KAYSVILLE—Hopebox Theatre’s mission is “Bringing hope to families battling cancer through the performing arts.” Becca Rhodes, board member and liaison for the Wall of Hope recipient families believes strongly in the mission. In an effort to involve the community, she started the Hopebox Choir. Rhodes also teaches choir at Farmington High School. The Hopebox Choir will be performing Monday, July 13.

“When I became a board member at Hopebox I asked if I could start Hopebox Choir,” she said. “It’s non-auditioned for adults 18 and over to just serve the community. So anybody 18 and over can just come be a part of it.”

Hopebox is in its 11th year of operation, said Rhodes. “I’m an actor as well and I direct musicals and things like that. I got involved with Hopebox first as an actor. Then like everybody else I was like ‘my gosh, this mission is so unique and beautiful.’”

Rhodes said she started giving her time there. “I started working with the academy as a music director and then started helping in the front of house all while I was in shows.”

Once she became a board member, Rhodes said she got to really see the inner workings of the leadership side of the theater. “We were growing so much and so many people wanted to be a part of this beautiful mission.”

Not everybody’s a triple threat as an actor, singer and dancer, she said. “Also our audition numbers were just growing and growing and we were having some shows where over 100 people were showing up to audition and we can’t take 100 people, especially on a theater stage our size.”

Rhodes said she was trying to think about what they could do to involve more people who wanted to be part of this beautiful mission. “Then you have this side where people get cut. I’d always wanted to be a director of an adult choir because I work with youth and I have 13 years of teaching under my belt. I’ve always wanted to do an adult community choir as well.”

So Rhodes said she presented it to the board. “I told them anybody can be in this choir. It could be an avenue for any adult that wants to be involved because you can put as many people in a choir as we can shove on a stage.”

The board asked her to put together a proposal. “I just made up a schedule that worked for me personally because being a high school choir teacher is really busy,” said Rhodes. “I kind of made up a schedule and proposed it. The schedule put us in rehearsals on Sundays when the theater was empty. Then we could just put on a concert about three times a year.”

That’s kind of how it came to be, she said. “The board said ‘let’s give it a shot for three years.’ The first time I advertised for the choir we got like 55 people.”

It’s sustainable for the theater because the singers pay a small entry fee each session to be in it, Rhodes said. “That covers me paying for an accompanist and bringing in concessions, people in the box office and a tech booth person.”

Then the ticket sales also kind of work as a fundraiser for the theater, she said. “It was a good addition for the theater financially so they kept it. It was a great way to help more people in the community.”

Hopebox Theatre picks a recipient for each show and the choir chooses their own recipient, said Rhodes. “We have a Wall of Hope recipient for each of our concerts. This is where the choir really differs from the shows.”

A show comes with a pre-assigned script, she said. “There’s all this choir music out there. I time it so that whoever is our recipient for the concert is somebody that we know before rehearsals. Then I go out and pick all the music based on what I learn about them.”

The choir has a theme song, Rhodes said. “It’s ‘For Hope Will Light Our Way.’ I thought it encompassed the mission of Hopebox so well that we made it our theme song. That’s what we kind of do at Hopebox is try to provide that light and that hope and just let people forget for a minute about what they're struggling with and just be comfortable for a minute and feel loved.” 

For more information about the choir, tickets and how to join visit https://www.hopeboxtheatre.com/choir.