SUNDERLAND — Lights, camera, corn!
Warner Farm is changing the channel for this year’s Mike’s Maze, with a design that looks back on 100 years of television. The maze is set to premiere on Friday, Sept. 11.
“Every year we struggle and agonize over the theme,” said Jess Marsh Wissemann, sitting with her husband David Wissemann at a picnic table on the farm.
Picking the right theme can be a difficult choice. Each year, they try to tap into the cultural zeitgeist to draw a wide range of visitors. Plus, the topic needs to be “something that we can nerd out on,” Marsh Wissemann said.
The couple initially decided on a design celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary.
“We were actually very far down the road with that concept,” Marsh Wissemann recalled. “Then, we realized that every corn maze in the U.S. was going to do that theme, and we really like to distinguish ourselves.”
The “early summer panic,” as the couple called it, kicked in, and they set off to find a new maze muse. Inspiration struck when Wissemann read about Scottish inventor John Logie Baird giving the first public demonstration of a television, or “televisor,” as he dubbed it in 1926, according to History.com.
“[TV] is such a fascinating topic because there is so much to explore with it,” Marsh Wissemann said.
“It’s a very unique record of the last century,” her husband added.
To capture the theme, Marsh Wissemann, who paints signs and murals for her company, Hired Hand Signs, drew a remote for the “mini maze,” where visitors try beer from local breweries throughout October as they make their way through the cornfield. For the main maze, Marsh Wissemann captured a vintage television set turning on with static.
“I wanted the two designs to communicate with each other,” she said.
Every year, Marsh Wissemann sends the design to Rob Stouffer at Precision Mazes, who cuts the cornfield into a maze in just one day using georeferencing technology and a track loader.
The design teases what roamers will find inside the maze. Along with trivia questions that delve into titles from TV guides in the last century, visitors will be asked to identify the theme songs from popular TV shows.
Children will have a chance to create their own television show by coming up with the components of a pilot episode for “Maze TV,” including a main character, catchphrase and plot twist. Once they finish the maze, the participants will be given a “Mad Libs-style read-through” to connect all the pieces into one pilot, Wissemann explained.
“Up until now, every show that’s ever been on TV has been generated by human creativity, and we’re entering an era where that is not the case anymore,” Marsh Wissemann said. “We wanted to give kids the opportunity to really flex their creative muscles. … If we can give that opportunity and inspire kids to use their wild imaginations and come up with fun things, I think it’s very empowering.”
Outside the maze, visitors can launch “couch potatoes” with a potato cannon; bounce on the Jump Pad; race at the pedal cart track; compete in the new Tractor Pull; pet a few farm animals at Mike’s Menagerie; check out the slide, playground and Rolling Tubes; and grab a snack at the Corn Cafe.
For the couple, the “genuine joy,” as Wissemann described, when families and other visitors fill the farm in the fall, makes the months of preparation worth it. Marsh Wissemann said she has been struck by the groups tucking their cellphones in their pockets and embarking on a day-long adventure.
“It’s one of those places where you look around and people are not on their phones — they’re here, they’re paying attention to people they’re with,” she said. “People just seem to leave the maze in such high spirits each year.”
“It’s like getting out there and touching grass,” Wissemann said, smiling. “Except here, it’s getting out and touching corn.”
They know they have delivered on the festivities when they hear kids yelling, “I don’t want to leave!” as they plead their parents for one more ride down the slide.
The maze will be available from Sept. 11 through Nov. 8. Visitors can stop by from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets on Fridays are $12 for adults and $10 for children, students and senior citizens. Tickets on the weekend are $16 for adults and $14 for children, students and seniors. Season passes cost $40 for adults and $30 for kids.
The beer maze will be open on Fridays in October from 6 to 9 p.m., with tickets at $45.
