Amish Country Theater brings plenty of laughs to its new digs in Berlin
The Amish Country Theater provides a much larger venue, complete with a huge stage, new lighting and a lot of upgrades that have improved the show, yet it maintained that down-home intimacy that people have come to enjoy.
Six years ago Mike Conn and his family set about creating something fresh, unique and hysterical in hopes of filling a niche in Amish Country. That idea blossomed into the Amish Country Theater, which took flight in 2012 and began in the former Holmes County Flea Market near Walnut Creek.
While the stage was bare-bones and much of the theater was cobbled together, the show itself drew rave reviews and quickly became a destination for tourists and locals. Then came an opportunity they could not pass up, and on Friday, April 28, 2017, the Conn family broke ground to build a new facility at Schrock’s Amish Farm in Berlin.
Flash-forward to Aug. 1, 2018, and the theater was enjoying its brand-new digs, a plush and beautifully crafted theater that has allowed the show to take steps toward producing a much higher quality show than ever before.
The newly opened Amish Country Theater is now the drawing card for a complex that includes the seven-story Encore Hotel & Suites and Encore Hall, a large hall that serves as a gathering place for events and weddings.
As for the Amish Country Theater production that has drawn such rave reviews, co-owner and public relations director Jeff Conn said the show has grown in leaps and bounds with all of the additional perks the new facility has brought.
“It’s 'Hee-Haw' on steroids,” Conn said with a laugh. “It’s a Smokey Mountain Hee-Haw-type show, a family variety show that has something for kids to the grandparents. It’s clean and fun and fit for everyone, and the new facility has only enhanced everything we have brought to the stage.”
The new theater set featured a gigantic, life-like barn with three floors and pop-open windows that allow the cast to fire off funny one-liners and zingers throughout the show. The lighting and production values have multiplied exponentially, and Conn said it has allowed them to make all kinds of additions that enhance the show.
The larger stage has even opened the door to a new addition, a real three-ton tractor that rolls out on to the floor, bringing with it a huge surprise.
“It is the same shows, only bigger and better, and we have maintained all the things we wanted to make sure we kept from the old facility,” Conn said. “The one thing we didn’t want to lose when we got this much bigger was that sense of intimacy, and I think they’ve done a nice job of keeping that intact. We have been able to keep all of the things that our fans enjoy while being able to present so much more. It has added to the show immensely.”
Conn said one of the main reasons they wanted to pursue the theater show in the first place was because they wanted to help people laugh.
“We have such a blast ourselves, but we know people love to laugh and find a release through laughter,” Conn said. “We have had numerous people tell us that they have been dealing with some very difficult issues and that they needed this laugh as a way to feel better and to lift a burden. Here, they can come to the show for two hours, leave it at the door and just have a ball. That is fulfilling to all of us to hear that.”
While it is titled Amish Country Theater, Conn said the commitment to Amish-related material takes up only 20 percent of the show’s material.
Whether it is ventriloquist Ken Groves and his cast of puppets, the Beachy Brothers’ hijinks with jokes and musical parodies or the unrelenting antics of crowd-pleasing comedian Lynyrd, the crew at Amish Country Theater has gone to great lengths to write their own brand of humor into the show, creating one-of-a-kind productions.
“There is a misconception that it is all about the Amish life until people actually see the show," Conn said. “It is more about country living, farming and plowing and that kind of thing. We don’t get into the Amish faith or religion. It is very much like the old 'Hee-Haw' shows.”
In making the investment to write their own unique material, some of which is centered around the Amish community, the team has been careful to respect the Amish community, and they have been careful to make sure it never offends the Amish culture, only enhances it. As a result they share plenty of laughs together as they develop material.
“We get a lot of Amish people who come to the show and really enjoy it,” Conn said. “We get asked that question a lot, and people want to know how the Amish feel about the show. That is something we freely address, and we have had a lot of Amish from outside of this area who come in and have an absolute blast.”
The Amish enjoy the show to the point they have had some communities book the theater to go perform in their own hometowns.
“Not only are they coming to the show and enjoying it, they are hiring us to go to their hometown and perform,” Conn said. “So the stuff we write is very carefully thought with the Amish faith and history in mind.”
In their two shows, “Bet the Farm” and “Swine and Dandy,” they feature plenty of laughs, live bluegrass music, rip-roaring musical numbers and some side-splitting fun for the whole family.
In addition they host gigs like a John Denver Tribute group, and once each month local talents John Schmid and Mark Lonsinger present "Legends Night," a Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley tribute, a show that has consistently been sold out.
The theater also threw out a wide net in hopes of finding some new musical talent to add to the show. They hit their mark, bringing in some gifted musicians with a variety of fiddle and banjo players who team up with the Amish Country Theater bluegrass band to create some fantastic music.
Conn said of the gifted musicians who make up the musical talent, “They all came separately. We pieced them together, and they meshed almost instantly. I have a feeling that they will eventually start playing together away from here. They are that amazing.”
With a grand opening set for Wednesday, Aug. 22, the Amish Country Theater had to make somewhat of a mad rush to get things set up in the new facility. That included a hectic race to move all of the seating from the old theater’s final production to the new theater in a span of three days. Since that time in late July, the show has presented several shows at the new facility.
To learn more about the Amish Country Theater, visit their website at www.amishcountrytheater.com.