It Started with a Memory

Chuck Ethridge doesn't forget much. And he never forgot the night he and his wife took eight kids — their children and the foster children they had at the time — to see Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre's production of Cinderella.

It was somewhere around 2010 or 2011. The kids were dressed up. The lights went down. And something happened in that room that Chuck couldn't quite name but absolutely couldn't shake.

"It was so great," Chuck recalls, "because the kids got to see something they wouldn't normally get to see."

Chuck Ethridge is now the Executive Artistic Director of Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre — Idaho's oldest live performing arts organization, founded in 1967. That memory from fifteen-plus years ago never left him. And when the opportunity came to do something about it, he didn't wait.

The Idea That Became a Movement

When Rita Case — president and CEO of Rick Case Automotive Group — hosted a parlor concert at her home and asked the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre team where help was needed most, Chuck had an answer ready.

The idea was simple and enormous at the same time: buy out an entire performance of Disney's Frozen The Broadway Musical. Open every seat. Reach out to every organization in the region serving kids and families who would never otherwise have access to professional live musical theater. Fill the house.

Rita loved it immediately.

"This was to expose kids to the theater that would normally not have the opportunity," Case said. "We reached out to the many organizations that support our community's youth to offer the free theater experience for them and their families to see Frozen — a perfect play to excite their interest."

Over 125 Organizations. One Night. One Full House.

What followed was months of work by the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre team. Vouchers went out to organizations serving the ALICE population — those who are Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed. Families who are working hard but for whom a night at the theater is simply out of reach.

The team stopped counting at 125 organizations. Among those represented on the night of June 29th: United Way, CASA, Tesh, Union Gospel Mission, Hospice of North Idaho, Homeschool Co-ops, Idaho Youth Ranch, Boys & Girls Clubs of North Idaho, Children's Village, Safe Passage, Safe Start, Specialized Needs Recreation, Fostering Idaho, Make-A-Wish Foundation — and many, many others.

On Monday, June 29th, 2026, every one of the 1,159 seats in the Shuler Performing Arts Center at the North Idaho College campus was filled.

The house was full. Over 1,100 attendees. Not a single empty seat.

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Princes, Princesses, and Sugar Cookies with Snowflakes

Nobody told these kids to dress up. And yet they showed up in full.

Sparkling princess gowns. Princes in their finest. Tutus. Tiaras. Capes. The lobby of the Shuler Performing Arts Center looked like a fairy tale had broken loose into real life, and the energy was something the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre staff won't soon forget.

Laura Beyer, Associate Director of Marketing and Development for Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre, said it simply: this is her single most favorite performance of the entire year.

"I love seeing them in their costumes," Beyer said. "I love the energy that they come into the show with. I love that they're just able to experience this joy."

At the beginning of the second act, Oaken — one of Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre's beloved characters, known for his signature enthusiastic "Woohoo!" — took a moment at the mic to acknowledge Rita Case. She stood. The crowd erupted. It was a moment that belonged entirely to her, and she received it with grace.

And as families filed out at the show's end? They were met with over a thousand beautifully decorated sugar cookies — crowns and snowflakes, themed perfectly to the night — donated by Pastry and More, a beloved local Coeur d'Alene bakery. The kids grabbed their cookies. Parents grabbed their kids. And nobody wanted to leave.

A Partnership That Made It Possible

The Rita Case Princess Performance was made possible through an extraordinary convergence of generosity.

Rita Case's sponsorship covered ticket costs for the entire house, ensuring that not one family paid a cent to attend. Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre conceived, organized, and hosted the event — absorbing all production costs and spearheading the massive community outreach effort that brought over 125 organizations to the table.

In an extraordinary act of support for this community mission, both Disney Theatricals and Music Theatre International waived their royalty fees for this performance — two separate levels of rights, both given freely so this night could happen.

Two ASL interpreters volunteered their time that night — making their musical theater debut after months of apprenticeship practice — so every attendee could experience the magic of Frozen.

Rita Case said she hopes this is only the beginning.

"It's just a wonderful cultural experience as well as it may pique interest in their involvement to join theater," Case said. "Exposure to the arts is important to me — it has proven to develop imagination, curiosity, creativity and motor skills that are fun to learn."

What a Full House Actually Means

There's a difference between a full house and a full house like this one.

A typical sellout means people chose to come, bought tickets weeks in advance, and planned their evening. This sellout meant something else entirely. It meant a foster mom got to watch three little girls in sparkling dresses see a Broadway-quality show for the first time. It meant a child with specialized needs got to sit in a real theater with their family and feel the floor vibrate when the music swelled. It meant a kid from Boys and Girls Club got to watch someone who looks like them on a professional stage — and think, maybe, that's for me too.

"Creating the opportunity to watch a professional-level performance for the first time is a memory the children can treasure," Case said.

Chuck Ethridge knew that fifteen years ago, standing in the dark with eight kids who had never seen anything like it.

He knows it now.

Photos by Rachel Jordan Photography

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About Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre

Founded in 1967, Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre is Idaho's oldest live performing arts organization. Now in its 59th season, the company produces professional-caliber Broadway musicals at the Shuler Performing Arts Center on the North Idaho College campus in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The 2026 season features Disney's Frozen The Broadway Musical (June 26–July 5), Come From Away (mid-July), and Titanic (August).

Media Contact:

Christina Ethridge
Director of Marketing & Development
Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre
info@cdasummertheatre.com