Photo provided In support of Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center’s Angels of Love Christmas Gift Assistance Program, the Sarla Kalsi Conference Center will host Henry Ulrich and friends for a Cabaret for a Cause performance on July 25.
Christmas is coming early this year at YES Cinema. In support of Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center’s Angels of Love Christmas Gift Assistance Program, the Sarla Kalsi Conference Center will host Henry Ulrich and friends for a Cabaret for a Cause performance on July 25.
A Columbus native, Ulrich said he began performing at a young age with a Mill Race Theatre Company production of “Cinderella.” He continued in theater, while also joining band in middle school and show choir in high school. He now attends Purdue University, where he double majors in material engineering and theatre.
“So I was like, ‘you know what, I really like choir, I think I’m going to miss not being in,’ so I auditioned for the Varsity Glee Club that Purdue has and I was able to make it in,” Ulrich said. “So last year I went around, toured Indiana a little bit, even did a spring break tour down in Florida with the Glee Club and realized that singing is something really important to me and something that I really enjoy now.”
Ulrich also works at YES Cinema, and it was that job that led to him being asked to perform for the cinema. His Cabaret for a Cause performance will showcase an American Pie style show, with songs from the 1920s to the 2020s.
Fellow YES Cinema employees RuthAnne Gilroy and Reagan Babb will take the stage for a few songs as well. High school friends of his Gavin Foley and Molly Hotek will also join in, he said.
All benefits from the show go towards the Angels of Love Christmas Gift Assistance Program. According to Diane Doup, Community Outreach at Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center, this program works to provide Christmas gifts for kids up to 18 years old, and the organization serves over 700 kids through this program.
“Angels of Love fills a critical need for families, whether that be parents or grandparents or guardians, who might already be struggling to meet their daily needs and then all of a sudden you throw the holidays on top of that and that can be such a stressor to families,” Doup said. “And Angels of Love allows families to enjoy a nice Christmas together and kids to have new gifts to open on Christmas morning, which their parents may not be able to provide otherwise.”
Doup said Cabaret for a Cause gives people an opportunity to support their Angels of Love program all throughout the year while also enjoying great, high quality entertainment from talented individuals. Ulrich said he looks forward to the home crowd and getting a chance to support Lincoln-Central Family Neighborhood Center and give back to the community he grew up in.
From the performance, he hopes to bring a little more traction to the event center, YES Cinema and the work LCFNC does for the community.
“From a personal standpoint, I hope it gets my name out there a little more,” Ulrich said. “Long term, I’d like to be performing full time, but that’s a shaky business, we’ll call it.”
Tickets cost $10 at the door and are first-come, first-serve.
