It started in January 2022, when Filipino-American actor Van Ferro won 2 BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards, the first time an actor in Chicago had 2 acting BroadwayWorld Chicago awards in the same season.
The next year, Ferro and three other Filipino theater artists, Eugene Dizon, Jay Españo, and Courtney San Pedro
were nominated for Best Music Direction and Orchestra Performance, Best Director of a Musical and Best Performer in a Musical, respectively, with Ferro winning again; and Dizon and Espano having runner-up finishes.
This year, a whopping 22 BroadwayWorld Chicago Award nominations have been garnered by Filipino-American actors working in Chicago theater. Six-time Jeff Award-winner (the Chicago theater’s equivalent of the Tony Awards) Eugene Dizon remembers the time when he was the only Filipino in the room, “Back in the early 90s when I started my career, I was one of very few Filipinos in our theater industry.
Finally, it is humbling to see after forging a path for us to work and be respected as theater professionals that now I encounter many Pinoys on and off the stage working in various roles. It is nice to see us across the table and on the stages of Chicago theater.” He is twice nominated this year for Best Music Direction and Orchestra Performance and is now the artistic director and producer at Mercury Theater Chicago.
In a different part of the Chicago theater-verse was Ginger Leopoldo, now the artistic director of CIRCA Pintig. Ginger, herself nominated for Best Supporting Performer in a Play this year, founded CIRCA Pintig with her husband Larry in 1991. It remains as the only Filipino-American theater company in the American Midwest. CIRCA Pintig is nominated this year for its production Dario’s All-American Diner in eight categories:
Best Play, Best New Play/Musical, Best Ensemble, as well as acting nominations for Heather Jencks (Best Performer in a Play), RJ Silva and Leopoldo (Best Supporting Performer in a Play); and Luis Pascasio (Best Director of a Play). Finally, it is also nominated for Favorite Local Theatre.
This year’s roll of nominations did not stop with Dizon and Leopoldo’s theater companies. Van Ferro, for his part, is back to defend his usual category, Best Supporting Performer in a Play for A Theater in the Dark’s A Murder in the Court of Xanadu. Another Filipino musician, Daven Taba, representing Surging Film and Theatrics, is nominated for Best Music Direction and Orchestra Performance for Catch Me If You Can and The Wedding Singer.
In the Best Director of a Musical category, Jay Españo is batting for his second nomination for Gay Card, which is produced by his theater company, Pride Arts. Jay ended up as a runner-up last year at the 2023 BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards for the same category. With him is Rockford-based director Mychall Cornejo, nominated for Starlight Theatre’s In The Heights
On the Chicago front, Ferro recently joined Actors’ Equity, the actors’ union in the United States, joining only a handful of Chicago-based Filipino-American theater actors, such as Jeff Award-nominee Christine Bunuan (who is currently appearing on the national tour of Hello, Dolly!), Chip Payos, and Mary Ann de la Cruz. “Christine and I had a very long talk about joining Actors’ Equity, and being that there are more opportunities available for Filipino actors at this time, I decided to make the leap. I think the door is now open, and people are finally walking in,” Ferro quips.
The question of whether the Filipino Wave in Chicago theater can last is an open one. At this time, Ferro is optimistic, “I don’t like to view this as the crest of the Wave, but rather just the beginning. I hope when people look back at this time in our history, they can see that we were here when it all began.”
