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 skywith 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 intoa beautiful evening.

And together make beautiful art.

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

That's right.

Well, itis finally fall here in Michiana and we can't wait to share all the wonderful thingsthat there is here to do right in your town.

First up, we're talking aboutthe South Bend Lyric Opera.

This is a wonderful opportunityfor you to experiencecontemporary opera.

That's right.

And even some localregional composer.

We're going to give youall those details for howyou can get a free ticket to it.

Also checking outthe opportunity for a futsal tryout.

Yeah, for thosewho are the soccer lovers in the community, you want to be sure to check out what they haveto offer and learn more about when their tryoutsare happening.

But first up,we are going to be heading over to Syracusefor their ghost tour.

Spooky time.

From time to time.

Zoom is still handy, although I think after the lastfive years we're all over zoom.

So Erin I wouldrather be in person with you.

But, I'mjoined by a board member of the Chautauqua Wawasee group,which is Erin Lomax.

Erin, tell me a little bitabout what Chautauqua Wawasee, and I hope my Irish accentis pronouncing that correctly.

Yeah.

No, you're doing really well.

Yeah.

So let's talk a little bitabout Chautauqua Wawasee So we are a Syracuse areanonprofit.

We do community programingthroughout the year.

Some people in the areaare probably very familiar with our programs.

Old fashionedChristmas, the Patriotic Pops concert and speakerseries in July.

All of our programsare low cost or free, and they'reall community programs.

A lot of them are very family friendly,and we are part of the broader Chautauqua network that expandsthroughout the United States.

And, it was never in any doubtthat Chautauqua Wawasee.org, was going to be availableas a web address?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't think there was any riskof that already being taken.

Yeah, I like it.

And so you talk about it beingthroughout the United States.

Can you tell me a little bit about,like, the history of it even before it came tothe Syracuse area?

Sure.

Yeah.

Chautauqua as an organization has been around forwell over a century.

It was first established duringthe days that were pre radio.

Pre TV.

And it was a way to bringin, speakers who would speak on, on philosophyor self-improvement or faith, to rural areas in particular.

And it really becamean institution throughout the United States, especially in those pre radio,pre television days.

There are still a couple dozenChautauqua organizations that are still within operationin the United States.

We're actuallyone of the newer ones.

But we,we're about a decade old.

And in the past,I'd say 5 or 6 years, we've we've really gottena groove going, with our community programing, with establishing a namefor ourselves in the area and with connecting with otherChautauquas across the U.S.. A lot of the programsthat you've established, as you mentioned,like the Christmas and in July, when you have the other event, it it seems like you kind of goback to the roots of the organization,the century old roots.

Is that somethingthat's very important to it, that it is very much in person,and it has a traditional feel to it?

Absolutely.

All of our programsare in-person events.

We have events, that rangefrom historical in nature, to faith based in nature.

We also have art workshops, throughout the summerand the fall.

So we really try to hita very broad swath of, of our communityand not just in Syracuse, but in surrounding communitiesas well.

We really want Syracuseto be a destination, for kind of arts and cultureand Chautauqua as an institution has always been concerned,with, with those program topic areas.

It's always been about improving the intellectuallife in the community and really nurturingthose lifelong learners.

I love that, and,I know that you have, the ghost tour coming up, here on October18th for one night only.

Can you tell me a little bit?

Yes.

So the Syracuse GhostWalk is a brand new program.

This will be the first yearthat we've run this program.

And it's it's a very unique,one night only, walking tour of downtownSyracuse, but with a twist.

So we have volunteerstorytellers positioned at each tour stop.

They're going to be embodyingsome personages, from notable figuresfrom Syracuse's past and a few notorious onesas well.

And so it's an opportunity forthe community to to come out, on a beautiful eveningand learn more about the history of Syracuseand how it ties into some bigger things that that have happenedon the national stage as well.

I'll give you a couple ofexamples of some of our ghosts.

So you can come out and meetAndrew Carnegie.

He is the one that helpedprovide funding for the SyracusePublic Library, which still stands and operatesas a library today.

You can come out and meetJohn Dillinger, who spent one of the last monthsof his life on Lake Wawasee.

You can even meet silent filmstar John Bowers, who used to sail on Lake WawaseeHis mother lived in Syracuse and his story was actually part of the basis for the filmA Star Is Born.

So we have a lot of thesekind of national figures, and then we havesome more local ones as well.

So for instance,we have a Syracuse bank president who,was actually kidnaped and tied up outside of the bankbuilding while robbers went in and robbed it.

It sounds awesomebecause, you know, when you talk about a ghost walkor a haunted walk, you know, initiallyyou think, okay, there's some buildings around the areathat might be haunted, right?

But it's actually it's reallya history tour using the season.

Right.

And and it's, really,it sounds super interesting.

I love it.

Is this somethingyou've done before, or is this the first time?

No, this is brand new, and it'stotally unique to the area.

Yeah.

Usuallywhen you do hear about a ghost walk, a ghost tour,it's like ghost hunting, right?

Like we're going to visithaunted buildings.

But that's not it.

We have ghostshaunting, particular stops on the tour who want to tell youtheir story.

So, yeah, it'sa very unique event.

I'm just wondering if,the actor who gets to play the person who is, famous andsilent film has any lines?

He sure does.

Yeah.

I'm sure.

Yeah.

I wasn't sureif he was going to stand there.

Yeah.

No, he's.

Maybe we should just have a mimeon camera.

Right?

Yeah.

And all this is put on by volunteers as well,which is absolutely amazing.

Yeah, it is amazing.

So, ChautauquaWawasee is all volunteers, even those of us on the board,like me.

All of our tour guidesfor this program, all of our volunteerstorytellers, we are all volunteers just doing thisfor the love of our community.

I love that,and it's October 18th.

What time does it start?

So the tours start at 6:00in the evening.

A different tour groupwill depart every 15 minutes.

However,we are highly encouraging people to reserve their spot aheadof time and to buy a ticket on our website,which is Chautauqua Wawasee.org.

Adults are $3 and kidsten and under are free.

So you can choose the tour timethat works best for you.

Each tour lastsfor about an hour, and the total walking distanceis only about a half a mile, and it is on flat surfaces.

So we're very proudthat this is mobility device friendly as well.

Or just people like mewho don't like to walk friendly.

Exactly.

Yeah.

We're not.

No, we're not going to make you walk a marathonor anything like that.

So thankfully the web addresswill be on the screen as we're talking.

But as you mentioned,you can pick a time on there and and scheduleand RSVP ahead and get your time and everything like thatcorrect.

Erin, we talkedto a lot of people on this show.

Most of themare very nice people, but some of them are very goodspeakers.

You are a great speaker.Just so you know, I will.

Thank you.

I don't knowif you have experience in public speaking or anything, but you'rea great public speaker or so.

Oh well, thank you so much,I appreciate that.

Maybe you're like Wawasee█snext big radio DJ.

So yeah.

That's me.

That's me.

Well,we're back to an original space for the South Bend Lyric Opera.

You guys have been doing thisfor ten years now and bringing it kind of backhome, where we're at right now.

This isn't where you're goingto be performing this year, but this is an important spacefor you two at the Lang Lab.

It is indeed.

This is allwe started ten years ago.

In fact, in this room, this very roomwe have started our very first, meeting about doing an opera.

And then and then we decide,wow, this is a cool room.

This is a bohemian space.

So this is where we did a LaBoheme the first time in, 2016.

Yeah.

So this is a long time ago, but,I mean, it seems like a long time ago,but not really.

It goes very quickly,goes very quickly.

And in fact, that is the pianowe actually worked with the very first time as well.And is it still in tune?

Yes, almost.

Okay.

Now tell us about the opera that you guysare going to be putting on.

So we're going to do,a production of a song cycle or songcycle is a little different.

The song cycle is, numberof songs that have a theme, and then we have artiststhat, stand and perform.

So rather than kind ofstorytelling, it's more individualized,but also all collaborative.

Exactly.

Okay.

And it is a storytelling because it does have atheme, but, it's not, staged and costumed like we,we usually do with an opera.

But it does have a theme,and we have projections to, and then we'll,we'll talk a little more about the whole the whole show because it's, it's a reallycool show and it's, it's, a project that Ian brought to us and he, is, is kind of spearheadingthat in many ways.

I love that.

Tell us about this know, because this is a really specialand unique opera that you guys are puttingtogether.

It's a regional composer.

Yeah.

So, Songs in Flight, is writtenby, Shawn Okpebholo.

He's a Nigerian American composer locatedin, in the Chicago area.

So.

Yeah.

Right.

Right near by.Yeah.

And I came upon his work,a few years ago.

Just learning about, like,he did a lot of, reimaginings of spiritualsand things like that.

And I really liked, his renditions, just the way hecomposes and things like that.

It has a traditionalsound to it.

But then there's a contemporaryspin.

There's like.

And when you think contemporarymight be a little bit of like dissonancehere, things that are kind of.

Yeah.

What does that mean?

This contemporary,I mean, the approach to more of a traditional opera.

Yeah.

So it's it might be differentlike our, you know, aurallyjust like different sounds.

So dissonancemight be one like though some of those chords itto sound like off for a second or like what is thatlike that sort of thing.

So it kind of playa lot of contemporary pose to play around with those kindsof sounds and things like that.

And sothat's quite a bit of what, of what Shawn has brought, into workslike Songs in Flight.

So it's taking sort oflike the classical realm, but then also interminglingwith, with black music,with, with work songs, with, protest songs and thingslike that within the work.

So did their influencesof various things.

And there's components of this that are factual too,in the storytelling process.

Yeah.

So, so all Songs of Flightis a response to, of, runaway slave ad from thefreedom on the move database.

And so it was,these various poets that took a, read themand then took a response.

And so throughout the work, you'll seeprojections of these ads or, singers will be reading the ads, and then there will beand then they'll be the songs.

They're sort of responsesto what's happening.

And so it's very much, very much a kind of likea not so much of a historical.

It is a historical thing,but it's very much a contemporary responseto all of it.

So, it kind of notessome of the contradictions of in, in the,as there are moments of where, you know, where the slave masters would write descriptionsabout them that they know, you know, might know French or knowspecific details about them, you know, but it's alwayssort of like that is thereis that humanity aspect to them.

But then there's still property.

It's so it's sort of likelooks at those contradictions.

And so the,the work investigates what all of that means.

Who were these peoplebehind all of it.

And, and it also seeks to,bring a contemporary look at it.

So it does, it does, reference, you know, the deaths of Ahmaud Arberyand Trayvon Martin and things like thatthrough it as well.

So it's very it's very cool now that the particularperformance, I think, on the 16th,you guys have a panel that'sgoing to be participating.

We do.

Yes.

And we have, leaders from the community.

And Ian has,talked to all of them.

Can you tell us?

So, yes.

So, we're we're fortunate,that, Doctor Shawn Okpebholo the composer, is available,and he is coming for this.

And so this and this,this is really pick his brain.

Yeah.I think this is a very busy man.

He's really been a rising starover the last few years.

His last album of spiritualsand, and songs is like, was Grammy nominatedand everything like that.

So he's gotten really,really, really rising.

So we're really fortunate thathe'll be able to come and talk.

We've also got him.

We've got, Doctor Darryl Heller, of a civil rights heritagecenter, to come and talk as well as doctor De Bryant,the social actor.

And will that be beforeor after the, so we, So, Shawn, Shawn Okpebholo will talk, like,just a little bit before I just kind of givethe overview.

Like what?

This.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then afterwards,after the performance and there will be a little of a panel discussionabout what people just saw, kind of like how,you know, what a response to how what do we do at this point after that, that, now, as a director, I know you've had many themesin the past.

Why specifically this theme?

Partly because, Ian brought to me and I didn't knowabout the work, and he.

And this isn█t a debut.

This is as it's beenit's been performed before in New York, and, we areand he brought it to me and I was like, yeah,we got to do this.

Yeah.

It's a it's a great show.

And we've doneshows like this, in the past, in terms of contemporaryshows is they have they have modern themes, themesthat we deal with today, but also take on themesas this particular work is going to show on thingsthat happen, historical things.

And we take our contemporaryview on that.

And then, and, and, so we've done these thingsin the past and then we, we will continueto do as part of our, our, modelto, to bring contemporary works also traditional works toand we've done that and we will do that as well.And you guys do that too.

So this performancewhen is it happening?

This is happening in October,October 16th and October 18th.

October 16th is going to be at, Indiana University,South Bend, okay.

In the Joshi PerformanceHall and, and 18th, which is a Saturday.

It's a 2:00 performance is goingto be at the MLK Dream Center.

So that's making itvery accessible for our community,right, for our community.

And this is one of the thingsthat we have been doing, bringing operato the community and love.

And this is the first timewe're going to be, in that part of the city, and we try to move in the north part and the westpart of the south and everywhere we can get to do,because the community sometimes, doesn't come to the opera house because it's like, oh, opera,but but it is it is true.

It's very intimidating.

You will.

Right.

So we have performed, at art beat.

We have performed at yart.

We have performedvarious places, because we want to bring opera and we want to bring thisartform to the community.

And this, this is what we weretrying to do.

I love it.

Now, you and you have performedin these performances as well.

Too.

Here at South BendLyric Opera, talk about that aspectcoming from a performance view.

So, you know, it'sI definitely to that point of like, you know, if opera can be intimidating,I know it took me, you know, it definitely took me for a second to figure out, like,what is this?

What why am I what am I sitting herefor those long period of time?

Well, people are just,like singing at me or whatever.

And so, you know, I thinkthe thing that is the thing that's fun about opera isit is a challenging artform.

It doestake a lot of athleticism.

It does take a lot of work.

So it is a lot of fun for mejust to to work on it.

But, you know what I appreciateit is productions like Tosca.

You know,my thing is being able to, you know, put them in different timeperiods and then also be able to likeput like some a lot of the thingsthat in these, these operas from a long timeago are still talking about very similar ideas and things,just at a different time frame.

Yeah.

But yeah, I really I like being able to appreciate,to reinterpret and being able to bring my own tasteinto a character of what I think these things are and thingslike that at each performance.

And now,how many performers do you have in those particular productions?

So in this particularproduction, we have four singersand one pianist.

Okay.

So, there's going to be, two sopranos, a countertenorand a baritone.

You know,people need to get tickets.

Yes.

We have a link, for thaton our website, and you can buy ticketsfor the show on the 16th.

The show on the 18th is goingto be free to the public.

Oh, my gosh.

Amazing.What a gift.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

I'm here with Isaac Nunez, who is the executivedirector of Life Works Ministry.

Isaac, we're going to talka little bit why?

I'm holding a futsal,which, by the way, I never heard of futsal tillI moved to the United States.

But it'skind of like a variation of, like, soccer, right?

Yeah.

This is kind of what it's about, but but first of all,your executive director of LifeWorks Ministries.

Tell me a little bit about whatthat is.

Yeah, life Works Ministry.

We're a young adult ministry working with primarily collegeage students, and they have three primaryprograms, one on Sundays.

We host, a gathering anywhere from 50to 70 young adults inside.

I'm talking to you insidea living room.

You can talk to the talk at homewhile we talk to both.

Yeah.

5070.

Gatherin a living room for a dinner discussion, Bible study,and then we have a fitness club that we call the build, Build Your fitness,faith, friendships, which is just an extensionof that community.

And then PD one is primarily what we're goingto be talking about, which is a soccerfutsal ministry to use our, our young adult age students,young adults to reach the community,the youth in the community.

And so, I got to go along to oneof your Sunday, gatherings.

Your 724 is what you call it.

And for Matthew 724.

Yeah.

And so I went along to that.

I wasn't surewhat to expect going in.

It was a, as you said, a bunchof like teenagers and early 20s.

And I was like the oldest onethere, who came together.

There was live music,there was worship, there was food.

And what is it about life Worksthat you even needed to create this in order to havea place for younger people, because it is about worship.

But it's so much deeperthan that.

It's about being ina relationship with each other.

Sure.

So yeah, the the sad, scary,unfortunate reality is, is there are so many young adultsthat are depressed, are anxious, that faced suicidalthoughts that even even if they have seen thingsthat they that are put together,they still have no idea what step to take in lifeas they enter into adulthood.

And and that kind of periodfrom high school, college.

Entering the real world,as you say, is it's a pivotal momentof finding your community.

You leave your high schoolfriends behind, and it's like, what do I do?

Where do I go?

And you start asking the bigquestion, what's my purpose?

So really, to create a spacewhere you have a community of young peopleasking the same questions and, and people like me, not that I have everythingput together, but me and and and the couple that started thisministry, Redford and Liz were there75 and 69 and age respectively, to to have peopleto come alongside young adults in this pivotal momentjust to help think right.

Think forward.

And as I was there, this is not about likepushing God on people.

This is about creating a spacefor people for for themto explore themselves.

That's what it's really about.And I loved it.

I had a great time there.I thought it was awesome.

So that's a great thingthat happens that happens in Granger,Indiana every week that goes on.

You talk about havingthe fitness every Thursday.

But the reason we're here today is talk about PD1,which stands for Player Development and PlayerDevelopment one.

And again, this is this is aboutbringing young people together.

So you've got your next kindof season of that coming up.

So tell me a little bitabout that.

People at home this is foryounger people to sign up.

That'swhat you're hoping for right.

Yeah.

Yeah yeah.

No.

So PD1 is is a high level futsal program that uses, like I said,young adult mentors, coaches to to coach, mentor and help kidsget their thinking right while getting high levelfutsal training, helping them get to thenext step, which could be, college.

A lot of a lot of kidslike myself.

I wanted to go and be a pro.

Futsal is, it's a proven sport.

You look at Brazil,you look at Argentina.

I mean, a lot of these worldclass players that you see in the pros,they started out in futsal So it's a proven it's a proventhing to help develop your game.

Now, if we can bring youngpeople into this space, get high level trainingand then also mentor them so that they can get their thinking right,we do something called the The Ultimate ten,which are the ten most important minutesof the training we call thinking training, because there's nothingmore important than than the way you think.

And ultimately, yes, futsalBut ultimately we want to help peopleget their thinking right, because there's nothingmore important than the way you think.

And when you sayget your thinking right, what what do you mean by that?

Because what's right to youmight be wrong to someone else.

And is that about,you know, God, or is that about just giving them the spaceto kind of to focus on good values,or what do you mean by that?

Yeah,ultimately, at at our core, life works and PD onebeing a program of life works, we are Jesus.

Jesus first Jesus focusedand we believe that he is the way,the truth and the life.

And we're ultimately hopingto point people towards him.

However, we want tocreate a space in that that you can question and ask.

And ultimately we just want to get peopleeven to ask the questions like, all right, maybe there is a God who islike, let let's explore that.

Let's not necessarilypush it on people, but who is this,this God that people talk about?

Who is this Jesusthat people talk about?

So.

So it's more aboutbeing his example rather than just a mouthpiece?100%.

Like I said, the thethe ultimate ten is, ten minutesof the entire training.

The rest of that is going to bethe coaching.

It's going to be during the water breaks,building the relationship.

It's a lot more likeyou're saying about the the examplerather than the actual content.

And so player development one,when does it start?

How do people get involved?How long does it go on for?

It's like 14 weeksor something like that.

Over the winter, right?

About 14weeks.

Tryouts will be November7th and eighth.

So Friday, November 7th, Saturday, November 8th,it'll go up until February 13th.

Friday.

Sign up at pd1.us.

And soyou talk about the tryouts.

So it's not like everyonecan do it or the tryouts more just a way to get people involved to expose them to itor is there a chance that there won't be ableto actually take part?

Yeah,a little, little bit of both.

Futsal is somewhatof a new sport to this area.

So people come try out.

They may or may not like it.

But there is going to be that, that opportunity where eachfutsal team only has about 12 to 15 at the most playerson each team.

And we're going to be going outand competing, playing in tournaments,playing and friendly games.

So we want to create itin such a way that it's going to be high levelfor those that want to reach, yeah, reach that next level.

And so although it's Life Worksministry right now we're at LifelineYouth Ministries, which is like their hubin Elkhart.

And this is where you're actually going to be doingthe tryouts.

Right?

Yes.

So LifelineYouth Ministries in Elkhart not connected with lifeWorks Ministry, but they have a beautiful facilitythat they've they've allowed us to come alongside them and usefor for three days a week.

And in these winter monthscoming up now, I want people to knowI do not have big hands.

This is a slightlysmaller football So what I want you to do rightnow, Isaac.

Right.

I want to see how good you arenow.

There's not.

I think it needs a bitmore little air now.

I want I want to see youhit one of the, Actually,I want you to hit the crossbar.

I know there's not technicallya crossbar, so I don't want you tojust get it in.

I want youto actually hit the crossbar.

So for those of you that don'tknow, a futsal ball is heavier.

This is actually sizethree adults or older kids will use a size four,but it's a heavier, harder ball.

It doesn't have as much bounce.

Oh so that is the actual amount of airit's supposed to have on it.

It has a little bit more,but that pretty much is is it.

All right.

So I want to see how goodyou are right now.

Oh my goodness.

Here we go.

All right.It all comes down to this.

Oh okayI mean it wasn't the crossbar.

It went in though.

That was pretty good power.

So you see on the T-shirtPD1.us is where you can find the information.

Life works Ministry istheir name of the organization.

You can also go to LifeWorks ministry.com as well.

Isaac thank youso much.

Yes sir.

Thank you.

Well, thankyou so much for joining us.

Next week was here with youa little bit more about what we're doing here at Bendix WoodsCounty Park and play with the hay!

Want more from Courtney,Dave and Kelly?

Follow us on social mediaand visit our website for exclusive behind the scenes content, extended interviews,and full length features.

Stay connectedand experience it all today.

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

Thank you.