PORCHLIGHT YOUNG PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATE BOARD HOST A “WICKED: FOR GOOD” WATCH PARTY, MONDAY, DEC. 1 AT 6 P.M. AT THE DAVIS THEATER
The Latest Porchlight Young Professionals Special Event Includes a Private Screening of the Season’s Most Anticipated Musical, “Wicked: For Good” and a Q+A with Artistic Director Michael Weber, from the national Wicked tour, “Boq,” Justin Brill, and Summer Naomi Interior, “Nessarose,” from the Chicago Company
CHICAGO – Porchlight Music Theatre’s Porchlight Young Professionals Associate Board are proud to announce their latest special event, Wicked: For Good Watch Party, Monday, Dec. 1 at 6 p.m. at the Davis Theater, 4614 N Lincoln Ave. The watch party includes an exclusive screening of John Chu’s sequel to “Wicked,” a live pre-show conversation/Q+A featuring Wicked cast veterans: the national tour’s “Boq” Justin Brill and Broadway In Chicago’s “Nessarose” Summer Naomi Interior and hosted by Porchlight Music Theatre’s Artistic Director Michael Weber, a raffle of “Wicked: For Good”-themed items and guests are encouraged to come dressed in their Ozmopolitan best for a chance to win a costume contest. The event is sponsored by Annie Mitran Brennan and Matt Brennan, Jenny Poth, Lisa and Alex Villani-Gale and Madison Wakefield. Funds raised at this screening go to support Porchlight Music Theatre’s artistic and educational programs. Tickets are now available beginning at $25 at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.
“After the success of last year’s exclusive screening, we wanted to gather the Porchlight Young Professionals and Porchlight’s friends to experience this year’s most anticipated cinematic event – together,” said Porchlight Young Professionals Chair Nate Groonwald. “Not only will we see the conclusion of the already Oscar-buzzed film but hear actual backstage stories from Justin and Summer. We look forward to the most swankified evening for all.”
ABOUT JUSTIN BRILL, special guest
Justin Brill is a performer, educator and director currently serving as the Head of BFA in Music Theatre program at Illinois Wesleyan University after teaching at Columbia College Chicago and San Diego State University. As a performer he has performed on Broadway (All Shook Up, Rent, High Fidelity), National Tours (Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Wicked) and throughout the Chicagoland area (Drury Lane, Marriott Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, TATC, The Beautiful City Project). As a director he has collaborated with Refuge Theatre Project, The Fireside Theatre, the 2022 virtual celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday “TO BE” for Chicago Shakespeare and the upcoming SpongeBob Musical for The Marriott Theatre. He toured for over three years with the first national tour of Wicked alongside his wife, Shanna VanDerwerker, who was a swing and dance captain for the tour. During his time on tour, he performed the role of “Boq” more than 1200 times.
ABOUT SUMMER NAOMI INTERIOR, special guest
Summer Naomi Interior spent 22 years as a professional music theatre actress, on both stage and screen, performing leading roles in such shows as Mary Poppins, Beauty & the Beast, Sweet Charity, Aida, The Light in the Piazza, Shrek, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and—of course—Wicked. She and her husband met while dancing together in a Chicago production of CATS, more than 10 years ago, and they currently live with their three little boys in Oswego. Interior now works as a writer and marketer. She is fully immersed in her favorite, and most challenging, role to date: Mama.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT YOUNG PROFESSIONALS
The Porchlight Young Professionals (PYP) is an ensemble of young professionals who share a passion for advancing music theatre in Chicago as well as the innovative and transformative art happening at Porchlight.
The PYP inspires the next generation of Porchlight’s theatre patrons and serves as ambassadors through fundraising, event planning and committee involvement.
Current members include Nate Groonwald, chair; Gia Wunar, vice chair; Adam Zaucha, secretary; Lisa Villani-Gale, fundraising chair, Madison Wakefield, membership committee chair, Meggie Keiser, events committee chair, Claire Berman, Annie Mitran Brennan, Kellie Buffington, Matthew Bowen, Ben Jossi, Jonah Levi-Paesky, Jenny Poth, Kathryn Rosenbaum, Becca Sheehan, Yessenia Sosa and Emily Werner.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE
Porchlight Music Theatre, entering its 30th season, is the award-winning center for music theatre in Chicago. Through live performance, youth education and community outreach, we impact thousands of lives each season, bringing the magic of musicals to our theatre home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the Gold Coast and to neighborhoods across the city. Porchlight has built a national reputation for boldly reimagining classic musicals, supporting new works and young performers, and showcasing Chicago’s most notable music theatre artists, all through the intimate and powerful theatrical lens of the “Chicago Style.”
Porchlight’s history over nearly three decades includes more than 70 mainstage works with 15 Chicago premieres and five world premieres.
Porchlight’s education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels and community organizations. Porchlight annually awards dozens of full scholarships and hundreds of free tickets to ensure accessibility and real engagement with this uniquely American art form.
The company’s many honors include 178 Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff) nominations and 50 Jeff awards, as well as 44 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 15 BTA awards. In 2019, Porchlight graduated to the Large Theatre tier of the Equity Jeff Awards and has been honored with seven awards in this tier to date including Best Ensemble for Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies (2019) and Best Production-Revue for Blues in the Night (2022).
Porchlight Young Professionals Board invites you to a
Wicked: For Good Watch Party!
Monday, December 1 at 7pm
Doors open at 6pm and the Q&A begins at 6:30pm
Join the PYP for a thrillifying private screening of the epic conclusion of Jon Chu’s cinematic adaptation of Wicked at The Davis Theatre in Lincoln Square. Don your most swankified outfits and prepare for an unforgettable evening of music and magic in support of Porchlight’s programming.
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