AOTA-231103 - Paul and Angie Lowe, and Michelle Shafer

This week on Art in the Air, Paul and Angie Lowe discuss their long career in the Northwest Indiana theater scene and their new show, 1776. Michelle Schaefer also makes an appearance. The spotlight is on Art Barnes' Holiday Shoppe, featuring small items from artists in the region. The exhibit runs through December and includes wearables, smaller works of art, and functional pieces. The Holiday Gift Gallery is accepting works until November 4th. The gallery features a variety of items ranging from small prints and greeting cards to jewelry and ceramics. The exhibit is curated by Dinah Heischler. The Art Barn School of Art will also host a Student and Instructor Exhibition and classes for the spring session will be available in January. The school does not currently have an artist in residence but will have guest artists teaching traditional techniques. The Holiday Gift Gallery will have a reception on November 10th. Paul and Angie Lowe share their theatrical love story and discuss their This week on Art in the Air, we feature long-time fixtures of the Northwest Indiana theater scene Paul and Angie Lowe, sharing details about their nearly six-decade career and their new show, 1776. Next, we have an encore visit with singer-songwriter-guitarist Michelle Schaefer. Our spotlight is on Art Barnes' Holiday Shoppe, running through December with Executive Director Amy Nabodakis. Express yourself, you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself, you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself, you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself, you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself, you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself, you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself, you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself, you are, and show the world your heart. You're in the know with Esther and Larry, Art on the Air today. They're in the know with Larry and Esther, Art on the Air our way. Express yourself, you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself, you are, and show the world your heart. Welcome, you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, WVLP 103.1 FM, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout northwest Indiana and beyond. I'm Larry Breckner of New Perspectives Photography, right alongside here with Esther Golden of The Nest in Michigan City. Aloha, everyone. We're your hosts for Art on the Air. Art on the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Art on the Air is heard every Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at LakeshorePublicMedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Also heard on Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP, 103.1 FM, streaming live at WVLP.org, and Tuesdays at 4 p.m. on WDSO 88.3 FM. Our spotlight interviews are also heard Wednesdays on Lakeshore Public Media. Information about Art on the Air is available at our website, breck.com, slash A-O-T-A. That includes a complete show archive, spotlight interviews, plus our show is available on multiple podcast platforms, including NPR One. Please like us on Facebook, Art on the Air, WVLP, for information about upcoming shows and interviews. We'd like to welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight, back from the Art Barnes School of Art in Alperezo, Amy Nepredaka. She's going to tell us about some of the things going on there and some of the things like coming up the holiday season and beyond. Welcome back to the show, Amy. Thanks for having me. Aloha, welcome. So you have your show coming up. You just closed the Dave show, I think, and they used to be Dyer Diversified, I think, Visionaries. Now it's just Diversified Visionaries. But now you're going to come into like the holiday season. You have something very special. This is your sixth season, I think, but tell us a little bit about that. Yeah. Yeah. So it's called the Holiday Gift Gallery. And like several of the exhibitions that we have during the year, it features artists from the region. And that's part of our mission is to support those artists. And the Gift Gallery is a little bit different from some of the other exhibitions that we do in that we try to get small items from artists rather than like large wall pieces or, you know, art purchases or such a personal purchase. These are more like things that you would want to give to other people. So, you know, we try to get wearables and smaller works of art and functional pieces. Do you accept them throughout the season or are you set with who's in the Gift Gallery? We have a period of time where we accept those works. And so the – oh, I can't remember exactly how long those works are being accepted. But we try to kind of get everything, inventory it in, and then it's open for the gallery. So I know that in the past, Esther, when you were merchandising for an organization that, you know, you did it all year round and this is something we do for, you know, like we start after Art Blitz and then we, you know, continue during the run of the exhibition. Trying to find out when the deadline was to submit an application to be part of the Gift Gallery. Yeah, I would say that would definitely – it's the end of October. So I think if it gets too close to the submission date, then it gets just too tricky to kind of manage that. So I would say before November 4th. What types of things do you have there? You said small items, but what variety of things do you have in your gallery? So it would range anything from, you know, the artwork pieces would range anything from, you know, small prints, greeting cards, you know, small, you know, photographs in different kind of depends on what artists bring us, even woodcuts and things. On up to wearables. I know there are going to be a few different fiber art pieces in there. We try to get a lot of jewelry. Jewelry is a very popular item during the holiday gift gallery. And we usually work with Carl Reichert and he does woodworking pieces that are real popular too. General price range of items? You know, the artists can price things what they would like, but we really do like to have a range so that we can say that there's price points for every budget. So I would say everything from like $10 items on up to, you know, several hundred dollars. And I think ceramics would definitely be part of this as well because we do work with several ceramic artists as well. So who curates your exhibit? It is curated by our exhibition chair, Dinah Heischler. She has been our champion for exhibitions over the last several years and does a wonderful job of organizing and kind of, you know, getting artists involved. So she's sort of our lead for that. So after the holiday, you have an exhibit coming up in next year. It's kind of special at home. I think it's called the Student and Instructor Exhibition. Tell us a little bit about that, and I guess there's still time to submit things for that if you fall in that category. Yeah, yeah. So we haven't really done a student and instructor exhibition combined. At least, I don't think it's happened in my tenure at Art Barn. And so we thought this was a really wonderful way to highlight our artists, the artist's work, the student work, but then also so people can kind of get a sampling of what our teaching artists do outside of their teaching hours. So it gives people, like, a little insight into who our instructors are. So it's a really special opportunity, I think. And with 2024 coming up, you have a new set of classes getting ready to go online? Yeah, we do. Classes for spring, our spring session runs from January 1 to the end of May. So it's quite a span. But those opened up in mid-December. And, you know, so everything is up on our website. If you check out artbarnschool.org, go navigate to our education pages, and you'll see where everything's at. So residencies, do you have any residencies coming up? We don't currently have a resident. Yeah, it's actually, you know, I would love to see, like, a robust artist residency program at Art Barn for so many reasons. But it's really a difficult, very time-intensive project. So we don't currently have an artist in residence, but I know that my program director and I are really, really, really want to do it. It's just, we're just, we're kind of capped with our bandwidth right now. So, unfortunately, no. But we do have some guest artists coming up. I'm going to space on the dates. I know one of them is Karen Akoff, and she's the next person that's going to be teaching some, like, some very traditional techniques. And so we're really looking forward to having her come. Sounds great. Well, we appreciate coming on Art on the Air Spotlight. That's the Holiday Gift Gallery at Art Barn School of Art in Valparaiso, November 4th through December 30th. And they're going to have a reception on Friday, November 10th from 5 to 7. Amy, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thanks for having me. Yeah, nice to see you, Amy. Thank you, Esther. Nice to see you, too. Art on the Air Spotlight and the complete one-hour program on Lakeshore Public Media is brought to you by Macaulay Real Estate in Valparaiso, Ola Patrician Senior Broker. And as a reminder, if you'd like to have your events on Art on the Air Spotlight or have a longer feature interview, email us at aotaatbrech.com. That's aotaatbrech, B-R-E-C-H, dot com. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, on WVLP, 103.1 FM. We would like to welcome Paul and Angie Lowe to Art on the Air. Angie and Paul have been a force in the Northwest Indiana theater scene for nearly six decades, a true human and theatrical love story, making their mark at Lake Central High School and establishing Lake Central Theater Guild. Upon their retirement from Lake Central, they established LARC on CL at Cedar Lakes Great Oaks Banquet Center, now in their 18th season. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Angie and Paul. Hi. Thank you. Thank you. Well, and we've known each other for a few years here, I think, all the way back to when I first, I think, saw your first show that I saw in 1974. A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum when I was still, like, in between, just out of school. But anyway, we're interested in your story. I would like to see how you got from where you were to where you are now. So Paul, we'll start with you. Tell us about your origin story, like where you grew up and how you got to where you were. So go ahead. We grew up in, well, I did, in West Terre Haute, Indiana, which is on the other side of the Wabash River from Terre Haute. And basically, I knew I wanted to do something in college and try to, you know, improve myself. And fortunately, my brothers had preceded me. They went on to school, and they both became schoolteachers. I wasn't sure about that, and it wasn't until my junior year that I really committed to… Of college. Yeah, of college, to teaching. And it worked out great. My brother Bob, at the time, was already teaching at Dyer Central, which was the forerunner to Lake Central. And my brother Pete was teaching at Trotsman in Dyer. So I had two brothers in Dyer, and we're from Terre Haute. And this area where we are now was the region. And, you know, it wasn't an attractive place to come to. But I said, Angie, we'll go up there, and if teaching works for me… Because I knew Angie. She was born to be a teacher, but not me. I said, if it works for me, we'll go somewhere where we really want to live. Because I really didn't want to live up here. Well, obviously, that folded into… I didn't have to really interview because they loved my brothers. So when Lake Central opened up, I was hired through the reputation of my brother to teach at Lake Central. And then I taught French and speech. And I think at one time I wanted to be a lawyer. So it made me want to do the contest area of all this stuff. And so I started to… My job was to build the speech and debate team up. One man, me only. No one else there. But I didn't know. Angie said, I'm sure it was there, but I just didn't read it. It said in the contract I would direct two plays. I printed a play that I got $50 for. And a spring play, for some reason, they gave me $75 for. Well, I'll really shorten this up and say that it didn't take long to realize that the speech and debate wasn't nearly as much fun for me and Angie, I'm sure, as the theater was. So I got away from the speech and debate and then committed to the full-time speech theater instructor at Lake Central. And his second year, they wanted to schedule for the next year's French classes. So they were going to have him teach five French classes instead. He said, no, thank you. I don't want to teach in my minor. Then they said, offhandedly, do you know of another French teacher? And he said, yeah. I'm married to one. So that's how we got here and I started helping and that was it. Neither of us had any training at all until he went back to graduate work. And then he got more, I've never been trained in anything theatrical, just French and English. I think we modeled ourselves after the fellow that was Bishop Knoll. Yes, his name was, I'm going to tell you, Breckel, Charles Breckel. We had heard about him and had seen some of his shows. And then, of course, we went to every other school, too. That's where we first met you about six or seven years in to our tenure there. And you saw Foreman in 73 and Fiddler in 74 with us. Right. Yeah. And, oh, boy. Well, I want to dial back a little bit and actually talk about the love story of Paul and Angie, how you guys got together. So let's, you know, I think our audience would like to know that. I mean, people have known you for years and years. I mean, you've been a staple of theater. But let's talk about how you guys got together. Well, I lived with a girlfriend of mine named Cheryl in West Terre Haute after I'd been in Terre Haute and all over the United States I'd been for six or seven years. My mother was an itinerant teacher, so I was in different school every year. So when I met my girlfriend Cheryl, I got to stay with her. I lived with her for two and a half years. And my dear friend, rest her soul, she just passed this summer. But because of Cheryl and my connection, we were walking one day to the beach at Isaac Walton. The beach. To go swimming. The beach to go to. Right. And along came Joe Brooks in a, I won't describe the color, let's just say flesh pink. Yeah. Flesh pink DeSoto convertible or whatever. And Paul was a passenger in that car. Joe and Cheryl stood there and talked for a while. Paul and I just said hello and nodded, and that was it. Two years later, we went to the Consolidated School. We had gone to Ballet for a freshman year. He had gone to Concannon for two years. Just like Wes Vigo, Consolidated. So then we joined up, and Wes Vigo, when I was a sophomore, he was a junior. And that's when we started liking each other. Kind of. But we went to the prom. Yeah. I went with David. And I went with LeBron. Now. We doubled. I will explain. David, and this is really meant with some love, not a lot of love. He was very primitive, you know. Like, he'd just fallen from the tree, in my personal opinion. He actually walked like an orangutan. But it was fun. And LeBron, bless her soul, really wasn't the sharpest Crayola. But she was beautiful, and she was with Cheryl. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I wanted to, it was a prom. I wanted to dance. Well, LeBron, she didn't want to do anything. And I don't know if you. And David didn't want to. So we started dancing. It was sort of like an animal house. Mind if we dance with you today? And so Paul and I started dancing and just having fun together. And that was it. I mean, not long after that, we were talking about getting married. And so that's our little love story. That's great. Yeah, that's great. I bet you a lot of people don't even really know that love story and everything. No, we haven't told it to everyone. It's not one of the greatest things on the planet. But it's a cool. Yeah, it is. Yeah. And we've been together since. Yeah. And that was what year? 58 years married. Wow. We married August 2, 1964, the hottest day of the millennium. I think I was 15. He lies. He was 20, and I was 18. He's always telling that truth. His lying age gets younger every time he tells it. Now you've come together. Angie, you're now at Lake Central just starting to teach French. And Paul's now found the fine print that says, you know, you've got to do some shows here. So anyway, start talking about the founding of the theater and eventually how you founded it as Lake Central Theater Guild. When did that become the thing? When we got going, we were just fortunate to have. It was just like, hey, put all these talented kids together. And we were there for them, and they were there for us. And there was one boy in particular, a young man by the name of Bob Baker. Bob Baker. Who really, really enjoyed theater. And we've said this, and it's a true thing. He taught us far more than we ever taught him. We really, truly believe that. He's still at it in Hollywood, but he's been in very bad health. And Bob played all the big leads. And when we began doing musicals, we did Bye Bye Birdie. He played Harry McAfee. The next year we did, and he played Felix and the Odd Couple. And the next year we did The Music Man, and he was The Music Man. And he lost 60 pounds that summer to play it. And then his senior year, he played Henry Higgins and My Fair Lady. Then he designed some sets for us for the next couple of years. And we stayed on, and he went to Drake University. And we text with him all the time. We're in constant touch with Bob Baker. It's just kind of a neat circumstances that got us together. I knew some things about set construction, but not enough to I was just dangerous with tools all the time. And I was fortunate enough to have these wonderful kids. And their motto was, if they hadn't done it, they'd seen it done. And this was before you could go online and just check out how do you do this particular thing. And those kids just, they created what we are. And then Ange became involved in it. And I say to everyone, and I think it's true, she's the ideal, unideal audience member. There's a flaw, she's going to find it. And she's not going to say anything about it. But if you want to improve it, you'll improve without any kid gloves. She just does it. I have kind of a, I'm an honest half Italian. So I'm wanting to get everybody in the right place. And I'm an audience member, and I like to see things. And I'm an ADHD victim as well, never diagnosed. But I can see 30 things at once. And that's where I pick up and clean up. And we solve blocking issues or collisions and stuff like that. And you know, another thing that always made us feel good is the theater people. Larry, you're an example. You were at Highland. We saw your shows there. Oh, yeah. And your shows at Munster. Munster. And, you know, that was just unbelievable. And then at the Center. My gosh, what you were doing there. That's right. I thought, you know, he's making a good living in New York. Well, we've never made a living in New York. Without going to New York, you know, and just killing himself to not get cast in any way. Which I thought was kind of cool. Yeah. Have you been actors, either of you, on the stage? I have. I watch them. I have myself in shows that I've written. When we used to take shows to the White Pines up in north central Illinois, and we'd be paid for that. So I would write a few little silly shows, and we'd pay the regular royalty for a regular show. And I would pay the actors out of the money they paid us. And sometimes I was too cheap to hire another actor, so I played in quite a few. I've been on stage with Genesius Guild seven times, and I've been in 15 or 20 shows at White Pines, shows that I've written or shows that I've appeared in. And I'm not an actor per se, but I do love it. And it's just fun. I can forget myself and try to remember only that I should care about what I'm doing, but somehow it's hard when I see anything that can be cleaned up here or there. I like to do a quick fix on something that just changes it for the better and keeps faces to the audience and avoids collisions and keeps blocking from being static or clumsy. So just a little of everything. That's what we do. And it's just us. Yeah, well, one thing you guys established was, and this is something I'll be honest with you, but removing high school from the name of your organization. So you founded the Lake Central Theater Guild. And I always told people that, I always told my students at least, I said, you know, mom and dad and grandma can see Puppy Puke on stage and think it's wonderful, but if you want to develop a community or a larger audience, and that's why at Highland I established the Highland Theater Company and Munster was the Munster Theater Company. And so that was something that I learned from you as far as, you know, you don't have to, because I'll tell you what's a killer name is, Highland High School Drama Club. That already diminishes what you're going to put on stage, I think. Right, right, right. Oh, I said, when was the founding of Lake Central Theater Guild as far as your moniker? Well, I believe he called it that from the beginning, but we didn't really have, nobody else came up with any better idea. It was you, Paul. Oh, okay. Yeah, Paul called it that from the beginning. And I think somewhere down the line he was thinking ahead, just what you just said. We never used class distinction. We did The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and you know that story, Larry, and we had two freshman leads as Rosa Budd and Drood, and we never did class distinction. If a kid was talented enough, he got the part, whether he was a senior or not, you know? In fact, one year, and I won't go into any other detail but this to say, that one year we cast a lot of seniors in one Paul's show that was a musical and regretted it, and we won't name names, it just happened, I won't even say the show, but several of those kids had grown up a little fast with some of our summer theater people, all of whom were adults and graduates, and there was a little drinky poop going on on a Friday night, and the Chereville police entered in, so we had to replace ten kids, eight of whom were leads, in one show with two weeks to go, because of their lack of control, and we'd warned them. We'd already warned them. Well, you know what, if you're going to do something... So, we had to do it. Yeah, you know, you don't have to tether them down to a rock and make them not have any freedom, but there are some common sense things. Right. And that's just beyond the... When the police were involved, it came to the attention of the new principal, and we were on the phone as soon as we knew about it and left her a message, little knowing that she had found out about it on Friday night. At 8.01 a.m. on Saturday, one of the boys involved, his mother called me and said, and gee, so-and-so, I won't say his name, she just named his real name, not his nickname, has something to tell you, and she made him tell us the story. So, he said, oh, gosh, some of us did some stupid stuff, you know, and we got caught up there. Every group has had the ups and downs, but you know what? Ah. I think... I know what you're going to say. The downs really make you appreciate when those kids are just going so far above what you think at the beginning that they're capable of. You know, I think we have more fun and more enjoyment than most people I know, and we've had more fun and more enjoyment for a longer period of time. With other people's kids. Yes. Because we never had any. Yeah. We got to work with your little girl back in 1996 when she was about seven or eight years old. Beautiful little girl. So, when did you decide to venture into summer stock? You know, you've been doing the school shows. 1972 was our first show in summer, and we just had to ask permission for them to let us use the theater because for the first 12 summer shows, seasons, we didn't get any pay at all for any stipend. We didn't get any money, but we got far more money. We got more than money, but it wasn't until a dear friend who became closer to us and was one of our adult actresses on our staff got on the negotiating committee that we finally started getting a little pay for summer theater. We did it for 12 years for nothing, but we had the right to use the theater. So, that was good. Oh, yeah. You didn't have to rent a place. Yeah. And that was also then, shortly after that, we started community during the school year, and we did a fall show and a spring musical with kids, and then we did a couple of community shows in the year. We did a few at other theaters and other venues. Well, you know, the reason why that came about is so many of the people that we'd work with, you know, they didn't want it to be terminated at graduation, and we didn't want it to be terminated. We didn't want to lose them as seniors. You've been there. We just went on. Yeah. So, they came back and did summers. Yeah. So, that was good. And then, again, no class distinction, using graduates and adults and kids, and then they learned some bad habits, but mostly they just learned so much. And then the next couple of years, even as sophomores or juniors, they were snagging leads and playing them. And, you know, if I can add this, Larry, we never, ever would tell people, you know, to go into the arts. Oh, right. Never recommended it. Especially performance. I mentioned that in my bio. Yeah, but did any not follow that advice? And are they professional? We have five minutes. We have a poster up right here behind me, and I do want to show you our set. We have a poster for Starlight Express, one of our 77 grads, who in his last several years in 77, he was nothing in the spring musical Oliver, but that summer he was lead dancer, choreography and applause. Summer of 78, he was leading player in Pippin. Summer of 79, he was Judas and choreographer and costume designer in Superstar. And summer of 80, he was emcee in Cabaret. Then he went to New York. Seven years later, he was opening on Broadway in Starlight Express, Weber and Rice tunes, and directed by, my gosh, Trevor Nunn, right? Trevor Nunn. And that's Michael Berglund, if I remember right. That's Michael Berglund. You got it. We have a boy that went on and conducted on Broadway. Rob Mikulski, an 84 grad. He played Cabaret as an incoming freshman, keyboard. And he went to Disney and conducted Aida and many shows on Broadway. And there's time, Larry, and we don't have time, but it's funny and wonderful. It's just you and I will tell it together. And Sammy, his wife, they did 15 or 17 musicals with us, and they spoiled us rotten for that. Now they're in San Antonio, Texas, with a Lutheran synod, and he's always played organ for a Lutheran church. So that's where most of our big stuff went, for Grease Car and our little shop plants, they're there with them. That's it. Did we give you any award? Oh, no, but you retired from Lake Central, but then theater didn't end for you. So tell us a little bit about the move to Great Oaks. Well, we did several shows our last year in the spring of 04. Those seniors who graduated, we did two or three extra shows with no pay at all for them, the Outsiders being one and a couple other great shows. Then we left there in December of 04, and we came straight to Great Oaks because we'd already done a murder mystery with some friends up here. Our plan was, and the original plan was to do it upstairs in the banquet hall. And the owner then, a wonderful guy by the name of Tom McAdams, said, well, let's go down here. And he showed us, and he said, this was a swimming pool. This was a swimming pool. Well, I knew it. We had swum here. Yeah. We had swum here. Yeah, back in the late 60s. But the roof caved in, and he filled it in because he wanted to do something. And he was going to do a banquet hall. And he said, what about this place? So we had been working in a swimming pool. Right. In fact, it was just nothing, all one level concrete floor. But now I'm going to pan. I'm going to pan now and show you from stage right. Can you see the tally board? Right. Yes. Of course, our audience can't see it. And so while we're looking at that. I'm just panning all the way across. You can see all the chairs for the Congress. And we're back to us. Well, and we wanted to give you a chance now, because we only have about a minute and a half left, to talk about your upcoming musical, 1776. 1776, this is our third time to do it. And it will be our last gigantic big musical, because it's just, we're going to be 78 and 80 after Thanksgiving and Christmas. So we're hoping to do some other small shows. We have a great, unusual group of people, only about five or six of whom have ever done a show before ever. So we have a very great consolidated group. That's exciting. Yes. And I went out and beat the bushes, and I even got two guys from a Rocky Road band, and they're both in this show. And we have a man named Jason Horne as John Adams. Gary Mayon as Ben Franklin. And the show dates are, we open Saturday, November 4, and Sunday, November 5. Then two weekends farther than that, Friday, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon, November 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19. And those are all dinner shows, except the Friday and Saturday of November 17 and 18. That's just the show only, because there's another event here. And real quick, how can they get tickets? They can text Angie, 219-776-0888. That's the best way. We don't do an online ticketing, and you could go to the Great Oaks Event website, but you'll just pay eight or nine extra dollars. Just call me. Call me or text me, 219-776-0888. And that's Paul and Angie Lowe, the longtime theater gurus of Northwest Indiana, 1776. And you can see it at the Great Oaks, and you can find information also online, the website. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing with our audience on Art on the Air. Our pleasure. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you, Esther and Larry. We love you guys. Thank you. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, on WVLP, 103.1 FM. And we'd like to welcome back to Art on the Air, someone who's been with us before and sharing her wonderful talents, her musical writing, such as on subjects of light, love, spirit, time, and life's purpose, and also her guitar arrangements have been a framework for her voice, informed by a pop, rock, classical, flamingo, and Americana style. She writes using a nylon string, steel string, and electric guitars, as well as piano. I guess her musical style is eclectic and speaks to the heart. We'd like to welcome back to Art on the Air, our singer, songwriter, guitarist friend, Michelle Shafer. Welcome back to Art on the Air. Aloha. Hello, aloha. Thank you so much for inviting me. Everybody's doing well. Spring is upon us. It sure is. Well, our guests, just to remind them, you can listen to Michelle's previous interview on April 26, 2019, on our website, and she's also part of our COVID-19 updates. What was your life growing up musically? Was there a lot of music in the household? Were there the piano lessons? There weren't really any. There wasn't any music lessons, really. My dad was a fifer. He was in the fife and drum corps. So I did learn to play fife pretty young, but I didn't keep that up. And I had guitar lessons as a teenager, so I didn't get piano lessons, but I did have guitar lessons and I did study classical guitar. My mother sang to us, played guitar, folk songs. She loved Johnny Cash. I mean, we had lots of Peter, Paul, and Mary records, classical records. I personally loved The Beatles from the get-go, from very small. Some of my earliest radio memories were hearing Happy Just to Dance With You and Please, Please Me. And my dad would pick up the guitar and he would write silly songs on the guitar. He would sing this silly song, Go to C, Go to C, Go to G, and Back to C. And let's see. And I always loved to sing. What about writing? In high school, were you writing poetry? Yes, I was writing poetry. I wrote my first song at 16, 17, maybe 17. As a little girl, though, I went into a field. I was around eight years old. I tried to write a song. I really wanted to write a song. So I guess what I did was I asked. And I think I realized that I had a poetic voice in my teenage years. I would hear things like, yes, I heard this voice. It was saying prose and poetry, and I needed to write it down. And let's see. So my music teacher used to make me sing America the Beautiful in front of everybody all the time. She would always choose me. And recently I had a friend who listened to some recordings online, somebody I knew as a little girl. She mentioned, oh, Michelle, I listen to what you're doing. I always loved your voice when we were growing up, and I was very, very touched by that. You're so sweet. Laura Richards. Thank you, Laura. So when did that transition into I want to do music and I want to create a body of music, like your first CD? Well, my first CD didn't actually happen until 1999. I was writing through those years. I got married in 92, and I had never stopped writing. I just was distracted by creating a business with my husband that we were making money. We have an art business. And so my music kind of got swept to the side. And then I did do this recording, and then I had a child. I had a child. That's a big project. Lovely. It's been a great project. And then in 2013, my neighbor Kathleen Lombardo was a dear friend, and I call her my spiritual mother, my creative mother. And she always encouraged my writing. I would take her songs. I would take her poetry, and she would just push, push, push, push to get it better and rewrite and just to continue. The support was incredible from her. And she died in 2013 in August, suddenly, a very quick illness. And after that, it was like a floodgate. I don't know if she became my muse or what. I was writing. I created this song. That's how Dashboard happened, this album that was to my master Maribaba. So that song was one of the first songs that I wrote after her death, and then it just was an explosion. So I did two records within a year and a half, a more secular record, which is Gray Area, and a record called Dashboard that has a bunch of spiritual songs to the beloved. Well, you have a new thing you've been working. It's a new album that you've worked on that's been inspired by COVID. And we want to hear a cut from the first one. It's called, I believe, Stranger. So tell us a little bit about that, and we'll take a quick listen to just part of that. We don't want to release the whole song because they haven't been released yet. So tell us a little about it. Well, I started it on, you know, songs are happenings. And it kind of has that James Bond kind of riff thing going in it. The bridge or the chorus is about where we've been, where are you going? All can change in a flash in time. You seem beyond. You've got a glimmer of knowing. How does we walk this thin line? I mean, everything can change in an instant. So that song kind of happened. And one of the things that all the guitars and the vocals I recorded here in this room that I'm sitting in. And then I took it to my guy, Brian Leach. And he did all the mixing and added additional instruments. So all the oohs, I arranged those. Kind of like a 1930s Esther Williams film kind of sound. It was very exciting, very exciting. And so one of the things that happened during COVID, I was learning. I was turning myself into a choir in my studio. And the joys of your home studio that your lovely husband built for you. I have the opportunity to play around and just do whatever I feel like today. But I don't have to work, you know, like, oh, let me try this, let me try that. So more and more, some of the production or the direction of the music is what I've been doing here in my space. Rather than going to the studio and Brian, which he's great, I love working with him. Being the driving force of what happens on the record, which is kind of what happened on Gray Area. Less for love forever, but we're ending up producing together more. And this record in particular, or this CD or album, is really driven by a fusion of acoustic elements, orchestral merged with a classical element that is a little different. Let's take a quick listen to Stranger off the Scattered Light album coming out this summer in 2021. When a stranger comes to your call He walks right in, says nothing at all You take a sip of the offering Finest vintage ware and altering Where are you going? And that was Stranger from the new Scattered Light album from Michelle Schaefer. Beautiful piece there. So mysterious sounding. Thank you. Thank you. Well, tell us about the title cut called Scattered Light. What was the inspiration beyond that? Well, Scattered Light, actually, I started writing the song with these harmonics, playing chords with harmonics. Just going through a whole like four or five chords all played up above the twelfth fret with harmonics. And the lines that came to me, the dark will call you out, but the light will find you. The dark will call you out, but the light will find you. And I had this going and I had the structure, but I needed something and I didn't know what it was. And then I was at a Zoom thing and a friend, my friend Rosalie, read this poem, this very short poem by this woman Phyllis Frederick from a book called Light on Running Water. And it was so part of her poem has been edited into this song. She's no longer, the woman's no longer living. Phyllis is gone. And that's where that the scattered light burns holes in the night came from. And I just thought it was so beautiful. And I thought, this is the name of this project. And that's, and I believe I, oh, I didn't. And again, the same thing with the vocals. There's very, just some choir, medieval choir vocals in the beginning and throughout the piece. Well, let's take a quick listen to the title track, Scattered Light, Scattered Light. The dark will call you out, but the light will find you. The dark will call you out, but the light will find you. In between the haze and the closing of the day, with the setting of the distant sun. You see the scattered light burns holes in the night. The scattered light burns holes in your mind. The scattered light. Now you finally know the stars. Now you finally know the stars. And that was the title track off of the new album, Scattered Light, available this summer with Michelle Schaefer. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, on WVLP, 103.1 FM. Oh, Michelle, I would love to hear the inspiration behind Inscribe These Words. Can you give us some background on that? Well, I started to just play these chords, and this line came up, and it's a quote, Meribaba, inscribe these words on your heart, nothing matters but love. And so I shortened it, nothing matters but love. And then it goes on to talk about if all in all is in everyone and everything, why can't we just love each other? We're all humans, we need to just love each other. And so with all the things that were going on last year, between, you know, all the politics and the butting heads, and just the intolerance between, it just broke my heart. And so that's where that came from, and the clip that you're going to play starts out in the middle of the song, is full-on choir vocals that were really fun to write. I actually had to write them out, and then I sang them, and I recorded each of the lines, I recorded four tracks of each one, so there's 16 tracks of Michelle. Actually, it might be more, because there's woven notes, there's another overlayer over that. And Brian did mix them, and he did an amazing job, and put all these wonderful cello parts, and he has this new plug-in system where he can do orchestral strings that sound fabulous. Why don't we go ahead and take a listen to that, and he inscribed these words from the Scatterlight album, ready for summer release. Inscribe these words Inscribe these words Inscribe these words On your heart On your heart Nothing matters but love Nothing matters but love That was Inscribe These Words from the Scattered Light album by Michelle Schaefer. Being a recording engineer back in the tape days, I love the layering of the vocals and everything you talked about, just so complex in that piece, and of course that's coming out this summer. Yeah, I'm really excited. Yeah, Brian Leach, he does an amazing job. We've been working together since 2013, and this is our one, two, fourth project, and we've done a bunch of other things as well. So, Burning Away, not Scattered Light, Burning Away was written the day after Halloween 2019, because, and there's this thing, there's some lyrics in there, autumn and winter are mixed up on the ground, because the leaves were, it was green, and it snowed, so it was crazy. It snowed on Halloween. So this song was one of the first songs where I started really playing with the chord structure harmonics on the guitar, like playing a good portion of the song just in harmonics. I have a love for harmonics. I love to finish a song with a harmonic. Ding! It's so fun. And it's orchestrated pretty good, it's pretty big, it's moody, it's kind of a dark, moody song. There's a lot of dark and moody things going on in this record. But a fusion with orchestrated and vocals and choirs, and it's fun. It's been such a blast. Let's take a listen to Burning Away from the Scattered Light album coming out this summer. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh On the ground You open your eyes And your feelings escape Sound the alarm You're so burning away Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh The interpretation of Moondance is so magical that I want to live within that interpretation. I just listen to it over and over again. I'm so excited for everybody to hear it. Now, what made you, or what inspired you to this particular interpretation? I don't want to give too much away. I'll let you do that. Okay, so I'm in this group called Ghostwriters Highway, and it's run by Marco Mazzi, who lives in Brisbane. He's a producer, composer, who has a music library and pitches to film. And he had a call for a dark and moody version of Moondance, and he couldn't believe it could be done, actually. And I did another one. I did a different song, Heaven is a Place on Earth, by Belinda Carlyle, but we're talking about Moondance. And I was like, oh, I could do that. So I took my guitar, and I just did very simple chords. In pop right now, from what I understand, they're doing just the root and the third for chords, and so I simplified it. And all I did was the root and the third, and I took my hollow body and played it really slow, and made it really dark. So beautiful. And I sang it. I sang it in here. So there's a different version out. You're just going to hear the guitar in my voice that Brian mixed, but we do have another version, and Marco Mazzi took it, and he made it really dark. And there's whispers underneath it, and it's really profound. And I'm doing George Harrison, Isn't It a Pity, right now. I've got that in the works. I did a demo of it, and I just need to record it. I just haven't had time. That's another, but it's going to be the same, slowed down, simplified guitar part. Very atmospheric. Gorgeous. Using that dark, whispery voice. Well, let's take a listen. This is Moondance from the Scattered Light album, summer release, Michelle Shaffer. And all the night's magic seemed to whisper and hush And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush Can I just have one more moondance with you, my love? Can I just make some more romance with you, my love? And that was Moondance from the Scattered Light album, going to be released this summer. So that was Michelle Shaffer, once again. Michelle, tell us a little bit about how people can find you, your music and everything, if they want to take a listen to you. They can find me on Facebook, on Instagram, Michelle Shaffer Music, Spotify, iTunes, CD Baby, YouTube. So it's Michelle Shaffer Music, S-H-A-F-E-R. Don't put a C. It's too well for Michelle. And I am working on a new website. So that will be michelleshaffermusic.com. I have an old site up. It's not really updated. It's there, but you want to update it. Another thing on my list. So releasing this record and working on some music videos to go along with that. And that's really exciting. Well, we appreciate you coming on Art in the Air. That was Michelle Shaffer. You got some samples of her music from the Scattered Light album. Singer, songwriter, guitarist. Wonderful person. Wonderful person. And we appreciate you coming on Art in the Air. So thanks again for coming on. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Thank you. We'd like to thank our guests this week on Art in the Air, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. Art in the Air is heard Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org. And is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Art in the Air is also heard Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP, 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org. Our spotlight interviews are heard every Wednesday on Lakeshore Public Media. Thanks to Tom Maloney, Vice President of Radio Operation for Lakeshore Public Media, and Greg Kovach, WVLP's Station Manager. Our theme music is by Billy Foster with a vocal by Renee Foster. Art on the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We'd like to thank our current underwriters for Lakeshore Public Media, Macaulay Real Estate and Valparaiso, Olga Patrician, Senior Broker. And for WVLP, Walt Ridinger of Paragon Investments. So we may continue to bring you Art on the Air. We rely on you, our listeners and underwriters, for ongoing financial support. If you're looking to support Art on the Air, we have information on our website at breck.com slash aota. Or you can find out how to become a supporter or underwriter of our program in whatever amount you are able. And like I say every week, don't give till it hurts. Give till it feels good. You'll feel so good about supporting Art on the Air. If you're interested in being a guest or send us information about your arts, arts-related event or exhibit, please email us at aota at breck.com. That's aota at breck, B-R-E-C-H dot com. Or contact us through our Facebook page. Your hosts were Larry Breckner and Esther Golden. And we invite you back next week for another episode of Art on the Air. Aloha, everyone. Have a splendid week. Express yourself you are and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are and show the world your heart. You're in the know with Esther and Larry. Art on the Air today. Stay in the know with Larry and Esther. Art on the Air our way. Express yourself you are and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are and show the world your heart.