Stars of GLEE to Join Gallo Center Tribute to Robert Ulrich and Kim Johnston-Ulrich, 4/28

A previously announced event at the Gallo Center for the Arts has taken on added star power with the news that performers from the Fox Television hit "Glee" will be appearing. The television show's casting director Robert Ulrich of Modesto, and his wife, actress Kim Johnston-Ulrich of Ripon, are to be honored in April at a "Hometown Heroes" event, a continuing series at the Gallo Center that salutes area residents who have achieved national success in their fields.

Today the Gallo Center announced that three actor-singers from "Glee," Damian McGinty, Samuel Larsen and Lindsay Pearce, will be performing at the tribute.  Pearce, of Modesto, was originally discovered by Ulrich when he and his wife served as judges for the performing arts center's "Valley's Got Talent" contest in August 2010.  Pearce won the grand prize at that event. 

"Hometown Heroes:  Robert Ulrich and Kim Johnston-Ulrich" will be presented at 8 pm on Saturday, April 28.  Tickets start at $15, and may be purchase by calling (209) 338-2100; online at GalloArts.org; or at the Center's ticket office, 1000 I Street in downtown Modesto.

McGinty and Larsen were co-winners and Pearce was a runner-up of "The Glee Project," an Oxygen Network talent competition show to pick guest performers for "Glee."  McGinty and Larsen won seven-episode roles on "Glee," while Pearce, who Ulrich had urged to audition, won a two-episode arc. 

Also appearing at the tribute will be Francesca Bavaro, who was the 2011 Valley's Got Talent grand prize winner. The Ulrichs will be interviewed on stage, in a format similar to "Inside the Actor's Studio," by the Gallo Center's arts education coordinator, Dr. Jim Johnson, who will ask about the couple's local roots and experiences, how they met, their formative years in New York, and life and work in Hollywood.

Robert Ulrich is the Emmy Award-winning casting director whose company, Ulrich/Dawson/Kritzer, works with such hit TV shows as "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation," "The Mentalist," "Drop Dead Diva" and the multiple Emmy-nominated series, "Dexter" and "Glee."  Kim Johnston-Ulrich's first major role was on the soap opera "As the World Turns."  She would go on to appear in such shows as "Passions," "Cheers," "Wings," "St. Elsewhere," "Murder She Wrote," "NCIS" and "The Mentalist."

The Gallo Center's 2011-2012 season Premier Partner is Boyett Petroleum. 

Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter-Keddy