Singers wanted to perform national anthem at Outdoor
John Porter recalls receiving a typical response from his then 4-year-old when he’d ask her how her day was at preschool.
“I don’t know,” she’d say, her shoulder shrug visible in Porter’s rear-view mirror. What came next, though, was anything but typical.
“She’d start singing in the car,” the Lakemoor dad said. “I started listening to the words she was singing, and she was literally singing her day’s events in musical format — whether they finger-painted or made cookies or crafted Play-Doh statues — anything that happened that day, she’d find a way to put it out musically, and it worked.”
Now an 18-year-old Grant High School graduate, Katherine “Kat” Glenn-Porter’s penchant for singing has never waned. In fact, John Porter’s daughter will be the first up this summer to perform the national anthem before audiences at the McHenry Outdoor Theater.
“Kat will sing the ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ before ‘Lilo & Stitch’ starts on Sunday, May 25, the day before Memorial Day,” said Joe Cicero, president of marketing and promotions for the theater. “We are really looking forward to her performance, and we plan to welcome many other brave, strong singers to the spotlight throughout the season.”
Cicero noted that “brave” and “strong” were purposeful word choices.
“It’s not the easiest song to carry off,” he said. “We are wide open to welcoming amateur talent, but we aren’t, you know, looking to reproduce any Roseanne Barr moments.”
Interested singers are encouraged to submit a short clip of themselves singing on the theater’s website, goldenagecinemas.com. Performances will be scheduled on select weekend nights.
“It’s our way of bringing a little more Americana and patriotism to an already richly nostalgic setting,” Cicero said of the theater, 1510 Chapel Hill Road, Lakemoor.
As for Glenn-Porter, the teen is no stranger to belting out “The Star-Spangled Banner.” She’s been doing so for years, including performances preceding some minor league baseball games, as well as a rendition she sang at age 12 before the Dylan Scott performance at McHenry’s Fiesta Days in 2019, in front of about 12,000 people.
“I’m really excited about making a little bit of history at the Outdoor,” Glenn-Porter said. “It’s a really important song … I take it very seriously.”
Her very proud father will be among those taking in Glenn-Porter’s Memorial Day weekend performance. “It would take an act of God for me not to be there,” he said. “I’d have to be struck by lightning and in the hospital. That’s about the only way I’m missing it.”
The McHenry Outdoor Theater is now open weekends only. Starting Memorial Day weekend, it will be open seven days a week throughout the summer. View the updated movie schedule and family-friendly budget night options at goldenagecinemas.com.