage.

And we will always do that.

Good.

I'm glad to hear that.

Yes.

And expanding it to celebrating and enhancing the, the, culture of our community through all of the arts.

Wonderful.

So we have a man on our board who is our Arts Connection team leader, and he is going into the community to discover, ways to connect local people, especially students with professional artist.

Yeah.

So they can learn their craft, they can create art together.

They can critique each other's artwork, whether it's visual art, digital graphic, written, spoken.

I love Sky's the Limit.

I know where it's going to go, but we're so excited and I know you guys have students are going to be participating in the Requiem of Hope to just talk real briefly about what that means for those kids to have the experience working with doctor Pearl.

It's going to be like nothing they've they've had before, I am sure, just because my daughter was in the choir with her, and she told me how strict Dr Shangkaun is and how she, you know, had them, like, spit out their words and they didn't even feel like they were saying that in the text.

But, just that the level of excellence that she would require from them.

And I think they'll remember it for life.

Wonderful.

Well, we can't wait to be here for this.

I hope you guys get your tickets and we'll see you here in Winona Lake.

So I'll be honest.

Before today, coming here to the Lerner Theater, I'd never heard of the musical Disney Descendants, but then I didn't really grow up watching Disney.

But my wife absolutely loves it.

And I feel like a kid now because we have a two year old, I'm getting exposed to all these Disney movies that I really didn't watch growing up.

But maybe that's an Irish thing.

Or maybe that's just my family.

But today we're talking about a new musical or musical that's being performed here in Elkhart called Disney Descendants.

I'm here with Tanner.

I'm Christopher Tanner.

You're from Premiere Arts.

And tell me a little bit.

I know I say premiere funny, premiere Arts.

Tell me a little bit about Premiere Arts.

For anybody who doesn't know.

First of all, Premiere Arts is the resident theater organization here at the Lerner Theater in downtown Elkhart.

And we produce community productions all year long.

And we really engage, people from all ages, youth, adults to come take part and perform on our stage.

And that's what we're doing this weekend.

Why do you even do that?

Like, why is it important to to do that in this area?

Not only is this community packed with talent, which we've found for the last 17 seasons, the benefits of coming together and putting on a musical on a stage of this size and scale is I can't even begin to list them, like, let alone from.

We've seen so many kids come through our doors terrified, crying and skip ahead even a few months or so, let alone a few years.

And their confidence just blossomed.

Yeah, they found something that matters to them and that they can excel at.

Like for me, growing up, I didn't do sports.

I wasn't very smart, I was I'm still terrible at math, but theater was like my safe haven somewhere that I found that I can use the gifts that I have toward being productive and not just being a problem in the classroom.

And so we found that same kind of path for so many kids, countless kids over the last 17 years.

Nice.

Christopher, tell me a little bit about your character and about the musical in general.

My character is Ben, son of beauty and the beast.

He really, really wants to have peace within Auradon and within the Isle.

He wants everything to be as good as it can be.

But the previous decree that his parents had, banishing all the evils to the eye of the lost, that kind of separated the rich from the poor, the and so on.

Yeah, the good from the bad, good, good from the.

Yeah.

Like you said, you're not really familiar with descendants.

So anybody out there that also isn't familiar.

Basically it highlights all those classic Disney villains that we know and love, but now they've grown a little older and they all have children.

And so the kids have been banished.

Meanwhile, the princes and hero kids are thriving in a prep school, and so Ben is trying to unite the kingdoms and invite some of the classic villain, like Maleficent's daughter Mal, the evil queen's daughter Eve.

Cruella de Vil, son Carlos.

Jafar, son Jay, to come over to the school to really unite them.

But of course, it doesn't quite work out that way at first.

Now, Christopher haha I almost called You Ben.

That's how good it was about, you know, you're is convincing me here with your with your, you know, you're home schooled.

You were telling me about that.

So sometimes maybe when you're in a school, it might be a bit easier to kind of get access to drama or.

Well, there's plenty of drama in school and.

But I mean actual departments.

But how did you know you have this talent?

Like, we're I'm not suggesting you're isolated or anything because you're home, but how did you know that you had the ability to perform in these?

Was it just something you did at home on your own or.

Well, I actually used to go to Northridge Middle School where I was in show choir, choir, all that.

And I when I came here, I was like, well, I have all these talents I should and I kind of want to grow in those.

Yeah.

So theater was the place to be.

And what do you think when you talk about growth?

What does that mean for you?

Like what?

What is growth actually vocal vocal growth.

Personal personal growth.

Personal personal growth.

Yeah, absolutely.

And and the growth of the mind as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

And it's you know I know I'm going to sound like an old man I've got a sore knee today.

So probably fits that I just but you know I'm 42 years old and I just I love when younger people can focus on anything that's like, off-line, you know, and and I'm not saying online's all bad.

Everything is what you use it for.

But you know, when you can see and actually do something and put your time into something that's real life with although it's Disney, but like with people and work together, I think the, I think the pay off of that is just miles better than you can get from anything online, right?

They say that no matter what career path you want to go into, you should take a theater class or an acting class because it just teaches you about personal communication.

Like like you just cannot.

Yeah, right.

Just being in tune with your own emotions and like, having that emotional intelligence to be able to read a room and read a person.

Yeah.

And so we've seen that a lot with Chris.

Chris has been with us for the last, what, three years?

You said the other day.

Yeah.

And when he came, we just were really excited because, a he's a guy and we're always in need of guys in theate But B, he's a really good kid, really great voice and lots of talent.

And we just saw so much potential in that.

And we're like, oh, we'd love to help foster that.

And we've seen him grow a lot in the last three years.

So thank you.

Good Awe... Good for you.

And, that's awesome.

I, you know, that's it's the best thing in the world.

Even when you become a dad, just seeing kids, your kids, other kids grow.

It's like, that's what it's all about.

Watching life just flourish and and just, just seeing that as, like, you kind of realize that everything else is kind of noise, you know, and just seeing people become their best version of themselves.

No matter what they have or don't have.

I just love that.

So it seems like that's what you have in abundance here, and we've just been able to see it for the past 17 seasons and going into our 18th season, which we're really excited to announce at this upcoming production of descendants.

And then right after that, we will be on the tail at the end of the year with 101 Dalmatians, which we'll need a lot of youth because, yeah, all youth production of that.

Keeping it in Disney, just keep the Cruella costume.

And then we'll be producing an all original musical of The Gift, and it's about celebrating the 100 years of the learner here at Elkhart.

So when they say don't work with children or animals, what about children who have to dress up as animals?

Is that like, oh, it's that gray area?

No, we found the sweet spot.

Yeah, we have 101 kids dressed up as Dalmatians all barking.

Yeah, yeah, that's.

We can't wait.

It sounds like my child's daycare, actually, without the costumes and when is Disney to send us the musical?

When is it happening that people can.

Come on?

It's happening October 17th through the 19th.

And with an all youth production on Saturday at two.

So alongside of doing a main stage production which Chris is in, we're having that same show, but with about another hundred kids, just to provide even more opportunity and an opportunity for growth.

Awesome.

Obviously, being in costume, being on stage, that's a great thing.

But there's also, I'm sure plenty of things backstage that need to be done.

Actually, one time I got to go to Broadway, to the backstage at Lion King.

Yeah, on Broadway in New York.

And watching what they were doing behind the scenes was just as magical as seeing the show that I like to see.

That's where the real magic happens, because no offense, you come on, you come see a show and you see all the spectacular magic.

But there was like 18,000 things to happen in order for that one effect.

Yeah.

And so we're always looking for people that just want to get involved.

Here at Premier Arts, all of our families that participate in the shows have to commit to some volunteer hours as well.

Yeah, because it's a community.

It takes a village, right?

Yeah.

But we have lots of people that come our way that just like to sew, who just like to build, who like to paint, who just want to help volunteer and help organize.

We are a community theater because we are of the community, for the community.

And so we're always looking for people who just want to get involved in some way.

And then auditions for 101 in The gift are November 1st coming down the pike.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Well, good luck with the show, Christopher.

It's nice to meet you and best of luck with your part as well and keeping an awesome young man.

Nice to meet you.

All right.

We are over in the parks today.

I am at Saint Joe County Parks.

Amal, thank you for joining us today.

We are in a unique setting right here.

We're going for a ride today.

Yes, I love it, I love it.

You guys have your fall fling coming up.

And this is a great opportunity, especially for the little kids, to get out and experience nature.

Let's talk about that.

Yeah.

I feel like a lot of times little kids are just sort of along parties, but not really at the event geared for them.

So this one is really geared for kids five and under, five and under.

Yes, absolutely.

I love that giving them an opportunity to really explore and I love we're going to be touching things and experiencing it.

Definitely, definitely.

What kinds of activities do you guys have planned?

We always try to have a variety, so there's always a snack.

There's always a craft.

This time they're going to be making chipmunk or squirrel masks.

And then we have some activities they can do to help them learn about nature a little bit.

So for example, we have some mammal furs here and here.

I'll give you some pictures.

Sure.

And you can see if you can match them to the correct animal picture.

All right.

Let's see.

So what do we have here.

Oh this night.

Oh this is probably more like a rabbit.

That is the rabbit.

Very good.

Okay.

I did a good job.

Got that?

I did.

All right.

Let's see what the next one is.

Oh, this one's big.

So this is probably what we have left.

Oh.

This is, like a groundhog.

It's a beaver.

Yeah, it's a beaver.

Yeah.

Oh, it's a little bit more coarse, too.

So.

And here's an opportunity to, like, touch and feel nature in a safe environment.

In a safe environment.

Don't actually touch the wild animals.

And then our last one here too.

So this is a raccoon.

That's a raccoon.

Really I always feel like it looks more black and whitish and it really is more brownish.

They can vary quite a bit.

Yeah it is.

And these are all ethically sourced right.

They are okay.

Are all legally obtained.

Okay, good.

And then we also do a storytime with the kids.

In this case we'll be talking about hibernation and we'll be practicing pretending to be woodchucks hibernating.

Oh, we have a woodchuck costume with, some items that help them learn about how animals survive the winter.

Okay, when is this happening?

So this is happening on Tuesday, October 21st from 10 a.m.

to noon, right here at Bendix Woods County Park.

I love it right here.

Just for two hours.

And it is really geared towards those little ones too.

That's right.

And what I love about this is this is all free.

And thanks to a wonderful grant, it is it's free.

We have a really generous grant from the Elmer R Graber Youth Fund for Exploring Nature.

We do need people to register ahead of time, just in case.

That's good to know.

Okay, so when do people need to register by?

Just by the day before.

By the 20th.

Okay.

So make sure you do register ahead of time.

But you guys are also going to have the hayride available to as kind of the center as the hay.

I love a good hayride, and especially like you don't have to worry about doing it.

Also fighting pumpkin patches and things like that.

It's just pretty straight forward.

Hayride.

Yes, exactly.

I love it so geared towards the little ones.

Why is it so important to bring nature and the little ones together?

In this day and age?

So many of us are so disconnected from outdoor time and from time and nature, and being close to the natural world is so good for our physical health, our emotional health, our mental health.

It inspires creativity in kids.

There's just so many good reasons to get kids outdoors, and this is a way that we're trying to help people do that.

Now, you guys have been doing this a long time, right?

We have.

Yeah, we've been specifically doing programs geared at little kids for over 20 years.

Incredible.

Just really want to give them a chance to get out.

Okay.

Now you've done the fall fling before.

How do people love it?

They do a lot based on the response we always get a big crowd.

You do?

I mean, people usually come out for it.

You know, I think we have had up to about 50 people in the past, which is about what our hay wagon can hold.

Okay, good to know we got to register for that too.

But do you guys do these all year long?

And not not all year long, but at certain times throughout the year.

So this isn't the only time that you can have a program like this.

Do you guys do the hayride every time too?

The hayride is only in the fall.

Okay, good.

And we have a lot of different hayride opportunities in the fall.

We have various public rides, nighttime hay rides, a neon hayride, all kinds of things like that.

But at other times of the year when we have these seasonal flings for the little ones, they might center around or tubing in the snow, okay, scooping in the pond or playing in the mud, all sorts of different activities, all great ways to kind of get in and get dirty.

So I love it.

How can people get more information?

How can they register for this?

To register they can call Bendix Woods County Park, and they can also go to our website for more information.

Our calendar of events has lots of information about everything that's coming up.

Do you have the date for the winter one yet?

We haven't set the date for the.

Okay, so you guys got to make sure that she's out here.

Are you guys on social media too?

So we can absolutely.

Along with you.

Okay.

I know it is a finally fall out here.

I know it's beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful time to be out here.

It is.

And I know this, the space itself is so beautiful.

One of my daughters did her senior pictures here.

Oh, wow.

And it was just a beautiful environment.

And I love that you guys are giving the opportunity for the little ones to come out and enjoy and experience nature, and especially get hands on with the mammals and things like that too.

Exactly.

Awesome.

Thank you so much of out.

You're welcome.

It seems like fall's going so quickly.

There's still time left before we get to winter.

We want to hear all the things that you suggest we check out here on Experience Michiana.

Be sure to tag us on social media and we will get to those.

We'll see you soon.

There is always so much going on in the Michiana area, and we are just so excited to share it with you guys, and we really do encourage you to let us know if you guys have any idea.

Next week on the show, we're going to feature the fourth annual Barn Bonanza, which is happening out at Love Way over in Elkhart County.

It's just a such a wonderful place.

We've been there a few times before.

You want to check that out on next week's show.

Another really special event that's happening up in Three Oaks, Michigan.

Coming up real soon is the John Hancock Film Festival at the Vickers Theater.

Now, if you remember John, he is the producer of Prancer as well as many other films, and I believe they're going to be showing nine of them.

And there's going to be Q&A with John.

After every film, you have a chance to get your tickets to see all of them, if you wish, up at the Vickers Theater in Three Oaks, we are also going to feature the 47th Elkhart Juried Regional Art show, which is happening at the Midwest Museum of American Art.

It's such a wonderful show featuring art from 22 counties in our region.

We had a chance to stop over there already, and it's just such beautiful artwork in a lot of different categories, so be sure to check that out on next week's show so you can see how long that show is going to be there.

In Elkhart.

There are so many things happening in the area we can never get to all of them.

Be sure to just look around.

People say there's nothing going on.

There is so much going on in the Michiana community.

A few other things that are happening.

The Hesston Steam Museum is putting on their annual Hesston Ghost Train.

It's going through the end of October on the weekends, so you want to check that out.

They also do a holiday train, which is really cool.

We featured that about 5 or 6 years ago.

It's just a wonderful experience over there at the Hesston Steam Museum.

Also, the Washington Park Zoo over in Michigan City is doing their booth at the zoo coming up this Saturday, the 18th from 10 to 4.

It's a great opportunity to get in there and have a little bit of added entertainment, along with all the wonderful animals that are happening there at the zoo.

Woodlawn Nature Center is also having, their 60th anniversary coming up Saturday, November 1st.

They've been doing a lot to promote, you know, just the nature around us with all kinds of programs throughout the year.

And they are celebrating their 60th anniversary coming up on November 1st.

Culver is having their fall festival, and it's a three day event.

It's coming up October 24th through the 26th.

There is so much going on over those that time period.

There's a chili cook off.

You know, food is the way to your heart.

And so you want to check out all the different things that are happening at the Culver Fall Festival.

There is so much going on in the Michiana community, and we really want to know what you guys are doing.

So hit us up on Facebook or send us a message.

Use the hashtag Experience Michiana.

We can find it that way too, but we really want to know what you guys are up to and what you think everybody else should know about.

Have a great week everybody.

We'll see you next time.

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