Duck Creek Center for the Arts

For those of us living in Indy, going to the theatre can be an expensive proposition. While Indy has lots of mighty fine theatre groups, it's always the true indie groups that I most appreciate. While the quality of a production may be less on occasion, there's a passion that I just adore and I really appreciate people doing stage work for the love of the work (though I do also appreciate it when they make a living doing so). Duck Creek Center for the Arts is a relatively new group out of Elwood, Indiana. Elwood is a small community located about an hour north of Indy and actually exists in both Madison and Tipton counties. Duck Creek Center was founded in 2018 as a non-profit, educational organization "for the purpose of promoting the performing and visual arts in North-Central Indiana" utilizing live performances, theatrical productions, outdoor concerts, and other opportunities to provide high quality entertainment to the local community. The Duck Creek Center will also be a home to instruction in theater, dancing, music, painting, pottery, sculpture and many other creative arts. Early on, Duck Creek received a generous donation of the old Duck Creek-Boone Elementary School by a local family and it is planned to use this location as the organization's home after extensive renovations and upgrades are completed. This Center will also be used as a community center for reunions, weddings and other special events.Duck Creek-Boone Elementary School closed its doors in 1990. For nearly 30 years, the 1950-built school slowly began to crumble. The old school and 11 acres is being revived and transformed. The Duck Creek Center for the Arts is well under way to becoming a destination location for those with a passion for the arts and quality entertainment. Students of all ages will be able to take classes in dance, music, painting, pottery, theater, photography, film and other artistic forms. "The Duck" will also be available to the community for special events.Currently, Duck Creek is utilizing the historic Elwood Opera House for its 2022 stage season that just began with Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. It was an emotional premiere as the production had been originally cast with a local pastor and his wife in featured roles. The pastor passed away due to a car accident not long ago, however, multiple members of his family continued to be involved in the production including one of his sons as technical director for the production. Duck Creek dedicated the production to him. Tickets for this season's productions are only $10 - which I consider amazing when you look at the costs at some Indy theatres. You can get a season pass for a mere $30 and see five productions - The Mousetrap, Alice @ Wonderland, Macbeth, Murder on the Orient Express, and The Man Who Came to Dinner. All but Macbeth are slated for the Elwood Opera House, while Macbeth will be in Elwood's Callaway Park. There is much to love about the Duck Creek Center for the Arts, though they continue to be early in their visioning and in bringing that vision to life. As I prepare for a special outreach event here in Elwood, I'm learning more about the community and it has been very cool to learn about the Duck Creek vision for improving options for the arts in north central Indiana.