Honey DEW Acres isn't entirely off the beaten path. The 5-acre farm is close to Interstate 55 and about a 10-minute drive northeast of Bloomington-Normal. But it's far enough to feel like someplace else.
Honey DEW is home to David and Ellie Wertz [they're the D-E-W in Honey DEW], plus a pack of hens, goats, alpacas and a young rooster named Curly.
And for two weekends, Honey DEW will also house Nomad Theatre Company's next production. The roaming troupe takes its site-specific theater to a barn built out of old telephone poles.
The Wertzes raised their family near Downs and “bought the farm” about 13 years ago. They tend to take in rescue and senior animals to spend the rest of their lives at Honey DEW. Although nine new chicks have recently been introduced to the flock.
“We have a couple little B-and-Bs so people can come from Chicago and places they’re not used to having chickens walk by,” Ellie Wertz said. “It’s just a fun place to be and this time of year, it’s just gorgeous.”
Wertz said she was immediately drawn to the property when she heard frogs croaking. It’s just one of the sounds visitors encounter on the way to Nomad’s makeshift theater in a barn David Wertz built for their daughter’s wedding.
“Her husband wanted to get married out here and to rent tents was very expensive,” Ellie said. “So my husband went to the city and got the telephone poles — the old cedar telephone poles that they took down — and planked them and made that barn. So, that’s the City of Bloomington’s telephone poles!”
David mowed a path around the couple’s hayfield for on-site parking [guests are advised to avoid parking on narrow Northtown Road]. They added lights to guide patrons up to the barn and can shuttle people with accessibility needs.
'Yes, please.'
Bringing Nomad to Honey DEW was actually Ellie’s idea. When she retired, she auditioned for its first production as a full-fledged nonprofit, Shaken Not Stirred, at Shake it Up in Bloomington. It was the first time she’d done theater since she was a kid, and shortly after, also participated in the troupe’s pop-up “herstory” series at the Bloomington and Normal libraries.
She offered up the farm as a potential location.
“It was just kismet,” said Nomad co-founder and co-artistic director Connie Blick. “Then when we saw the barn, and that they’ve had events in there — it’s intimate and it’s beautiful and rustic. It was just, ‘Yes, please!’”
Ellie said she doesn’t mind the revolving door of guests visiting her property for the next two weeks.
“It’s just a peaceful place,” she said. “People come out and say they feel calm here. And it’s two weeks, right? They’re not moving in.”
The farm’s two rental suites will serve as green rooms for the cast of just under 20 actors. Chris Terven directed the slate of eight 10-minute plays, which Blick said only some of which involve people playing animals. There's true crime in a barn, a family drama in barn and, yes, a play about two arguing alpacas depicted by Rich Tinaglia and Meghan Warmuth.
The real alpacas are understudying the parts.
Blick said the hard work it takes to bring theater into unconventional spaces has been largely worthwhile.
“It opens people’s eyes to places that they didn’t know were here in town,” she said. “All the people who are going to see Ellie’s beautiful place and know that the Airbnbs exist — they can do a staycation and wake up to the sounds of the chickens and birds. To be able to expose people to what they have out here is one of the greatest parts of this collaboration.”
Shows take place in the barn, but the grounds are open an hour in advance for patrons to mix and mingle with each other [and a few goats and alpacas, if they’re not feeling too shy]. A tent near the barn houses live old time music by The Georgia Boys, plus treats and drinks from Straight Up Sips.
“It’s really going to be an experience,” Blick said. “You can come a little early, enjoy some treats, walk around the barn—we might have some feed out. … It’s a two-for-one experience. A play and viewing the pastures. Can I do that alliteration? It’s a play in a pasture.”
Nomad Theatre Company presents Down on Honey Dew Acres May 22-31 at Honey DEW Acres, 3413 W. Northtown Road, Normal. Tickets are $18-$50 at normaltheatre.org.
