< Return to List of Past Shows Emma Gingold / Friday, August 7, 2020 / Categories: Coming Soon, News Keeping Hope Alive: An Evening of Music Sunday, August 16 at 7pm Event date: 8/16/2020 7:00 PM Export event With no options for live theatre this summer, we are continuing to find ways to share excellent performances with our community. One of our solutions was to put together a virtual concert featuring your friends and neighbors, who chose songs meant to bring hope in a time when hope is hard to come by. We had a wonderful time interacting with our audience as our first performance, "Songs of Hope," premiered on YouTube and Facebook—such a wonderful time, in fact, that we're doing it again! Read on to learn about our performers. An Online Presentation: Keeping Hope Alive Premiering Sunday, August 16th, at 7:00 PM Watch on YouTube Watch on Facebook More songs of hope to lift your spirits! Kelly Bailey Kelly has a BFA in Musical Theater from Syracuse University and has done a whole bunch of theater, commercial and voice-over stuff in both New York and Chicago. She is now a private chef and co-owner of Happy Belly and does most of her singing for her adoring husband Randal, her sometimes adoring children Evelyn and Oliver and the inside of her Minivan which she mistakenly believes is soundproof. Katie Casserilla Katie is so excited to be apart of this amazing project! Not only does she get to sing beside a dear friend, she also gets to spread a little joy during these times. Katie works as a finance manager but in her spare time she enjoys performing and spending time with her husband and two daughters. Gina Kovanich Gina is thrilled to be part of this fun online concert! When not singing at every chance she gets, Gina is a 5th grade teacher who loves to “perform” for her students all day (and who are we kidding, she sings at school, too). “What I Did for Love” shows that despite the highs and lows, performers never lose their passion for the stage. Audrey McGee Audrey McGee teaches K-5 General Music at Kipling Elementary School in Deerfield, IL and private voice lessons through Tracey Ford Voice. She loves to spend her time singing, participating in community theatre, catching up on the latest Disney movie and on adventures with her friends and family. She is so grateful to Summer Place Theatre for the vast opportunities they provide and the heartfelt and supportive community they create. Kathleen Monson Kathleen is a classically trained soprano who continues to delight crowds with her clear tone and confident stage presence. She returns to Summer Place this summer after performing in our spring fundraiser. Kathleen currently resides with her husband in Chicago, and she can often be seen with her classical trio of redheaded sopranos, Canto Zenzero. Christina Peck Christina is very grateful for the opportunity to perform with Summer Place Theatre and her favorite duet partner, Jason! She last performed in our spring fundraiser as well as South Pacific with SPT. She is excited to be a part of what is sure to be an excellent evening of music. Enjoy! Jason Peck Jason has been performing on stage since his senior year of high school. Previous Summer Place credits include the Professor in South Pacific, and most recently he appeared in our spring fundraiser where he sang a duet with his wife, Christina. Now he’s back to sing another one! Jason is a research and development engineer who lives in Naperville. Don Gingold returns to emcee another Summer Place performance! Don is the President of the theatre's Board of Directors and a long-time Naperville resident. He had the pleasure of hosting our spring fundraiser in March, and in 2019 he enjoyed playing the villain Henri in Summer Place's production of My Three Angels. Pianists Emma Gingold is a pianist and music theory teacher whose first show with Summer Place Theatre was over fifteen years ago. You'll sometimes find her conducting the orchestra for Summer Place's musicals, like last year's South Pacific and other favorites like Footloose and Camelot. She was the accompanist at Lyons Township High School for nearly ten years, and she looks forward to starting her graduate studies in Collaborative Piano in the fall. Emma lives in Elmwood Park and has a hound dog named Bonnie. Riko Higuma is the founding member of the prize-winning Zodiac Trio and has collaborated with some of the world's leading artists. She has appeared in numerous festivals around the world and is currently engaged as a staff pianist and vocal coach at the Manhattan School of Music. Rex Meyer has helped produce beautiful music for a number of our shows, most recently a keyboardist for last year's Mamma Mia and this past March led the band for our spring fundraiser. We're glad to see him back and helping bring some songs of hope to life. Vocal Coaches: Kelly Bailey, Emma Gingold, Kayla Lollar Audio and Video Streaming Engineering: Sarah Batzel, Emma Gingold, Jordan Monson The Online Performance Committee includes Sarah Batzel, Mark Burrows, Katie Casserilla, Hannah Gleason, Tracy Kay, Kayla Lollar, Katherine Monson, Audrey McGee, and is led by Kelly Bailey and Emma Gingold "We offer it freely, but look to our friends to help support live theatre in Naperville" - Don Gingold. If you love and miss theatre and enjoy our virtual summer offerings, please consider making a donation. Like so many other performing arts organizations, we depend on box office revenue to pay the bills that don't stop even when our performances do, like storage, insurance, etc. You can always give a one-time donation of any size here on our website, and now you can also show your continuing support for Summer Place by becoming a monthly subscriber on our Patreon. We post classes and performances there that aren't viewable anywhere else as a thank you to our wonderful patrons. We are your community theatre, but you're our community – and we simply couldn't do this without you! The show debuts on Sunday, August 16, at 7:00pm and will be available to stream for a limited time. Print 1519 < Return to List of Past Shows