Katy Gentry’s list of personal-favorite Christmas songs continues to grow.
“Some of my sweetest childhood memories are of singing carols and hymns for the Advent season and on Christmas Eve in my church growing up,” Gentry said.
As part of Actors Theatre of Indiana’s “Celebrate the Holidays,” Gentry will perform with pianist Eric Baker at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 15-16 and 2 p.m. Dec. 17 at the Studio Theater at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel. Vocalist/actor Wayne Powers will perform at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 13-14 at the Studio Theater as part of the ATI holiday shows.
ATI Artistic Director Judy Fitzgerald contacted Gentry, a Fishers resident, about putting her own holiday show together.
“I began envisioning what that would look like,” she said. “I went back (mentally) to my living room in 1988 with my Firestone Christmas, Nat King Cole, and Johnny Mercer records and chose some of those very arrangements for this holiday show with ATI. We have Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Sleigh Ride,’ Harry Connick Jr.’s ‘I Pray on Christmas,’ and, of course, ‘Merry Christmas, Darling’ from The Carpenters. I also will be singing Mark Lowery’s ‘Mary, Did You Know?’ — just a gorgeous song.”
Gentry said the most-requested song she receives is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which Judy Garland sang in “Meet Me in St. Louis.”
“I have been portraying and celebrating the voice of Judy Garland for the last 15 years,” Gentry said. “Actors Theatre of Indiana cast me as Young Judy in their original ‘Beyond the Rainbow’ production in 2007, and that opportunity has led me to portraying her in that same show almost a decade later and then creating my own cabaret with the most recent performance at Feinstein’s.”
Gentry said has worked professionally with Baker for more than 10 years, including events at the Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts, The Jazz Kitchen and churches in the Indianapolis area.
“Eric is an exceptional musician that has an ear for jazz,” Gentry said. “All the charts we are using in our show were penned by Eric.”
Gentry is a mother of two young children and is special education teacher in the Hamilton Southeastern Schools district.
“So, I am extremely mindful of my time and mental load during the holidays,” she said. “I have chosen my three performances with ATI to be my only holiday performances this season, but throughout the year I can be found singing the Great American Songbook with JoySwing Jazz Orchestra at the Jazz Kitchen and helping lead worship at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church.”
For more, visit atistage.org.
