The Capitones, the university’s sole student-led a capella group, will be performing at a benefit gala for Equitas Health this weekend.
The Love is Love Gala is hosted by event-planning group the Social Circle 614, and will take place at TRISM, a restaurant located at 1636 N High St. in Columbus, Saturday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. The Capitones will be closing the event.
A percentage of the proceeds from the event will be donated to Equitas Health, a non-profit healthcare organization that, amongst other services, specializes in providing medical and pharmaceutical aid to the LGBTQ community.
“The goal of this gala is to bring awareness to LGBT rights and raise money for Equitas so that it may continue to provide the same level of quality care to its patients,” Emerson Haven, a sophomore vocal music education major and assistant music director for the Capitones, said in an email.
“For us, our goal is to not only raise money, but to put our names out there, because at least in my time, this is the first performance opportunity that we haven’t made for ourselves on campus,” said Becky Horgan, a junior theatre studies major who has been president of Capitones for the past two years.
Horgan said that her group became involved in the gala when Social Circle 614 approached the Capitones through their advisor Stacie Wickham and asked them to do a couple of songs.
“Specifically, they asked us to do ‘Seasons of Love’ because it’s ‘Seasons of Love,’ and Equitas Health is an LGBTQ organization,” Horgan said. “… and their original purpose, more or less, was HIV and AIDS healthcare.”
In addition to doing “Seasons of Love” from the musical Rent, the Capitones will be performing “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse, “What About Us” by P!nk, as well as their tradition of singing a rendition of “Some Nights” by Fun.
“We’ve never done something like this …” Horgan said. “And it’s a really cool opportunity to both put ourselves out there and have people see the Capitones and what we can do. It’s also really cool because it’s going to a really dope cause.”
Wyatt Hall, a sophomore music technology major who sings tenor and does vocal percussion for the Capitones, said that the group has been hard at work getting ready for their big performance.
“We normally have rehearsals twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays,” said Hall. “And we are going to be fitting in a few extra just before so we’re extra prepared … we just have to make sure we are all on top of our game, make sure we’re all present and ready to go at all the rehearsals.”
The Capitones are set to take the stage at Love is Love with an array of other acts. The lineup consists of burlesque performers, tango dancing, comedy, aerial performances, singers, a magician who has been featured on Penn and Teller’s Fool Me, and more.
“It’s a really cool variety of people who are incredible at what they do,” Horgan said. “And I personally just feel superbly honored to even be given the opportunity to perform alongside them. The craziest part is that we close the night … I’m so excited.”
