Kate Baldwin and Heidi Kettenring to be Featured in the SIDDONS AT SEVENTY SOIREE This Month

The Sarah Siddons Society is celebrating its seventieth anniversary with the Siddons at Seventy Soirée, featuring special performances by past award honorees Kate Baldwin and Heidi Kettenring on Monday, July 25, 2022 at Davenport's, 1383 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Chuck Larkin will provide musical direction. The evening begins with a reception from 6 - 7 pm followed by performances in Davenport's intimate cabaret. Tickets ($125) are currently available at sarahsiddonssociety.org. Sponsorship opportunities are also available.

Kate Baldwin is a past recipient of the Sarah Siddons Society Award and has been nominated for Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards for both Finian's Rainbow and Hello, Dolly! Heidi Kettenring is a past recipient of the Sarah Siddons Society Leading Artist Award (formerly Leading Lady) as well as the Joseph Jefferson Award, nine Jeff Award nominations, an After Dark Award and the Richard M. Kneeland Award. Both are graduates of Northwestern University.

Since 1952, the Sarah Siddons Society has awarded over 300 scholarships to promising theater arts students, first at the Goodman School of Drama (now The Theatre School at DePaul University) as well as Northwestern, Roosevelt and Columbia College.

Kate Baldwin

Kate Baldwin starred as Irene Molloy opposite Bette Midler, David Hyde Pierce and Gavin Creel in the hit Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, for which she was nominated for the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle awards. She originated the role of Sandra Bloom in Big Fish on Broadway and earned accolades and a Drama Desk Award nomination for her work as Leslie Lyntonn Benedict in Michael John LaChiusa's Giant at The Public Theatre. She received a Drama Desk Award nomination for her role as Jen in Keen Company's 20th Anniversary revival of Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald's John & Jen. She garnered critical acclaim and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Tom Kitt and John Logan's Superhero at Second Stage.

But it was her starring role in the 2009 revival of Yip Harburg's and Burton Lane's hit classic musical Finian's Rainbow, which drew Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle Award nominations and put her on the map as "a real musical theatre star." (New York Post)

Kate has appeared in the Broadway casts of The Full Monty, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Wonderful Town. She starred in The King and I at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Irving Berlin's White Christmas (San Francisco, Detroit, Toronto), The Women at The Old Globe, Henry V at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, She Loves Me at the Willliamstown Theatre Festival,and The Music Man and South Pacific at Arena Stage, earning a Helen Hayes Award nomination. She drew raves in spring 2022 for her portrayal of Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of Madison County opposite Aaron Lazar and directed by original cast member Hunter Foster.

She has performed in concert with the New York Pops, Boston Pops, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Portland Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Chicago Symphony, the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and at the legendary New York nightclubs Feinstein's, Birdland and 54 Below. Her concert work also includes several appearances with Stephen Sondheim as a featured performer in his critically acclaimed evening, "A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim." On television, her work includes a guest star on NBC's Law & Order: SVU and a featured role in the PBS filming of Stephen Sondheim's Passion and the Disney+ series Just Beyond.

Kate's debut album on PS Classics, "Let's See What Happens" features Lane and Harburg songs from both stage and film. Her second album celebrates the work of lyricist Sheldon Harnick and is entitled, "She Loves Him." She is a graduate of Northwestern University and lives with her husband and son in Maplewood, NJ and looks forward to playing Lucille LaRusso in the new musical version of The Karate Kid on Broadway in spring 2023.

Heidi Kettenring

Heidi Kettenring is thrilled to be paired up with her dear friends Kate Baldwin and Chuck Larkin for this wonderful evening! One of Chicago's favorite leading ladies, Heidi has performed in just about 100 productions in Chicago and around the country. Chicago Theatre credits include 3 years as Nessarose in the Chicago sit-down of Broadway's Wicked. She received the Joseph Jefferson Award for her portrayal of Anna in The King And I at Marriott's Lincolshire Theatre and 9 Jeff nominations for roles such as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Jo march in Little Women, Ilona Ritter in She Loves Me and most recently for originating the role of Vera Prescott in the new m!usical The Secret Of My Success at The Paramount Theatre in Aurora.

Heidi has had the honor to work at some of the best theaters in the country including Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Paramount Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Court Theatre, Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook and Evergreen Park, Writers' Theatre, American Theater Company, Theatre At The Center, Chicago Commercial Collective, Porchlight Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Fulton Theatre, Maine State Music Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Peninsula Players, TheatreWorks, Hangar Theatre and Clarence Brown Theatre. There was also one blissful year touring the country in Disney's Beauty and The Beast.

Heidi has a Karen Carpenter concert with Artists Lounge Live which continues to tour and has also sung concerts at The Ravinia Festival, with the Pensacola and Chicago Symphony and Philharmonic and with pianist Kevin Cole. She has also sung on three Disney Princess Books. Ms. Kettenring has appeared in the film Man Of Steel and on television in Chicago Fire and Cupid. Along with her Jeff Award and nominations she has received The Sarah Siddons' Leading Lady Award, an After Dark Award, The Richard M. Kneeland Award and two Broadway World Awards. She is a proud member of AEA and SAG/AFTRA and a Northwestern graduate. She lives in Evanston and is the lucky wife of actor David Girolmo. Heidi is delighted to be appearing as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! this fall at The Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre.

About Sarah Siddons Society

Since its inception, the mission of the Society has been to fund scholarships to promising theater arts students at top Chicago area universities including; The Theater Department, Columbia College; The Theatre School at DePaul University; Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Communications. For additional information, visit sarahsiddonssociety.org.

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