Host Robin DaSilva and the New Faces, a cast comprised of the next generation of talent, take audiences on a musical journey from the beginning to the end of the 1947 Broadway season in 90 minutes with songs, historical information, anecdotes and chants. The latest new faces features songs from Broadway shows Brigadoon, Finian’s Rainbow, High Button Shoes, Annie Get Your Gun and others filmed at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts where Porchlight Music Theater is a resident organization.
New Faces Sing Broadway 1947 cast includes Samantha Behen (she she), Anna Brockman (she she), Jonas Cochin (he/him/his), Breanna Phantom (she she), Nathan Karnik (he/him/his), Austin Nelson Jr.. (he/she/his), Olivier Schilling (he/she/his), DestinyStrothers (she she) and Ciarra Stroud (she she) and Austin Winter (he/him/his/they/them/their).
The production team includes Adrian Abel Azevedo (he/him/his)director; Linda Madonia (she she)Music Director; Mark Brown (he/him/her)lighting designer; Chollette (he/she/his)Video editor; Austin Crowley (he/she/his)videographer; Matthew Hunting (he/she/his)sound designer; Alex Groesch (he/she/his)assistant cameraman; Frankie Leo Bennett (he/him/his)artistic associate producer; Alex Rhian (he/him/her)director of production and operations and Michael Weber (he/she), artistic director.
ABOUT ROBIN DASILVA, Host
Regional credits for multi-award winning Robin DaSilva include: Mercury Theater Chicago (Women Of Soul), Porchlight Music Theater (Ain’t Misbehavin, Gypsy), Theater at the Center (A Christmas Memory), Theo Ubique (Smokey Joe’s Café), NIETF Foundation (Ragtime), Penumbra Theater (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone), Mixed Blood Theater (A… My Name Is Alice), Black Ensemble Theater (Feel Good Music Review), (Holiday Extravaganza), (The Other Cinderella), (Women of the Soul), (Mahalia Jackson: Moving Through the Light). For her role in Mahalia, she won the 2019 Joseph Jefferson and BTAA Awards for Performer in A Revue. As a vocal arranger, she has arranged for numerous churches, recording artists, commercials, television shows, and musical theater productions. TV: T-Mobile’s “Home for the Holidays Surprise” and HBO’s “Southside”.
ABOUT ADRIAN ABEL AZEVEDO, director
Originally from Southern California, Adrian Abel Azevedo is a director, producer and teaching artist. He is an alumnus of Columbia College Chicago. He has directed, produced and taught for Chicagoland theater companies including Goodman Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Steep Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Kokandy Productions, Teatro Vista and Music Theater Works..
ABOUT LINDA MADONIA, Musical Director
Linda Madonia served as musical director in the Chicago area for over 25 years, including Porchlight’s recent New Faces Sing Broadway 1979. and Chicago sings Broadway rock & roll and for the critically acclaimed 2019 production A chorus line. Other credits include holiday hostel at Drury Lane Oakbrook, Pirates of Penzance and Joseph and the Incredible Technicolor Dream Coat for works of musical theater and Broadway Forbidden: SVU at the Royal George Theatre. Other credits include big hotel and Nonsensations at Drury Lane Water Tower Place and Gigi, she loves me and Me and my daughter at the theater in the center. Madonia was also the musical director of Chicago’s Equity and non-union Joseph Jefferson Awards at various times. She owns American Eagle Productions, an educational theater that has presented 300 shows and workshops a year to Chicago-area schools for nearly 30 years.