So I am here at the Wagon Wheel Theater in Warsaw, and I'm here with Sam, who's the communications marketing guy.

That's what you go by, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Sam, we're getting ready for Footloose.

Tell me about what's happening.

This is actually at one stage, I did actually do a radio show from here, but it was out in the parking lot.

And for some reason, I never came in here.

And as I walk in here, I'm like, this is really cool.

It's so unique.

There's one word to describe Wagon Wheel and that is truly magical.

It's how we like to describe it.

This is a very rare thing we're seeing behind us that not a lot of people have access to.

So I'm excited that you're here.

These are the true magic makers of Wagon Wheel.

The crew, they're the first ones here.

They're the last ones to leave.

So they're building the set right now.

Even though the show opens tomorrow.

But this will be completely done by 8:00 tonight.

Wow.

I have some.

You have rehearsals tonight?

Yeah.

And so is the crew that puts this together.

Are they, like, Warsaw based, or is it footloose?

People that come in and do it or so Wagon Wheel?

Every summer we hire 70 of the best up and coming young professionals in the nation.

So that includes the actors.

Right.

But that also includes painters and designers and stitchers wardrobe wigs.

We hired the best of the best, and we audition alone about 3000 people every summer to come and perform here from all over the world.

So our leads tonight in Footloose are Ren and Ariel.

He is from Georgia and she's from Los Angeles, California.

And so they stay then here.

Like, how long is Footloose actually on?

It's on the whole summer.

Right.

But loose runs for exactly ten performances.

So at Summer Stock Theater, it's fast and furious that we're already in our third show of the summer out of five, which is crazy.

It feels like we just opened our first show a few weeks ago.

Okay, so again, getting all these people from all over the country.

Yeah.

Are there theaters that, like, actors know?

Like, is there a website like where?

Like, I'm kind of curious about that, even though that's probably not what this segment is about.

But I'm curious about how do they find out that this even exists?

That's a great question.

One thing I wish people knew about the performing arts and Broadway in general.

That community is very small.

It's a lot tighter than you might think.

Therefore, when you have performers who The Road to Broadway always includes a stop at Wagon Wheel, which was actually the title of an article that was written about us last year.

Isn't that amazing?

That's awesome.

When we have actors who are fighting tooth and nail to work here and then they're on Broadway, you just kind of learn through that network.

Oh, I definitely want to go work at Wagon Wheel for a summer.

So like a good example is and this is one of my favorite stories, one of our alumni.

Her name is Mackenzie Kurtz.

She's a huge Broadway star right now.

She just she's in Schmigadoon!

On Broadway, which just won the Tony for Best New Musical.

She was Glinda in Wicked.

She was Heather Chandler and Heathers.

Like she is killing the game.

She was Princess Anna in Frozen on Broadway, and her Kristoff was another Wagon Wheel alumni, but they never worked here together.

At the same time, they met in New York.

But they immediately kind of had that really cool connection.

Right.

Isn't that awesome?

It is.

And I'm sure most people don't realize that Wagon Wheel plays such a part in a lot of people's futures.

Oh yeah.

We just hope the message that we are sending to people is, first of all, we're a nonprofit, so we're here to serve the community.

Right.

But we hope that people realize when you are seeing, let's say, Footloose, that Wagon Wheel, you're not just seeing local actors or just some kids from all over the country.

You're seeing the best of the best, who will always, historically speaking, inevitably have an incredible career on Broadway stages.

It's really cool.

And so what about tell me about this theater and the way it's set up, because it's obviously very unique.

Yeah.

So if I'm going to throw it back all the way to in the early 50s, a man named Herb Petrie, who was a very powerful businessman and musician, he saw theater in the round in Washington state and thought, I've never seen anything like this.

And funny enough, he said, you know what town could use this?

Warsaw, Indiana.

So we used to be a dirt floor with a tent where you brought your own lawn chair, and it was outdoors, and it was hot and sweaty in the late 70s, early 80s.

We built this building that were now and we've been killing it ever since.

And what I love about Wagon Wheel, the best thing about it is with theater in the round.

First of all, you're always within ten rows of the action.

And number two, you are literally becoming part of the show.

Our first show of the summer was cats, which is already just a very fantastical experience.

But with that kind of intimacy, the cats are just getting in your face.

It's it's delicious.

It's awesome.

I think it's also really cool for the actors and people involved, that they also get a closeness to the audience that you can't ignore.

Yes.

And they have made comments about that this summer where they're for most of our actors, this is the first time they're working in the round.

They're used to working in proscenium, and they've said, I'm recognizing patrons that are coming back to shows and meeting them after the show at the stage door.

It's a really rewarding experience to build that relationship.

And so also a lot of when you're looking up on stage, there's things swapping and, you know, there's a lot of hidden elements.

So you can't hide anything here really.

I mean, so so also changing the set must be its own unique challenge, which I want to give a big shout out to our artistic director.

His name is Scott Michaels.

He's been here for 31 years, and he's the reason why we have all these Broadway dreams coming to life.

But he likes to tell people he loves a challenge.

He loves to be told what cannot be done in the round.

And then he'll just go do it.

So, like, I will, I will give you I'm going to give you an exclusive.

Can I do that?

Sure.

Yeah.

I will not tell you what, but we have already picked our shows for the 2027 summer season, which is a huge secret.

And we're bringing in three new shows.

Wagon wheel is never done before, and one of those shows technically feels very impossible.

But we're ready for the challenge, and we're going to do it unlike anyone who could ever do it right.

Yeah, it's going to be awesome.

So there's a lot going on.

Yeah.

And you also, I noticed there was some of the orchestra going down as well because at first I thought, oh, they must not have live music.

And because I was just but then there's, there's, there's lots of hidden areas.

So there is so there is a live there is a live orchestra and connected to the orchestra pit, which is right below the show, and they see the show through monitors.

There's a hidden tunnel that a lot of people don't think is real.

There's kind of this legend that there might be a secret 25ft tunnel underneath Wagon Wheel.

There is.

It's very real.

The biggest reason we have it is for fire code, which is so glamorous.

But the other reason we have it is it allows us to do trapdoor entrances and exits.

We always kind of just default to the Wicked Witch and Munchkin Land, right?

How does she rise up?

She can rise to the middle of the stage by crawling through the secret tunnel.

It's also a great place to arrive, to work when you're late someday and you're like, no, no, no, I've been here the whole time.

So I was taking a nap in the tunnel.

Yeah, yeah, just another practical use for it.

But no, that's really cool.

And obviously Footloose is, you know, is happening right now.

What else is coming up this year that people can look forward to?

So after Footloose closes, which is our third show of five, we're moving into dialog for murder, which who doesn't love a murder mystery?

Those are super hot right now, right?

Like a true crime podcast.

We're closing out with Anything Goes, which was written by the late, great Cole Porter, who's a Hoosier who's from Indiana.

So a lot of people consider anything goes to be his magnum opus, but it's a huge tap dancing show on a boat.

It's magnificent.

Yeah.

And so are there also like concerts and things like that, or is it all just shows that happen here?

Great question.

We have what we call our spokes of the wheel, if you know what I mean.

And that's our different programing.

So does that make you the spokesperson I you're welcome.

I've literally never thought of that before and I'm glad that was caught on camera.

I guess the jokes I guess I misspoke.

Well, that's a great new title.

I'm changing my title here now.

You heard it here.

After we close our professional summer shows, we will do a community theater play in the fall.

They're doing a midsummer Night's Dream, and then we always do a Halloween kids show, or what we call a Wagon Wheel Junior show.

So we're really excited about those.

That's great.

I love seeing everything come together because this in itself is magic.

You know, as you mentioned, putting the magic together.

But I almost feel like you can nearly sell tickets to just sit here watching people put the show together.

It is fascinating how it all comes together, and the use of space is such no obstructed view, and there's no such thing as a bad seat.

Yeah, no, that's just the truth of being in the round.

It is.

It's awesome.

So if people want to get tickets, get more information, please.

You can always stop by before the show in person at the box office with Footloose.

I wouldn't recommend that.

We are almost sold out for opening night.

Wagon Wheel Center is your best friend.

You could call us.

You just Google us and look us up.

Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts I always recommend Shameless plug.

I run all of our social media stay engaged on social media.

That's how you find out everything before everybody else does.

Listen to the spokesperson.

He really knows what he's doing, so don't leave that in.